7 Great Careers For Extroverts

By Danielle Wirsansky on September 21, 2019

There are a lot of misconceptions about what being an extrovert really means. A lot of people think that extroverts just like to talk to people or be social butterflies and that they like, or even need, to be surrounded by people all the time. These ideas may be aspects of what makes an extrovert, but they do not get down to what an extrovert is at the core.

Essentially, an extrovert is somebody who thrives and is recharged by being in the presence of other people. Connecting with people helps them to stay energized and motivated. With this being said, there are certain jobs that could be disastrous for an extrovert while there are other positions that they would flourish in.

If you are an extrovert who is not quite sure of their career path, look no further! Check out this comprehensive list of career suggestions that might be a great fit for you or any extrovert.

Lawyer

A lawyer can be a great career for someone who is extroverted because communication is such a huge part of being a lawyer. A lot of the work itself of being a lawyer is solitary: doing paperwork, editing or reading documents, creating business documents. However, there are more aspects to it that hold more weight to them that require a lawyer (a successful lawyer at that) to connect with others.

You have to cultivate relationships with your clients in order to land them and keep them. You have to cultivate relationships with your co-workers and others involved in the legal field through networking to keep yourself up to date and competitive. You have to be able to connect with others if you are trying a case in court, with the judge, the jurors, and anyone you might have to cross-examine. You might be less effective if you are unable, uncomfortable, or left drained by these exchanges like an introvert usually is.

Nurse

Nursing can be a great career path for extroverts for several reasons. Nursing also relies on communication and human connection! There are so many people that nurses have to connect with in order to get their jobs done.

First, nurses have to communicate with their patients. They are often the first person that a patient comes in contact with. It is important for them to forge a connection with their patient so that their patient feels comfortable confiding in them. That way, the patient gives the nurse all the relevant information so that they can relay it to the doctor and get the patient the treatment that they need. They also need a comfortable relationship so that the patient allows the nurse to treat them and follow out any orders given to them by a doctor.

Nurses also have to communicate with doctors. Nurses are the link between patients and doctors so they need to be able to describe what is ailing a patient and clearly tell the doctor what is wrong or what is going on.

The next people nurses have to effectively connect with are their fellow nurses. Nursing is very team oriented, and nurses have to rely on each other to help make sure that all the patients are getting adequate care around the clock. They need to be able to communicate and work together to get their job done.

Finally, nurses must also work with a patient’s family. Families can be worried and stressed when their loved ones need medical attention, and it often falls to nurses to help keep family members calm so that they can be better advocates for the patient as well.

Nursing asks a lot of those that choose the career path but if you truly thrive off of working with other people and creating connections, then nursing just might be for you.

Police Officer

Police work is another great career option for those who consider themselves to be extroverted. While some police officers work solo, the majority of officers work together in teams or pairs. The bond between police partners is something truly special. Police officers are often in life-threatening situations and they have to know that their partner has their back in order to successfully navigate them. The level of trust between them must be incredibly high—they literally put their lives in each other’s hand each and every day.

Police officers also need to be able to connect effectively with those from other precincts or those that work for other departments or related organizations, like lawyers, caseworkers, doctors, and more because that is how they build and win cases to put people who commit crimes away. Inter-police communication is especially important to help make sure that all information or evidence available about a particular perpetrator has been shared so that they can be brought to justice.

They also need to be able to connect with civilians, both as witnesses and victims. If victims and witnesses do not make good connections with the officers working on a case, the officer will most likely not get very far. Victims and witnesses that trust the officer they are working with will be a lot more likely to open up and divulge important information that an officer needs to know to unearth perpetrators of crimes.

Without building these connections, police officers would have a very difficult time getting their job done or achieving any justice.

Photo by Brett Sayles from Pexels

Guidance Counselor

The next job on the list is that of guidance counselor. Guidance counselors definitely need to be recharged by being around people because they spend their days working in schools, surrounded by hundreds, if not thousands, of kids every day.

