Have you ever heard the phrase: “I don’t want to be an engineer, I want to work with people!” I have heard it so many times. In my experience engineering jobs are all about working with people. But others disagree[bibshow], “extroverts are extremely uncommon among programmers” while others are neutral [bibcite key=”citeulike:9782651″].
A new study by cuban researchers shows an interesting trend – programmers tend to be more extrovert than in earlier studies [bibcite key=”citeulike:9771585″]. They performed an MBTI test on a number of programmers and the most common personality type was the ESTJ – extroverted, sensing, thinking, judging – type.
Source: GJEE26% of programmers belonged to the ESTJ type.
Varona et al. hypothesize that the shift towards more extroverted personality types is caused by a need for ever more collaboration among engineers. Not least because of the shift towards highly collaborative practices such as agile software development.
Would extroverted programmers bring their laptop to the beach? Programmer on "Vacation" by M. Keefe, on Flickr
Follow link for Create Commons licensing information.
It would be very interesting to see if they can expand on their research by looking at a larger population of programmers, perhaps across cultures. It would also be very interesting to see some statistical analysis of the results to see where the personality types are significantly different from the average cuban professional. And finally, which personality types are most successful?
References
[/bibshow]
Image sources
- Cuban programmers by MBTI type: GJEE
- Programmer on vacation: liveinstereo7 | Flickr | CC BY 2.0
Do you think programmers should be extroverted or introverted? Take the poll at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/questions/10150298597947…
Sofar, over 90% of the respondents do not think introversion/extroversion matters. What do you think?
Among introverted and extroverted individuals there are different subcategories in both types which not only affect the individual in different ways, but also affect the individuals performance both in the realm of programming and in life. Based on the situation an individual could be either introverted or extroverted or neutral depending on their beliefs and preferences.
Yes indeed. The difference between your "basic" personality and your "adapted" personality.
I wonder what the rate of extrovert/introvert respond to surveys?
That is a very good question! However, as you may have noted, they compared their results to the results of other previous studies so if there is a bias towards one or the other responding more often to surveys it should not affect the result too much. Unless of course response rates for introverts/extroverts are very different in Cuba?
I did find an interesting blog-post about this. It does not say if extroverts are more likely to answer surveys but when they do, they are more likely to give \”enthusiastic\” answers. http://www.livescience.com/15655-extrovert-respon…
in my experience it does to matter. i took the mbti test too long ago. i was norther europe introvert. but cuban/latin culture tend to be more open and yes – more extro. id guess cultural part. disagree that engineers work with ppl. teachers, nurses etc work with ppl. shouldn't be hard to see the difference 😉
I can see what you mean by that. Working with people and working with people…
The 26% spike in ESTJ types is quite strange. I don't know much about Cuba either, but I would hypothetise that there is *something* on the culture in general wich favors that kind of personality for any job that pays well. For one, it's a latin country, where social interactions tend to be valued way over objetiveness (I'm from one of those), and then there is the cuban political state of things, where (I guess) only extroverts can move the necessary social strings to get those jobs in the heavily restricted economy. For one, I have heard that internet access there is very limited, and only for a few people. Anywhere else where *political* skill and connections are necessary for "getting in" in a big part of the job market, I would think you would get similar results, favoring extroverted people. At least that's the situation here in Venezuela and the state-owned industries.
I think you have a lot of good points there. Since Cuba is unlike other countries, the results of a survey like this one are likely to be different from what they would be in other countries.
Note: I haven't read the paper, but as far as I can see, the research itself was done in Cuba.
I don't really think that Cuba is necessarily representative the the rest of the world when it comes to "personalities". Comparing the results of such a research done there with such a research done in the USA or Europe is like comparing apples and oranges. In other words, it doesn't mean anything at all.
Note2: You Facebook login doesn't work! The login window is there, but invisible.
Of course, that the research was done in Cuba is not something that can be simply ignored…
Thanks for your comment about the facebook login. I will look in to that as soon as I have a better Internet connection – I am currently on a train in the middle of the forest.
Is the table normalized to account for varying percentages of different types? If ESTJs make up more than 30 percent of the population, then a 26% among programmers is not significant.
No, the table is not normalized. But I did notice that ENTP had 2% which I recall as being about average. What you can also do is sum up all the E:s and compare them to the I:s. You still get a majority of E:s and perhaps that is more interesting given the small sample size.
A person is simultaneously both a unique snowflake and tends towards a manner that usually fits along some spectra.
what's the difference between an introverted programmer and an extroverted programmer? the extroverted stares on YOUR shoes ..
He he. I was considering including that joke in the post. Thank you for posting it anyway.
Doesn''t surprise me one bit. The new generation looks at games and IT millionaries, couple that with the myth that you are smart if you work with computers (gap between generations) and the fact that everyone have a computer.
The mainstream are starting to code, which is actually a good thing. I just wished I hadn't spent five years specialising in it instead of complementing it with biology.
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Hello Mr. Gregers, I found your post very interesting, and I´m also surprised by the turn this paper is getting on the web. I figure you are wondering if types are attached to a specific geografic location? (As you point "Cuban researchers…"), regarding this issue you may look another paper of mine where I do compare cuban results to brazilians. Currently comparisons with Pakistan are being conducted. Aiming to prove if there´s or not a gap between types and geography. Other studies of the implications of the MBTI and how it affects task choices are running, and will published very soon. If you are interested on making some sort of academic studies to this respect I´m deeply interested on this topic.
Hello Mr. Gregers, I found your post very interesting, and I´m also surprised by the turn this paper is getting on the web. I figure you are wondering if types are attached to a specific geografic location? (As you point "Cuban researchers…"), regarding this issue you may look another paper of mine where I do compare cuban results to brazilians. Currently comparisons with Pakistan are being conducted. Aiming to prove if there´s or not a gap between types and geography. Other studies of the implications of the MBTI and how it affects task choices are running, and will published very soon. If you are interested on making some sort of academic studies to this respect I´m deeply interested on this topic.
I guess anything that puts fact in front of prejudice will lead to a reaction!
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