Living in the LA area I really struggle with the issue of being in introvert in a society that almost demands a person be an extrovert. Job searching was horrendous because I wasn't interested in being a "drinking buddy". I would gladly hangout for a short while but I'm just not that social in a group of 4 or more. Sometimes 2 or 3 is pushing it for me when they are very lively. At work I've literally had managers ask me if I'm mentally ill or something. I even got kicked off of a project because the manager couldn't understand why I didn't want to hang out, talk sports, or for that matter just jockey for a lead roll on the project. It just isn't me. I did happily work in the background putting out fires left & right and solving numerous complex problems but because I don't like to bring attention to myself no one noticed until I wasn't part of the project anymore. Pretty sad really; for me and them I guess. I work under a much better manager in the same company now. He is still an extrovert but I think he understands how I function which is a nice plus. I get a little more leeway to do genuine research for problems which only benefits the company so far.
Bravo. How does one get a job if one is the opposite of the brogrammer that seems to be the model these days? I'd change professions if pair programming was the only way I could write software.