1.You've spent over 25 years in career information, and you've obviously created a new demographic in terms of career orientation with your book, '200 Best Jobs for Introverts.' How did you come to explore the relationship between introversion and careers?

For some time I have been interested in personality as a way of looking at career choice. I have some hesitation about steering everyone with the same personality into the same career, because at an extreme level of success we would eliminate much workplace diversity and groupthink would set in. Nevertheless, I know from my own experience that, just as there are corporate cultures, there are occupational cultures that one person might find welcoming and another person might find hostile. Personality therefore works as a way of looking at careers 'from 40,000 feet.'

An earlier book of mine, 50 Best Jobs for Your Personality, was very successful and caused me to look for other available data about occupations that would be relevant to personality. I noticed that the O*NET database has occupational ratings on the value Independence, which is defined as doing work alone, and the work-context factor Contact with Others. Taken together, these two ratings indicate the work conditions that introverts or extroverts find appealing or repellant, so I was able to rate occupations on their introvert-friendliness.

2.One of the regular issues on our site is the fit between people and jobs, and the havoc a bad fit can cause for both employers and employees. Introverts often suffer severely in the wrong environment. What should introverts be looking at, to avoid the wrong fit?

The two O*NET factors that I drew on for occupational ratings point to the issues that introverts should be looking at. One is the amount of solitude in the work environment. Introverts tend not to be happy in work situations where they are constantly rubbing shoulders with other people, especially unfamiliar people. The other factor, contact with others, is often related to lack of solitude. That is, when people surround you, they constantly interrupt your train of thought and make demands on you, a situation that introverts find intolerable. However, this human contact is not totally an inverse function of solitude, because it is possible to be working alone yet be in a situation where the phone rings constantly and e-mails bombard you, demanding answers. So introverts need to consider both factors.

4.Employers seem to be slowly recognizing the individual human element in the workforce. How should employers approach introverts?

Employers should ask the introverted employee the same thing they ask any employee: How can I make this work situation one where you'll be more satisfied and more productive? Then employers should recognize that one kind of response they will get—from introverts—is requests for a less distracting environment. Employers should recognize that if an employee seems to be avoiding the workroom birthday celebrations or objects to music filtering in from the next cubicle, it doesn't mean that this employee is churlish or 'difficult.'

5.Introverts tend to be very complex people, but not necessarily great career navigators. What's the best line of argument for making career decisions, for introverts?

You have to have a good understanding of how deep your introversion runs. I have seen estimates that '40% of the population is introverted.' I would say that if some psychological measurement says this, then it is including many people who are so close to the middle of the distribution that the inherent error of the measurement could just as easily have put them on the extroverted side. Most of us are neither highly introverted nor highly extroverted, and the book is aimed only at people who are deeply introverted.

If you really are very introverted, then use your strengths when you are making career decisions and career moves, because you have many strengths you can bring to the task: the ability to do in-depth research, weigh many factors thoughtfully, and prepare excellent documentation (resumes and portfolios).

6.As a 'career goals' approach, the book's very thorough, objective and detailed. It includes elements for assessing a job like quiet, working alone, and direct public contact. That may well be a world first in assessments of working conditions. For introverts, the work environment can be one long series of banging drums and high stress. At what point does the introvert say 'Enough'?

People vary in how much unhappiness they can tolerate in their work situation. Perhaps the indicator that it's time to move on is when you find yourself dreading Mondays or even suffering from stress-related illness. Sometimes the ability to walk away from an intolerable job or occupation is affected by one's resources, economic and otherwise. Dissatisfied workers ask themselves: Can I give up the job's health insurance? Do I have another skill to fall back on? Is there another niche in the industry where I can use my background in a less distracting environment? Each case is unique, so there's no hard and fast rule to say when is the right time to quit.

7.The balance between career and environment is obviously critical for introverts. Health is another important factor and stresses can be deadly. Can introverts in stressful jobs do anything about stressful jobs, or should they bail out while they have their health, or what's left of it?

It's interesting that you ask this, because I am in the final stages of working on a book called 150 Best Low-Stress Jobs. I did some research on the harmful effects of stress and found that, to cite only one indicator, health-care expenditures are nearly 50 percent greater for workers who report high levels of stress compared to workers who report low levels. It's not true that 'Whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger.' Stress actually weakens the body. Therefore I would repeat what I said earlier about trying to negotiate one's work conditions. If that fails, one should investigate whether conditions in another worksite for the same employer or with another employer, perhaps in a different industry, will be more introvert-friendly. Again, an introvert's research skills can come in handy for such investigations. Of course, it may turn out that the occupation itself is inherently ill-suited to introverts, and then it's time to consider a new line of work. The lists and job descriptions in 200 Best Jobs for Introverts can help suggest career ideas.

8.Google recently conducted an exhaustive questionnaire (300 questions) of their entire workforce, to establish what they wanted in terms of a fit for employees. They found out, for example, that dog owners did better at Google, and that the interview/qualifications system was, quote, 'A really lousy way of assessing employees.' Your approach also seems to be working for a better relationship between culture, jobs and staff. Do you think that the employment culture has finally broken the mold, or is this natural evolution of the workforce?

Academics who teach HR and staff in HR departments are constantly advancing the science and art of personnel management, constantly discovering new ways to help individuals fit into the workplace environment. I don't think there are any sudden breakthroughs in this process but, as you call it, it's a natural evolution. Sometimes it is captured by fads, some of which may run counter to the interests of introverts. I'm thinking in particular of the 1990s, when there was a fad of emulating the Japanese style of management. Their corporate culture is not introvert-friendly in some ways, and although some aspects of the fad have passed by, the team-based approach is still strong in many American workplaces.

10.A recent survey of employees across the spectrum found that people using their talents were much more productive. One would think that introverts would be prime examples of this?

Certainly. A lot of discussion of introverts tends to focus on negative aspects and overlooks the strengths that they bring to the workplace. Because they are thoughtful and thorough, many introverts are good writers and researchers. They also may do very well in work that requires attention to detail. They tend to avoid a herd mentality and thus often devise novel solutions to problems. The volume of their work output also may be very high, because they don't have to adjust their work pace to fit other people's schedules or preferences. Today's workplace is all about multitasking—something introverts don't like to do—but research shows that multitasking actually lowers productivity.