Do you get bored when alone and start actively seeking out conversations, events, and people? Enjoy making new friends, hanging out with others, and going out to eat? Like to have a vast network of connections and friends, both in-person and online? You might be an extrovert… like Leonardo da Vinci, Muhammad Ali, and Queen Elizabeth I! Extrovert personality traits make up about half the world’s population (almost perfectly balanced with introverts, as all things should be).
What exactly is an extrovert? Extroversion has everything to do with your natural flow of energy. We all wake up each day with a certain amount of energy — some more than others. When we’re completing a task — like walking across campus or choosing what to order for lunch — we prefer the “path of least resistance.” For example, we might choose to drive a car rather than walk from one building to another, or order a tried-and-true menu item rather than experiment with something new. That’s because the harder the path, the more energy it takes to walk it.
For extroverts, the “path of least resistance” is to put their energy back into their environment. This means that extroverts tend to focus on what’s going on around them — conversations, people, events, hangouts, and activities. They’re often happiest when they’re part of the action!
While everyone is unique, and these traits certainly aren’t limited to just extroverts, here are ten perks common to extroverts (and how you can make them work for you while you’re in college).
1. Networking
You’ve probably heard that networking is the key to finding jobs and maximizing your success in college. That’s because when you’re connected to various people, you’re more likely to have access to unique opportunities and resources. Extroverts are natural networkers because engaging with others in their environment is like breathing to them.
2. Verbal Communication
Extroverts prefer to engage with their environment — including the people and conversations happening within it. This helps them naturally develop communication skills, which are requested by most job applications! Strong communication skills help ensure clear instructions, meet needs, and maintain the team’s unity. It’s an excellent skill for group projects.
3. Positivity
Being an extravert doesn’t automatically make you an optimist. However, research has found that extroverts tend to experience positive emotions more frequently than introverts, which helps lessen stress, encourage achievement, and increase feelings of satisfaction.
4. Collaboration
A focus on engaging the world around them means extroverts may feel drawn toward collaborative efforts, deliberately seeking out team projects, campus clubs, or opportunities to meet like-minded peers. Networking can be critical to success during and after college. Who knows you could mean finding your dream job or opportunity.
5. Confidence and Charisma
Being an extrovert doesn’t automatically make you a fantastic speaker or spotlight-seeker. However, extroverts may find themselves drawn to opportunities for recognition, quickly adapting to being the focus of attention or head of a project. Because they thrive on stimulation from their environment, it’s natural for them to draw others’ focus, landing them in leadership roles.
6. Quick Thinking and Decision-Making
Because they derive energy from their ever-changing environment, extroverts typically process new information and make decisions more quickly than introverts. Biologically, it’s as though this incoming information bypasses the brain’s sensory processing department (introverts tend to meander through their grey matter for much longer!) and leaps straight to its memory and planning sector in the frontal lobe.
7. Variety in All Things
Extroverts tend to engage in more of, well, everything than introverts, with a broader array of experiences to match their constant stimulus-seeking from the world around them. From hobbies and restaurants to friends and media, extroverts live by the motto “variety is the spice of life!” Ask an extrovert for a recommendation on most anything, and they’ll quickly rattle off their top ten list.
8. Friendliness
Extraverts are just as drawn to their environment as people are drawn to them. Because they thrive on interaction and engagement, extroverts naturally develop a friendly, enthusiastic demeanor that’s driven by a desire to connect with others. Because extroverts give much attention to those around them, they feel approachable and quickly form bonds with various people.
9. Leadership
Both introverts and extroverts make excellent leaders, each with their own strengths. One study found that extroverts have a unique ability to motivate and emotionally connect with their team through forming strong interpersonal bonds. Extroverted leaders readily work toward goals and acknowledge performance, happily praising and rewarding those who put in the effort.
10. Being Others-Focused
What do Martin Luther King Jr., Margaret Thatcher, and Winston Churchill all have in common? Besides being famous leaders, they’re also extroverts! Great leaders have a servant mentality — always seeking the betterment of their team, customers, and others around them. Extroverts might be more likely to invite others to participate (especially if they see them on the sidelines), remember names and faces, and have a candid personality that draws others toward them.
Remember: Every person is unique — whether they’re extroverted or introverted — and many factors influence your personality beyond just that dichotomy. This list represents some common traits associated with extroversion but isn’t all-inclusive or applicable to everyone. Just as extroverts have many admirable strengths and common weaknesses, so, too, do introverts.
If you’re wondering whether you’re extraverted or introverted — or want to learn more about your personality — contact your nearest Career Center to take a personality assessment (online or in-office). This assessment provides a detailed evaluation of your personality type, helping you better understand how you use your energy, how you collect information, how you make decisions, and how you view the concept of time. Combined, this information can even help you identify which careers may appeal to you most. We look forward to helping you along your exciting journey of self-discovery!
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