Are there any high paying Finance careers for introverts?

packmate:

How introverted are we talking about? Asperger's or just shy?

Neither. I'm not shy at all and I'm not afraid of opening up. I just don't like interacting with people all of the time. Being with only oneself is how introverts get their energy.

lmfao, a shitty realization to have but definitely better than not having it

+1

langue:

I used to think that I was an introvert, but then I realized that the real issue was that I actually just disliked everyone I was interacting with.

I can relate. I definitely am a lot more social around people I enjoy.

This is great and I can definitely identify with this. +1

Industry84:

I saw a post a while back about common myers Briggs personality types in finance and INTJ seemed to be the most common type. Obviously there is a wide spectrum of careers in finance, but I'd say being on the introverted side is more the norm than the exception. Heck, If we were all super extroverted, wouldn't more of us would be in sales or marketing and not a highly detail oriented, quantitative field like finance.

I don't think you need to be extroverted to be successful. Yes it may help with networking and presentations, but if you're smart and can get your point across when you need to then you'll be fine.

"Deal oriented" is why extroverts excel at finance at the highest levels. In the vast majority of cases, the top guys at firms are revenue producers--the guys that bring in the deals. If you want to be at the top of your field you will likely not be successful in financial services as an introvert. The firms train 20 somethings to do the bitch work. Introverts excel at the bitch work.

You're going to have to deal with people no matter what you do, so you should get used to it. Introverts are usually great at pretending to be extraverts too.

I work at a buy-side fund picking stocks (~50 billion AUM), writing research reports, and building models all day. I talk to my boss about once a week or every two weeks, and only usually talk to my co-workers during lunch. Aside from that, my only interaction with the outside world is when a management team comes in from out of town or the random sell-side analyst tries to pitch me on some ridiculous idea. I am a decent public speaker, but frankly hate it, and only learned the skill out of necessity.

I would call myself a type-A introvert. I am bold and driven, but definitely feel more comfortable alone than in groups. I love to party and let loose (Treasurer of best fraternity at party-college pretty accurately explains me), but most of the time I like to get my shit done, come up with stock ideas, build my models, and go to the gym.

You my friend, sound like a good candidate to work for a buy-side fund. There is literally a place for any smart, driven person in Finance. You don't have to work on the sell-side as a trader or in IB to succeed... the buy-side makes more money and works less hours anyway.

I worked in a team with less than 10 members and was lucky to have the floor to ourselves; this was on the buy side with a 10bn HF and AM firm - so all prop. stuff. Each analyst covered a set of stocks and reported directly to the PM. This way it just happened to be introvert-friendly because you don't really speak with other analysts unless you have a question as a junior person on the desk. It was like a library.

During results season each analyst would discuss stocks with the PM and that's it really. It was up to us how much more interaction we wanted. I liked a few guys on the desk and would talk to them sometimes but most of the time, like I said, it was pin drop silence.

We had many other teams who shared other floors and never really interacted much with them; only in the lift in the mornings usually it was the usual good morning.

But I had no idea this is how it would be before I joined the desk. I've since left the firm and may be they have the floor shared with other teams. I would still say it might be worth changing yourself a bit and going out of your comfort zone.

I'm used to working in silence and sometimes I think if I manage to secure a sell-side role as a desk analyst in research it might be a bit difficult at first with traders and sales people asking you questions whilst you try to analyse and work on your numbers. But it will be fine I'm sure.

What did you do before your MBA? Might help us give you some insight.

And strat requires a lot of human interaction - look at any of the interviews/question threads by strat guys. You're constantly meeting with/dealing with people. Dev might be better, more number crunching, but it's still going to have a social aspect to it. And frankly, any corporate position you want to be in, the higher you go the more you'll be dealing with people on a regular basis vs sitting in front of a computer.

I'm not in Dev/Strat (or even working full time, though I have done lots of research/talked to a lot of people) so I might be the last person you want advice from. You really have to decide if it's right for you or not.

I don't work in corp dev/strat, but from my perspective and based on a couple quick searches (see URL's below), it is a role well suited to most INTJ's. I'm also an INTJ and work in a management role at a F500, so I can relate to what you're saying about not liking to socialize.

Unfortunately, you'll find that you need to work with people more and more as you climb the ladder in any department at a F500. I have to give around 8 presentations per month in my current role and would say in total I spend at least 50% of my time in meetings, presenting information, and training my reports. My advice to you would be to focus on the work you will be doing and worry less about the time you might have to spend communicating the results of your work. If you think you'll enjoy the analytical side and content of the job, you more than likely wont mind having to present your work every now and then and/or work on a team.

I've found that people in the workplace care less about how sociable and "fun" you are, and care much more about how knowledgable you are and the results you can bring to the company. And even though I've always hated public speaking with a passion, it can start to feel very natural when you're speaking on a subject you know well and it can actually be rewarding to feel like the "expert" in the room so to speak or getting the chance to showcase what you've done. Plus it gets you out of your chair and mixes the day up a bit - I mean even though you're an introvert, would you truly enjoy staring at a computer screen every minute of the day?

http://www.personalitypage.com/html/INTJ_car.html http://www.16personalities.com/mobile/intj-careers.html

I actually worked as a Software Engineer pre-MBA.

Is there any position in corporate finance that would suit me?

I'll also add that accounting and controllership is generally a much better fit for an ISTJ personality. If you're strong on the "N", typically a more analytical, forward looking career is more suitable.

People with a sensing personality interpret things for how they are, whereas an intuition personality looks to recognize underlying patterns in the information and would also tend to be more interested in talking about future possibilities, opportunities to change processes, and would generally look at things with more of a creative eye. Sensing = reality and facts, Intuition = future and possibilities

Accounting can involve some strategy and forward looking analysis, but a large portion of the work involves reporting and analyzing historical information. Someone who is say 60% intuition and 40% sensing could be an ok fit for accounting, but an individual who is 80-95% intuition would likely get bored very fast.

I'll just add that having both is helpful for being a successful controller, as its important to have the ability to recognize patterns and trends behind information as well as having the ability to see the big picture, but typically someone who leans more towards the sensing side would find the field more satisfying and rewarding.

Interesting.

Do any of you know the perfect jobs (after MBA) for an INTJ?

I think it's entirely dependent on the group. That said, most F500 employees have a better work/life balance, so the personalities are more aligned with "normal" rest of the world than IB/MC. There are definitely some who enjoy socializing, and then some who enjoy spending time with family.

Generally quants and the like, researchers etc tend to be less social. However, if you can be social you will always have a better time of any job because you're always selling to someone. I would work on people skills as much as possible. The only really "non social" environments tend to be extremely quantitative and theoretical.

really, that's a bumber..what about investment research at smaller funds?

What makes you 'not a people person'?