Navigating the corporate world as an introvert

Having worked in the U.S. corporate world for several years and now shifting my focus to Asia, I am anticipating differences in the workplace I’ll need to adjust to. It got me thinking about how I navigated in the U.S. workplace years ago. I wasn’t used to the U.S. ways right at the beginning either. It took a lot of observing, learning, and adjusting. One of the main challenges for me was learning how to have a voice as an introvert in a world that particularly values the skill to speak comfortably and socialize effortlessly.

The typical job search process coming out of school often involve career fairs where we’re expected to market ourselves well and network extensively. And then there is the interviewing process where we are evaluated based on a 30~60min session at a time. I tend to struggle to stand out at these fairs, and get overly nervous for interviews.

*Image by Ricardo Gomez Angel via Unsplash*

Once we find a job, in the corporate office, small talk is an essential skill and participation in meetings is an absolute must if we want to get anywhere. I tend to shy away from lengthy chats with unfamiliar people, and often feel pressured to speak up in meetings just to have said something…anything.

Throughout my career in the U.S. there were many times when I found myself feeling anxious about these characteristics of the workplace, leading me to want to figure out how to overcome them. Even if the environment isn’t ideal for me, it’s the reality. Often it’s easier to adjust ourselves to the best we can instead of expecting things to change for us. So I knew that if I wanted to go places in my career, it was up to me to adapt to the environment to achieve my goals.

Although I’m proud of my accomplishments in the years I spent grinding in Corporate America, behind them is the hard truth that I spent no less effort adjusting to the workplace than doing actual hands on work. As I prepare to enter the next chapter of my career, in a completely different part of the world, I realized that most of my effort through the years was centered around building better connections with coworkers and engaging in the workplace in ways suitable for me. This blog will go through a few key practices that helped me find my way around the U.S. workplace.

I did a lot of awkward small talks

These were painful but inevitable. I tried to have topics in mind that I could bring up to people depending on what’s going on in their lives (e.g. single or not, family or not, foreign or not). Although it wasn’t easy, I tried not to shy away from small talks when I ran into people in the halls or in the beginning of a meeting, and as time went on I just got better at it. This not only helped me build better relationships with more people, but also made meetings with them more comfortable and less nerve wracking.

Whenever I could, I spoke earlier in meetings

In the beginning of my career, I was told to speak up in meetings and felt quite anxious about it. I knew that If I wanted to do well, participation in meetings is a must. But speaking up in meetings didn’t come naturally to me, mainly due to the fear of saying something stupid or interrupting someone by accident.

What’s worse is, the longer into a meeting I haven’t spoken, the more anxious I get thinking about it and the harder it gets to do it. After struggling for a while, I started speaking up as early as I can to avoid having the anxiety run my head the entire meeting. As I did it more and more, I realized that by speaking up earlier, I not only got rid of the anxiety to speak for the remainder of the meeting, but also made it easier to speak up a second or third time.

I offered to help often

Doing this helps me tell people that I am a friendly person, or at least that’s what I’m trying to show them (lol). I think people are more likely to be friendly to others they deem as friendly. Even if they don’t need your help, you’ve made an impression. If they actually need and use your help, then you’re not only someone kind but also someone knowledgeable enough to help. Either way, it doesn’t hurt to have more people I’m friendly with at work.

I also asked for help

This might be hard to do because in the workplace many people don’t want to appear like they need help. But the more I work the more I feel there’s always something to be learned from everyone. And most of the time people want to help as long as it’s for the greater good and you’re not asking for help on something unreasonably basic. It also utilizes work as a readily available common topic with people and sometimes helps bring me closer to them.

I cherished opportunities to speak

Presentation and teaching are two examples of what I took advantage of. They are both occasions where speaking time is reserved and so when to speak up is not a dilemma as it might be in meetings. Another great thing about them is that the topic of discussion is decided and the content can mostly be prepared ahead of time. I did presentation of numerous kinds, from hour-long deck presentations, to tool demonstrations, database trainings and more. The audiences also varied quite a bit, from as small as the immediate team I’m on, to a group of executives.

Doing these gave me face time with lots of people, during which I got to showcase my knowledge and practice to speak well to different audiences. At the start of my career, I wasn’t particularly good at presentation or teaching, so they served as great practice and honed these skills for me quickly. All I needed to do was find these opportunities and be ready to grab them.

Conclusion

In each environment, there will be advantages and disadvantages. When disadvantages stack up against us, how we handle them will determine how far we can go. To go where I want to go, I found ways to add value and highlight my strengths despite the disadvantages. Of course, there were numerous times when I wondered what it’d be like if I was an extrovert. Maybe I would spend less time worrying about these things. But the reality is it’s very difficult to change personality and it’s not necessarily something we should do either.

Instead, I learn to differentiate between agility that is necessary for achieving my goals and adjustments that feel too compromising to my identity. I choose to go out of my comfort zone to grow, but the discomfort should come from growing and not from rejecting who I am at the core. Like many things, it is a balancing act and a constant work in progress.

Changes can be hard, but if there’s something I learned from several years of working in the corporate world, it’s that there’re always going to be changes. Through deliberate changes to how I engage in the workplace, and through people who have guided me along the way, I was able to get to where I am today. I am grateful to have had such a positive experience and am hopeful to see how this experience will help me navigate the next chapter in my career.