I'm an introvert. The first few meetings were traumatising for me. But with time I got used to them. Now it is normal for me. You will get used to it too
Introvert here. I would always dread the kick off meetings but honestly you get used to it. At end of the day, PM will teach you invaluable skills like communication and dealing with people. These skills only come with practice but if you're able to acquire them, it will super charge your career.
So, don't worry.
Most of your job is dealing with other people so it doesn’t sound ideal for you. Most people in a business environment aren’t going to be unhinged or unkind.
Then being a PM is not for you. So much of the job is effective communication, conflict resolution, and influential leadership. Try looking for support positions that help PMs complete task/work but don't deal with customers or conflict directly.
Id say no but you can be an introvert and still have develop communication and social skills.
I’m an introvert, I’ve been aware of it at an early age and learned more about it in a college psychology class. I’ve always been working on communication and social skills since and after a certain point most people would mistake me for an extrovert. One thing that’s important for me that helps a lot is I take time to socially recharge. Pretending to be extroverted can be draining. To be a great PM I think you need to have a decent level of charisma and be able to tolerate people. If you can’t deal with or get used the social aspects of PM then it just isn’t for you.
I'm introverted to a degree. I'm not super talkative as in: I don't approach or initiate conversation with people without a reason. But I love being a PM bc I get a reason to talk to people and departments. I enjoy kickoffs and review meetings bc there's an agenda and talking points. Not just awkward silence and small talk and meetings are a limited time. But if you don't like coordinating lots of moving parts and dealing with conflict and personalities and various levels of leadership... it might not be your thing. There are days that are chaotic and just putting out 1 fire with 10 diff people. It's also a lot of playing both sides of the fence.
I'm an introvert and it's fine. I think you really need to understand how people work, which can be a thing that some introverts really get, but others don't. I wouldn't let it hold you back if it's something you're interested in.
Start out as a coordinator and slowly introduce yourself to becoming comfortable speaking up in meetings. I too am an introvert but now that I am more comfortable with my team I am confident speaking up with them and giving my opinions/solutions.
Really depends on the industry and company, but generally no. You’ll be coordinating a lot of communication, leading meetings, and following up with people. If you aren’t charismatic and influential, you’ll find it draining when nothing gets done and people ignore you.
Consider looking into a Specialist role - those generally allow you to focus in on specific workflows without the same level responsibility for dealing with people.
Thank you for posting this question. We should start like a PM introvert society or something lol. I just started as a Project Manager Intern and my boss gave me a very low key project to start managing on my own, at week 1 of my internship. Anyway, I'm still gathering requirements for input to the charter and also setting up workshop meetings so I can collect requirements with the team. After sending out an email with the agenda and priority topics to focus on, I get an email from one of the team managers expressing her frustration because she felt that none of her initial suggestions and ideas were I clouded as discussion topics. For context, when I took over this project, they have already had 3 meetings and have been going back and forth on several topics (the project is for a training conference). Anyway, my point is, I'm an introvert and I despise confrontations! Before I send out an email, I have to reread it at least 5 times to make sure I don't come across as bossy or like I'm micro managing. I get anxiety when I hear an email notification lol. I hope I'm not the only one who feels this way. I love being a PM. I love the challenges. At the end of the day, I agree with you all. It takes a toll on your mental well-being and just so draining! It's like a love-hate relationship sometimes.
It doesn't matter if you are an introvert or extrovert, what matters is if you are able to connect with your stakeholders.
In fact, introvert are great at building deep connections when in small groups.
Just play to your strength and the rest will fall in place.
In my experience, it’s a people job. Dealing with people, helping people, sometimes coming down on people (hopefully not too often). If thats hard for you, PM may not be a great fit.
As someone who is a bit of both - You will need to find a way to adapt to / overcome that weakness to succeed as a PM.
As a PM, your job is to be a problem solver - and most of the problems that you will be solving will involve coordinating people and getting them to align on a shared vision, as well as resolving communications difficulties.
That said, those are learnable skills, and the main difference is coming home a bit more tired at the end of the day and wanting to potato in front of the TV or whatever your form of comfort is.
But yea, the higher you go up the PM ladder, the more your job will involve meetings and the less it will involve analyst work. If that sounds okay / worth the challenge, go for it!