Beyond being surrounded by students, it is a guidance counselor’s job to connect with them to help guide them to where they need to be. A guidance counselor’s job has many parts to it. On one hand, guidance counselors help students to navigate the day to day of their academic careers. What classes do they need to take and why? But hearing a student’s feedback and what they feel and want for their academic schedule is also important. If a student feels like they are struggling or like a course holds no interest for them, that is important information for a guidance counselor to know. But if a guidance counselor has not gained the trust of a student, will they be told that information?

Guidance counselors also have to step in if a student is struggling or having a hard time, whether that be at school or at home. The only way to get to the bottom of a situation is to connect with students so that they feel safe enough to tell the guidance counselor what is going on. By forging relationships with the students, they are better able to do their jobs and protect their charges.

In the same way, guidance counselors needs to be able to connect with and effectively communicate with other staff and faculty members to help provide a safe and nurturing environment for students and provide them with the best care possible.

A guidance counselor’s overall objective is to help guide students to success, mentally, emotionally, physically, and academically.

Politician

A politician is no politician without an entire community of people around them. This includes their team, their donors, their fellow politicians, and most especially their constituents.

First, a politician has to have a strong team around them. It takes a village, right?  Politicians and their teams work long and hectic hours where their every action counts. A politician has to really trust their team, but even more than that, they have to really connect with their team in order to inspire the passion and devotion that a truly dedicated team has.

Politicians also need to be able to network and hobnob with the best of them in order to get the support of important people in their community as well as sweep in the donations that they need in order to fund their platform or campaign. Without these people, politicians would be out of a job—literally.

Then a politician has to be able to work with their fellow politicians. How else will they be able to achieve their agenda, pass legislation, or create change as a politician is supposed to do? They have to find like minded politicians and team up with them in order to achieve their goals.

Finally, a politician has to be able to connect with their constituents. In the end, constituents are what get a politician elected and placed into office. Without the vote, a politician has very little chance of achieving office. Then, to stay in office, politicians have to keep their constituents happy and satisfied. A huge part of that is making sure that they feel heard and that their needs are being meant.

Being relatable, reachable, and within reach are the core of what being a politician is. And if being around and connecting with people drains you rather than recharges you, it might not be the best fit for you.

Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels

Teacher

Like a guidance counselor, a teacher has to work with dozens, if not hundreds, of students every day. That is a lot of interaction, a lot of communication, and a lot of connection going on. The teachers that people always remember the best are the ones that went out of their way to take time for their students and who really forged a strong and powerful connection with them.

It can take a lot out of a person to create this kind of relationship, not to mention this kind of relationship with all of your students. It may not even be possible for you to do so, and all you can do is try to make sure your students learn what they need to, feel supported, and have the most opportunities to succeed that you can provide them with.

To do their jobs effectively, teachers need to be able to work with their fellow teachers and school staff to help create an effective and safe network for their students. Teaching is a lot more about teamwork than many people realize on the surface and these relationships with your peers can be what gets you through a particularly rough day with your students.

While teachers do get summer and winter breaks in order to step away from their responsibilities and recharge themselves in isolation, a teacher will quickly burn out if those are the only times they can recharge.

Photographer

Another great career path for those who identify as extroverted is a photographer. In some respects, photography is great for introverts. You spend hours coming up with concepts, selecting images, editing them, and more. But what you choose to photograph is key in what makes this job really good for either extroverts or introverts. If you do landscape or animal photography, even still life that does not require human subjects, then the opportunity is really great for introverts who can keep themselves separate when they want or need to.

However, if you prefer to shoot human subjects, whether they be events or just posed concept shoots or candids, being able to connect with your subject is a really important part of getting a good shot. When your model feels comfortable with you, the more likely it will be that they will photograph well. They open up to their photographers, whose job it is to capture a little bit of their subject’s soul in each shot. Making your subject feel comfortable with you makes your art just a little bit closer to what you might want it to be.

Finding the right career path is so important! A career is what you (hopefully) will be spending your life doing, so you want to make sure you are as happy as possible. You do not want to be stressed or drained by your job. Instead, you want to be reinvigorated by it. Discovering careers that really make you feel fulfilled is the key to a happy and healthy life, so be sure to keep this checklist of potential careers for extroverts handy as you work towards figuring it all out!

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