I am a software engineer with now 10 years of experience. While I think I am doing very well, one of my biggest issues always has been socially: I am a very introverted, anxious person who is immensely stressed out by travel, afterwork and other things that are considered essential for the âfamily spiritâ as some companies like to call it. I can communicate well and get along with people inside the work context, but I need a lot of recharge time, so to speak. While I tried to just get used to it, it exhausted me too much and didnât seem sustainable.
Iâve been looking into some job offerings in the EA sphere lately just out of curiosity for my future and unsurprisingly, the social aspect is usually very big. If you want to help people in poor countries, being there and seeing what you are working for is quite essential. And in general, altruism is about people connecting, so it seems natural that most jobs are very social.
Are there areas for meaningful jobs where someone like me could still fit in and do something good with their work, or is it better to stay in the corporate world in that case and give my money to those who do?
Hi Christoph, thank you for such an honest reflection. Your self-awareness about what energizes versus drains you is actually a significant strength that will serve you well in finding the right path. I suspect many others will resonate with your question too.
II think youâre rightâmany high-impact activities do require significant social interaction and can bias toward extroverted working styles.
However, the landscape is more nuanced. Some organizations actively consider inclusion across âdiversity dimensionsâ, designing cultures that attempt to meet diverse needs. At Successif, for example, weâre working to identify and mitigate opportunities and barriers across gender, race, neurodiversity, and nationalityâboth for our team and advisees alike.
While general EA culture may seem extroverted, remember itâs not homogeneousâthere are sub-cultures and streams with different working styles.
Areas where introverted engineers may thrive:
Technical AI Safety Research: Deep focus work, coding, mathematical analysis with collaboration primarily through written work
Data Science for Impact: Dataset analysis, modeling, insights generation for global health/âpolicy organizations
Backend Infrastructure: Building robust technical systems for impact organizations
AI Governance (Technical Track): Writing reports, analyzing policy implications, building tools
A key suggestion here would be to treat organizational culture as a selection criterion. Use the application process (i.e. job requirements, work tests, interviews) to assess remote work policies, team structures, and communication normsâto actively weed out options that couldnât be sustainable for you.
Questions to consider:
What aspects of your current technical work energize you most?
Have you explored applying your skills to any cause areas, even in small ways?
Would it be valuable to connect with other introverted engineers whoâve made this transition, or put out a call to find others navigating similar considerations? (Perhaps someone reading this will reach out!?)
On earning-to-give: Absolutely legitimate and impactful with your background. Consider starting small to explore direct applicationsâopen-source contributions to EA projects, small freelance work, or informational interviews.
Finally, rather than seeing this as an either/âor choice, consider starting small: What are some cheap tests/âlow hanging actions you could take on this week/âmonth?
All the best, Moneer (Career Advisor at Successif)
Your experience socializing is relatable. I am a former software developer and found socializing too complex. Are there people, groups and settings at work where socializing is easier? I am curious to hear more. DM me if you prefer. (I am not an advisor)
I joined a startup company that grew over the years until it was eventually bought up by a publicly traded company, so I basically just worked at one place so far and my experience is rather limited. At least within that I can say though: Bigger companies are better, so I would aim at something that has at the very least 50 employees.
The startup time was extremely tough, as I had to do a lot of overtime and be available for customers and colleagues alike. Chances are also higher that you have to visit customers while fulfilling multiple roles and have to represent the company at events because the pool of people is so small. There was also a lot of peer pressure to join afterwork events, to the point of having to tell the CEO why you cannot come. It definitely tested my limits.
As the company size grew, I basically moved away from customer projects and instead built the product itself, which meant a lot less pressure and less need for availability and travel. Approaching the 100 employee number was kind of the golden time for me, combining the positive aspects of a startup (colleagues you can trust, strong association with the product, laid-back culture) with the ones from bigger companies (more shielded from customers by managers, less peer pressure for anything because thereâs now so many people). It was probably helping that I had proven myself to the relevant people already and got away with doing a lot independently, though. I basically rejected all offers/âchances to move up into leadership or management positions, however, so basically holding back career opportunities to work more comfortably. My managers also tried to keep traveling demands away from me so that I can focus on my work.
After the company was bought up and the 100% remote time ended (that was kind of optimal for me), it feels like I am more at the mercy of the team tasks. In general, you have your team and mostly have to make sure that works out as long as you donât go past a senior position. You donât really need to join much outside of team events. However, you are just a number to the company and requirements can change. People come and go more frequently, buyups require sudden collaborations to integrate people and/âor software, initiatives you want to do require you to convince managers instead of just doing it, etc.. Chances are also higher that you have to deal with very uncomfortable people, that colleagues donât care about the product and leave you hanging, and so on.
At the moment, the social aspects are often less of an issue for me and more the lack of care most people have. To many, itâs just 9-5 and passing the hours. Iâd love to work on something again that everyone is enthusiastic about. But depending on your role, this lack of enthusiasm also makes the social aspects easier because so few people care.
In short: Mid-sized companies with moderate team sizes seemed to be the best to me so far. Startups always sound the best on paper, but working there is actually the most demanding, Iâd avoid them at all costs. But Iâm pretty sure this all heavily depends on who is working thereâthe chances are just higher you wonât have as many anxiety-inducing situations.
Iâm not sure if any of this was helpful. All the best for you career in any case :).