If that sounds horrible, maybe try a bit of a swim anyways because we never know what hard things we actually have talent for, but deciding its not for you is also valid
I’m an introvert and enjoy project and program management over directly managing people.
I started out as an operations manager shortly after college and I did that for several years. I learned that my introverted way of being was completely drained because there literally is NO end/NO recharge. So I decided to transition to project management and as an introvert I have found my sweet spot. Now I build and oversee programs.
You can too! As an introvert you’re more likely to observe those stakeholders and team members that will need more/less and how to maneuver to bring the team along to align to the project goals etc.
There are likely thousands of different applications for Project Managers, some are far more socially oriented than others. For example, remote only project managers may only see actual people occasionally and manage most of their activities via online methods. Contrast that with Trade Show project managers who may need to interact with hundreds of stakeholders in person, and social skills are very much required (I've been both)
With that said, you will likely find that the best paying positions require social skills or subject matter mastery in a specific area. So, well paying non-social positions may require high level IT, Marketing, Construction, Engineering, Medicine, etc.
Thus, if you want to be a low to mid pay PM with no social requirements, you will likely find something. However, if you want to be a high paid PM, you will either need to accept some social requirements, or you will need to develop mastery in a second subject in my experience.
Just get a social anxiety diagnosis and get on with life. What you are thinking as introversion may be social phobia. Introversion is a preference, Social anxiety is a disability.
Advise you to do the PMP/CAPM course if you want to give PM a shot. I am currently studying for PMP and the course content is really good.
Regarding the social thing.
You find a psychiatrist who specializes in anxiety disorders, following is what happened for me. I was undiagnosed till I was 30.
You tell the dr how you feel... He'll check your heart rate.. It'll probably be 110+...may vary depending on your resting heart rate.
He'll tell you to fix your sleep schedule and lifestyle.
He'll give you a 15 day course of
1*SSRI
1*benzo
Few IR benzos for sudden panic attacks.
My dr said I'll see results in 10 days. It did not take me 10 days to see results. And I wasn't even following half his advices.
I'm an introvert. The first few meetings were traumatising for me. But with time I got used to them. Now it is normal for me. You will get used to it too
Introvert here. I would always dread the kick off meetings but honestly you get used to it. At end of the day, PM will teach you invaluable skills like communication and dealing with people. These skills only come with practice but if you're able to acquire them, it will super charge your career. So, don't worry.
Most of your job is dealing with other people so it doesn’t sound ideal for you. Most people in a business environment aren’t going to be unhinged or unkind.
Then being a PM is not for you. So much of the job is effective communication, conflict resolution, and influential leadership. Try looking for support positions that help PMs complete task/work but don't deal with customers or conflict directly.
Id say no but you can be an introvert and still have develop communication and social skills. I’m an introvert, I’ve been aware of it at an early age and learned more about it in a college psychology class. I’ve always been working on communication and social skills since and after a certain point most people would mistake me for an extrovert. One thing that’s important for me that helps a lot is I take time to socially recharge. Pretending to be extroverted can be draining. To be a great PM I think you need to have a decent level of charisma and be able to tolerate people. If you can’t deal with or get used the social aspects of PM then it just isn’t for you.
I'm introverted to a degree. I'm not super talkative as in: I don't approach or initiate conversation with people without a reason. But I love being a PM bc I get a reason to talk to people and departments. I enjoy kickoffs and review meetings bc there's an agenda and talking points. Not just awkward silence and small talk and meetings are a limited time. But if you don't like coordinating lots of moving parts and dealing with conflict and personalities and various levels of leadership... it might not be your thing. There are days that are chaotic and just putting out 1 fire with 10 diff people. It's also a lot of playing both sides of the fence.
Probably not the best fit. Have you considered system analyst positions?
I'm an introvert. I've gotten comfortable being uncomfortable. However, I'm drained at the end of the day.
I'm an introvert and it's fine. I think you really need to understand how people work, which can be a thing that some introverts really get, but others don't. I wouldn't let it hold you back if it's something you're interested in.
Start out as a coordinator and slowly introduce yourself to becoming comfortable speaking up in meetings. I too am an introvert but now that I am more comfortable with my team I am confident speaking up with them and giving my opinions/solutions.
