We hear a lot about the graphic communications field being disproportionately male, but is it also disproportionately extroverted?

You may think so by reading industry press coverage, much of which focuses on myriad trade shows and industry conferences – networking, back-slapping, sales-pitching types that seem tailor-made for extroverted women in print.

But according to Women in Print Alliance corporate member Printlink, there are multiple jobs within the printing industry that are well suited for the more introverted women in our community.

Here are the top three:

  1. Packaging Engineer: A growing interdisciplinary field combining science and technology, packaging engineering was in demand even during the height of Covid-19 and its impact on the general job market and economy. During one month in 2000, Glassdoor had posted more than 25,000 job listings for “packaging engineer” while LinkedIn returned over 800 results for the search term, according to Packaging Digest
  2. Print Research Scientist: New technologies, products, and processes are driving print industry change in areas like sustainability or chemistry. R&D is crucial to the global competitiveness of print OEMs. If you feel at home in a lab, there are specialized job opportunities in testing, analytics, materials, computer science and more.
  3. Prepress Managers: Printlink states that “introverts combine the talents of developing craft and paying attention to detail,” which dovetails well with the job in Prepress. This knack for enjoying the focus of details is an important skill for this position as it requires editing graphics and checking that work is completed correctly (and on time).

Printlink outlines four additional jobs well-suited for what we’ll call “printroverts” in this blog post. But here’s a major spoiler alert for #7: Sales!

It’s a myth, says the job placement firm, that the best print sales professionals are all gregarious “Chatty Cathys.” That’s because listening (and asking questions of a potential or current client based on what you hear) is just as important – if not more so – than talking in order to establishing a client-sales relationship built on trust and understanding.

The power to pause and pay attention is a key driver of success in the sales field – and in many other print jobs – regardless of personality type.