I took 4 public speaking courses in college. I'm quite capable of doing it, but not without forgoing sleep for the 3 days preceding and other health effects. I agree with the sentiment and the majority of your answer, but I also think there must be a way of avoiding this, as I cannot be the only developer to ever have crippling anxiety.

@silencedmessage That sounds like a medical issue. Do you have anything written down by a doctor? Do you take any medicines or similar?

It is considered a medical issue. I'm familiar with the ADA and labor law, but I'd prefer to not disclose any information to my employer. (Assuming that's where you were going with this). I left it out of the question in an effort to keep it broad enough to best fit this site's format.

@IsmaelMiguel: I'm not certain "medical issue" would get the OP out of this. You don't hire blind people to drive cars. Similarly, if you want to be a software engineer, you are expected to communicate effectively. It is part of the job, and arguably more important than slinging code.

@Kevin not arguably, but definately. Presenting your work is often the hardest and most important part for software engineers. Nevermind large presentations, you will run into thousands of presentations you'll have to give in your career, and mostly its important to do them well.

Like many things, practice makes perfect. I see you have already done some courses, so you know about breathing, standing, not fiddling with pens and so? Practice your presentation with your mates and then with your colleagues. It's a good way of getting the material fixed in your head, and may even advance the project. Have a friend standing at the back to signal thumbs up, speak slower, 5 more minutes, etc.

@Kevin What I was going for is that if this is a serious medical issue, it is handled differently than just stage fright. The first one, would be handled with some consideration. The later one, would be handled with "Don't be a wuss and just do it!".

@IsmaelMiguel Serious medical issue might mean he has to be let go though. Just like you can't ask a blind person to drive, you can't have a software engineer with crippling anxiety.

@IsmaelMiguel most employers would rightly not hire a person with such a medical issue. In fact hiding it might be illegal depending on your country.

@Kathy: Psychologywise, there is a huge difference between talking to a couple students of rather targetted specialist interest, and a huge crowd of mixed audience of whom 80% you've never seen and who'd prefer "listen" to a bunch of sales-diagrams and how awesome everything is.

@IsmaelMiguel: I am not sure if this is really a "medical" issue. People are afraid of very different stuff. Most people, for example, would get dead nervous driving 210 mph in an IndyCar and 3 inches off the the wall. Do these people have a medical issue? To me, driving 3 in off the wall on an Autobahn just means I got the cornering right. Yes, it can normally be fixed by practice, but it being medical, I disagree.

@Kevin: Communication, in my book, does not mean to have to talk to a huge crowd of people that are basically not interested in your stuff. Personally, I have been attested to be a great technical writer, my presentations seem to be good, but seriously, presentations make me nervous, and I would never require presentation skills for our breed. Writing skills are important to us, but not crowd-grunting. I prefer to have engineers which are great 99% of time, the 1% wasted in presentations is not important to the company, and did I knew it makes her/him nervous, she/he did not have to present.

@Magisch in the US, it would be illegal to let someone go because of a medical issue, at least with the given circumstances.

@phresnel There's a huge difference between being uncomfortable (normal, healthy anxiety, such as driving 210 mph), and the type of anxiety I'm facing. This is genuinely outside the scope of the question though, as I'm not asking for advice on how to deal with this type of anxiety. I'm asking specifically about how to get out public speaking to larger crowds, without the context of any possibility of medical conditions.

@silencedmessage letting someone go for no reason isn't though, in most of the US. Letting someone go for failing to perform (at giving speeches) isn't either.

@Magisch Yes, employment at will, however, the ADA trumps that. This is an entirely different discussion though, as that would turn into a legal discussion, and would also greatly depend on how much information was disclosed to the employer, when, and if any "reasonable" accommodations were requested. In regards to your first comment, communication is a required part of the job. There is a huge difference between communicating effectively and giving a presentation. Comparing this to hiring a blind person to drive a car is naive and demeaning.

@silencedmessage ofcourse I am not aware of the severity of your disability. But if public speaking really is debilitating and permanently difficult for you you aren't exactly employable as a coder or software engineer. If its not, you can work on the issue. Not having to do presentations is probably a luxury you'll never see in those career paths.

@Magisch we can agree to disagree on that. I respect your opinion, however, even though I am at a junior level, this is not my first job, and it is the first time I've been put in this situation. If you're in a management position and feel that your programmers ability to give a presentation to a large group is equally important to their ability to program as part of a team, then I question your ability to manage.

@silencedmessage that depends. Software engineers are higher on the payroll and more is expected of them then of simple coders (often jokingly called "code monkeys") and as such it is expected of them to be able to have certain managerial abilities (delegating tasks, organizing, working with PM, presenting things, etc).

@Magisch I can agree with that, however, I believe it is in the context of a team, not in the context of delivering presentations to a large group, such as the entire company.

@silencedmessage Maybe not the entire company, but you should expect in every job you get as software engineer to have to present to your team, executives, your manager(s) and customers.

@Magisch Yes! 100% I think our disconnect is that I am referring to large presentations (ergo, company wide), and not smaller audiences such as my team, or a small group.

@phresnel Of course there's a difference between talking to a small group of co-workers and a large group of people who have a say in your career. As a software developer I regularly have to do both, and not being able to do both, whether by choice or because of an untreated medical condition, will affect someone's software career.