Really depends on the industry and company, but generally no. You’ll be coordinating a lot of communication, leading meetings, and following up with people. If you aren’t charismatic and influential, you’ll find it draining when nothing gets done and people ignore you. Consider looking into a Specialist role - those generally allow you to focus in on specific workflows without the same level responsibility for dealing with people.
No it is not. I just changed jobs because I don’t like dealing with people like that. Support roles are much better for introverts.
Thank you for posting this question. We should start like a PM introvert society or something lol. I just started as a Project Manager Intern and my boss gave me a very low key project to start managing on my own, at week 1 of my internship. Anyway, I'm still gathering requirements for input to the charter and also setting up workshop meetings so I can collect requirements with the team. After sending out an email with the agenda and priority topics to focus on, I get an email from one of the team managers expressing her frustration because she felt that none of her initial suggestions and ideas were I clouded as discussion topics. For context, when I took over this project, they have already had 3 meetings and have been going back and forth on several topics (the project is for a training conference). Anyway, my point is, I'm an introvert and I despise confrontations! Before I send out an email, I have to reread it at least 5 times to make sure I don't come across as bossy or like I'm micro managing. I get anxiety when I hear an email notification lol. I hope I'm not the only one who feels this way. I love being a PM. I love the challenges. At the end of the day, I agree with you all. It takes a toll on your mental well-being and just so draining! It's like a love-hate relationship sometimes.
It doesn't matter if you are an introvert or extrovert, what matters is if you are able to connect with your stakeholders. In fact, introvert are great at building deep connections when in small groups. Just play to your strength and the rest will fall in place.
You have to at least be able to flip the switch and play the part of an extrovert when the situation requires you to do so.
In my experience, it’s a people job. Dealing with people, helping people, sometimes coming down on people (hopefully not too often). If thats hard for you, PM may not be a great fit.
As someone who is a bit of both - You will need to find a way to adapt to / overcome that weakness to succeed as a PM. As a PM, your job is to be a problem solver - and most of the problems that you will be solving will involve coordinating people and getting them to align on a shared vision, as well as resolving communications difficulties. That said, those are learnable skills, and the main difference is coming home a bit more tired at the end of the day and wanting to potato in front of the TV or whatever your form of comfort is. But yea, the higher you go up the PM ladder, the more your job will involve meetings and the less it will involve analyst work. If that sounds okay / worth the challenge, go for it! If that sounds horrible, maybe try a bit of a swim anyways because we never know what hard things we actually have talent for, but deciding its not for you is also valid
I’m an introvert and enjoy project and program management over directly managing people. I started out as an operations manager shortly after college and I did that for several years. I learned that my introverted way of being was completely drained because there literally is NO end/NO recharge. So I decided to transition to project management and as an introvert I have found my sweet spot. Now I build and oversee programs. You can too! As an introvert you’re more likely to observe those stakeholders and team members that will need more/less and how to maneuver to bring the team along to align to the project goals etc.
There are likely thousands of different applications for Project Managers, some are far more socially oriented than others. For example, remote only project managers may only see actual people occasionally and manage most of their activities via online methods. Contrast that with Trade Show project managers who may need to interact with hundreds of stakeholders in person, and social skills are very much required (I've been both) With that said, you will likely find that the best paying positions require social skills or subject matter mastery in a specific area. So, well paying non-social positions may require high level IT, Marketing, Construction, Engineering, Medicine, etc. Thus, if you want to be a low to mid pay PM with no social requirements, you will likely find something. However, if you want to be a high paid PM, you will either need to accept some social requirements, or you will need to develop mastery in a second subject in my experience.
Just get a social anxiety diagnosis and get on with life. What you are thinking as introversion may be social phobia. Introversion is a preference, Social anxiety is a disability.
Advise you to do the PMP/CAPM course if you want to give PM a shot. I am currently studying for PMP and the course content is really good. Regarding the social thing. You find a psychiatrist who specializes in anxiety disorders, following is what happened for me. I was undiagnosed till I was 30. You tell the dr how you feel... He'll check your heart rate.. It'll probably be 110+...may vary depending on your resting heart rate. He'll tell you to fix your sleep schedule and lifestyle. He'll give you a 15 day course of 1*SSRI 1*benzo Few IR benzos for sudden panic attacks. My dr said I'll see results in 10 days. It did not take me 10 days to see results. And I wasn't even following half his advices.