[quote]
Maybe I over simplified my statements in my previous posts. If you are given a problem you know how to solve, you just go do it. If you don’t know how to solve it, one should think how they might solve it and then ask around if someone else had a similar problem and what their solution was. No sense reinventing the wheel all the time. If you are always asking how to solve it, then that’s not good either. [/unquote]</p>
<p>Yes, I understand that. My real question though, is do engineering jobs require you to work in solitude most of the time?</p>
<p>I know some folks may not consider software engineering “real engineering”, but SoftE, especially when being a contractor/consultant maybe as much as 50% talking, communicating and collaborating.</p>
<p>Also, you have to smell out new opportunities from a client. That also relates to how “in” you are with the client…which directly relates to being an extrovert.</p>
<p>Sales engineers and engineering managers, both occupations which require interface between customers/stakeholders and engineering staff, IMHO are positions best filled by extroverts. Remember that the job you start with is not necessarily the one you hold when you retire. My dad was a Ph.D. chemist, and an introvert. He knew enough about himself to remain a Senior Scientist and not go into management where he would have been absolutely miserable and mediocre at best. Perhaps you will eventually want to go for an MBA which is a great combo with an engineering degree.</p>
<p>Yeah, that would be cool. Like I said, I would like to both invent the technology and possibly sell it. I’d kind of like to do the same thing that Steve Jobs, Tony Stark, and Bill Gates do.</p>
<p>I don’t understand why people always associate introversion with people in the STEM field. I’m an engineering major and I’ve been in college for 2+ years. I can say that the vast majority of the students that I’ve met are nothing like what people think.</p>
<p>@MarshMehlow - my experience has been otherwise. Remember that “introvert” does not mean “social outcast who only talks to people online and cannot make eye contact with the opposite sex”. Introverts are more comfortable working alone than in groups, and prefer to be with a small group of co-workers or friends that they know well instead of a large group many of whom they know poorly or not at all - that is it. In my experience, engineers are more likely to be introverted than the general population, but not necessarily exceptionally so.</p>
<p>Most of the engineers I know are fun, friendly, and sociable - they just aren’t party-all-the-time, love-to-meet-new-friends kind of people.</p>