Thank you for doing this!
I am a software engineer with now 10 years of experience. While I think I am doing very well, one of my biggest issues always has been socially: I am a very introverted, anxious person who is immensely stressed out by travel, afterwork and other things that are considered essential for the âfamily spiritâ as some companies like to call it. I can communicate well and get along with people inside the work context, but I need a lot of recharge time, so to speak. While I tried to just get used to it, it exhausted me too much and didnât seem sustainable.
Iâve been looking into some job offerings in the EA sphere lately just out of curiosity for my future and unsurprisingly, the social aspect is usually very big. If you want to help people in poor countries, being there and seeing what you are working for is quite essential. And in general, altruism is about people connecting, so it seems natural that most jobs are very social.
Are there areas for meaningful jobs where someone like me could still fit in and do something good with their work, or is it better to stay in the corporate world in that case and give my money to those who do?
Hi Christoph, thank you for such an honest reflection. Your self-awareness about what energizes versus drains you is actually a significant strength that will serve you well in finding the right path. I suspect many others will resonate with your question too.
II think youâre rightâmany high-impact activities do require significant social interaction and can bias toward extroverted working styles.
However, the landscape is more nuanced. Some organizations actively consider inclusion across âdiversity dimensionsâ, designing cultures that attempt to meet diverse needs. At Successif, for example, weâre working to identify and mitigate opportunities and barriers across gender, race, neurodiversity, and nationalityâboth for our team and advisees alike.
While general EA culture may seem extroverted, remember itâs not homogeneousâthere are sub-cultures and streams with different working styles.
Areas where introverted engineers may thrive:
Technical AI Safety Research: Deep focus work, coding, mathematical analysis with collaboration primarily through written work
Data Science for Impact: Dataset analysis, modeling, insights generation for global health/âpolicy organizations
Backend Infrastructure: Building robust technical systems for impact organizations
AI Governance (Technical Track): Writing reports, analyzing policy implications, building tools
A key suggestion here would be to treat organizational culture as a selection criterion. Use the application process (i.e. job requirements, work tests, interviews) to assess remote work policies, team structures, and communication normsâto actively weed out options that couldnât be sustainable for you.
Questions to consider:
What aspects of your current technical work energize you most?
Have you explored applying your skills to any cause areas, even in small ways?
Would it be valuable to connect with other introverted engineers whoâve made this transition, or put out a call to find others navigating similar considerations? (Perhaps someone reading this will reach out!?)
On earning-to-give: Absolutely legitimate and impactful with your background. Consider starting small to explore direct applicationsâopen-source contributions to EA projects, small freelance work, or informational interviews.
Finally, rather than seeing this as an either/âor choice, consider starting small: What are some cheap tests/âlow hanging actions you could take on this week/âmonth?
All the best,
Moneer (Career Advisor at Successif)
Your experience socializing is relatable. I am a former software developer and found socializing too complex. Are there people, groups and settings at work where socializing is easier? I am curious to hear more. DM me if you prefer. (I am not an advisor)
I joined a startup company that grew over the years until it was eventually bought up by a publicly traded company, so I basically just worked at one place so far and my experience is rather limited. At least within that I can say though: Bigger companies are better, so I would aim at something that has at the very least 50 employees.
The startup time was extremely tough, as I had to do a lot of overtime and be available for customers and colleagues alike. Chances are also higher that you have to visit customers while fulfilling multiple roles and have to represent the company at events because the pool of people is so small. There was also a lot of peer pressure to join afterwork events, to the point of having to tell the CEO why you cannot come. It definitely tested my limits.
As the company size grew, I basically moved away from customer projects and instead built the product itself, which meant a lot less pressure and less need for availability and travel. Approaching the 100 employee number was kind of the golden time for me, combining the positive aspects of a startup (colleagues you can trust, strong association with the product, laid-back culture) with the ones from bigger companies (more shielded from customers by managers, less peer pressure for anything because thereâs now so many people). It was probably helping that I had proven myself to the relevant people already and got away with doing a lot independently, though. I basically rejected all offers/âchances to move up into leadership or management positions, however, so basically holding back career opportunities to work more comfortably. My managers also tried to keep traveling demands away from me so that I can focus on my work.
After the company was bought up and the 100% remote time ended (that was kind of optimal for me), it feels like I am more at the mercy of the team tasks. In general, you have your team and mostly have to make sure that works out as long as you donât go past a senior position. You donât really need to join much outside of team events. However, you are just a number to the company and requirements can change. People come and go more frequently, buyups require sudden collaborations to integrate people and/âor software, initiatives you want to do require you to convince managers instead of just doing it, etc.. Chances are also higher that you have to deal with very uncomfortable people, that colleagues donât care about the product and leave you hanging, and so on.
At the moment, the social aspects are often less of an issue for me and more the lack of care most people have. To many, itâs just 9-5 and passing the hours. Iâd love to work on something again that everyone is enthusiastic about. But depending on your role, this lack of enthusiasm also makes the social aspects easier because so few people care.
In short: Mid-sized companies with moderate team sizes seemed to be the best to me so far. Startups always sound the best on paper, but working there is actually the most demanding, Iâd avoid them at all costs. But Iâm pretty sure this all heavily depends on who is working thereâthe chances are just higher you wonât have as many anxiety-inducing situations.
Iâm not sure if any of this was helpful. All the best for you career in any case :).