I'm an introvert. I both loved and hated my job as a college professor.
I loved the curriculum development, the research, the grantsmanship, presentations at conferences, writing papers and the behind-the-scenes nuts and bolts of teaching. I liked doing my own lab prep, and I LOVED mentoring research students.
I felt rather neutral about committee work and travel. About mountains of grading. Neutral about lab instruction.
I did NOT like lecturing or being inside a classroom. I didn't really like 'face-time' with students even during office hours, but the part that I did NOT like was that cult-of-personality rock show of lecture settings. I do NOT like being in the spotlight like that day after day.
Oddly, I don't mind when it is a one-off presentation. I'm an excellent speaker, and I think well on my feet. I enjoy using those skills, actually. I just don't like the attention focused on ME, and not on my message, if that makes sense. Students are completely fixated on their teachers sometimes. One-on-one wasn't so bad, but I'm not terribly patient with people either too slow or too stubborn to help themselves... and among college students, that's a fair number of them, sadly.
I probably would not go back because of the classroom time. If I could do only curriculum development and grantsmanship, though, I'd do it in a heartbeat.
