Women in Science (2015)

> Are you introverted? Want a job where you seldom have to meet anyone new? Want to sit at the same desk or bench year after year and work mostly by yourself? Get most of your satisfaction from solving puzzles? Have we got the job for you: industrial scientist! If you are extremely introverted, you might prefer to work as a computer programmer.

> Most workers, however, get a lot of satisfaction from meeting new people, working with others collaboratively, being thanked by customers, teaching, having a direct positive impact on other people. Jobs such as medical doctor, lawyer, schoolteacher, airplane mechanic, and plumber all provide greater amounts of these satisfactions than most jobs in science. In fact, the only science job that regularly offers any of these satisfactions is professor, which we've already discussed from the point of view of salary and job security.

I find this to be the primary false stereotype about programming jobs that ought to be dispelled to bring in more people that are well suited for it. Many introverts develop computer skills at young ages and become programmers, but the actual job tends to involve large amounts of teamwork and can be extremely collaborative, especially in some companies.

The common perception of the isolated programmer doesn't do justice to all the work being done at companies that use various high-communication techniques like agile or pair programming. If you want to be even more social or have higher status, there's always the technical management track.

Enrollment numbers suggest that smart people are starting to understand that smart people are understanding that a CS degree can get you similar amounts of money to a medical degree in less time, and with far less stress.