You can work around that - I'm an introvert and find dealing with people hard work, but I'm still in a client facing consulting role right now and actually enjoy it.

For me the trick is to avoid pretending I'm an extrovert, which is something I feel a lot of fellow introverts are doing.

Put me in front of a whiteboard or on stage at a conference and I'm fine, but I still tend to hide out in dark corners at parties.

My first stint in grad school taught me the lessons I needed to survive my second stint. Hiding in your office won’t protect you when your department starts melting down.

Tell me about it...I have been like this my whole life and it really sucks to see others do so many things and you just stay in your own corner as if you got punished for some reason.