After I wrote this post , I noticed that most of the comments are addressed to the part about introverts. This is all the more surprising that I specially left this part short enough, considering it not so important for my story. It turns out that I was wrong, and this topic just needs discussion. Well, I’m in a hurry to improve.

Disclaimer

First of all, I would like to say that in a previous post I allowed myself a rather categorical statement against introverts in IT, which caused a small flurry of quite constructive criticism in my comments. Of course, I did not mean that there was no place for introverts in our business, but only wanted to show what difficulties, in my opinion, could await them in this field. However, I feel the need to apologize to everyone whose feelings I hurt, so I apologize.

Are introverts a thing?

Immediately I would like to make one more reservation. One of the first and, in my opinion, the most constructive comments was that it was too rude to divide people only into introverts and extroverts. Very correct words. The point is not at all in the type of character, but rather in how much the person is ready to contact with others. At the same time, I deliberately try to avoid the use of the term "sociable", because, generally speaking, it is not a matter of sociability. It doesn’t matter if we can chat with you over a cup of coffee. More importantly, it is important that you can be approached if necessary and ask some technical question, and this will not unsettle you.

Here I would also like to mention the comments that there is no one to work in the extrovert team, everyone can only scratch their tongues. The author of this entry makes the same mistake: it too roughly divides people into two groups. Of course, there are developers who are not able to write anything themselves. Their code is born only by copy-paste from stackoverflow or by typing under the dictation of a colleague. I do not consider such comrades for two reasons: firstly, I hope that there are few of them, and secondly, the problem here seems to be not sociability at all.

Yet introverts or extroverts?

So, after all of the above, I would like to say what I had in mind in my previous post. As already mentioned, I did not mean that introverts have no place in IT. I just wanted to say that uncommunicative people can face certain difficulties here. It is important to understand that modern development, as a rule, goes in teams and will have to interact with your weapons comrades. In different teams in different ways, but often this implies a fairly tight interaction. The commentator may want to object to this statement, noting that in small businesses, as a rule, developers do isolated tasks, which minimizes interaction with the team. Then I agree, but only partly. Yes, probably this is so (I have to admit that in small business I have not yet had the chance to work), however, in my opinion, almost any small business has exactly two ways: to expand if their product gains popularity, or to close otherwise (I know only one exception and it is connected with the severely limited number of consumers). In both cases, developers run the risk of being in large and tightly interacting teams either at the same place of work or at a new one.

It is also important to remember that many developers, gaining sufficient experience, try to occupy more intellectually capacious and highly paid positions of team leaders, architects and others. Most of them involve a very tight interaction with many people, which may interfere with those of us who are uncomfortable with communication.

Who to take?

And yet, is the character of the applicant important or only technical skills important? In my opinion, both are important. However, there is no "IT-oriented" nature. All developers are good and here they decide hard skills, but it’s important to understand that a pronounced introvert will hardly be comfortable in an extrovert team and vice versa. Therefore, the nature of the interviewee is not so much more important as how much it fits into your team. It sounds corny, but do not forget about it, because otherwise you risk getting difficulties in the team from scratch.

I would like to ask the developers not to disdain to seek advice from their colleagues (but not to abuse it) and give such advice when you are asked about it. Often this can save your comrades a lot of time. Filling your own cones is, of course, a useful activity, but it is not always worth the time spent.