Unfortunately for you, the stereotype of the introverted programmer who hacks all day and never talks to anyone is a thing of the past. Almost all companies now expect some social skills from their software developers and use teambuilding events to train them.

I think these days you will have better luck finding a unicorn.

I've never seen a job where these things were requisite. Favored and pushed, sure, but if you say "No" then it's a no. @Philipp You can have social skills without trying to be best buddies with everyone on your team.

I agree with @MisterPositive I work in a huge corporation and while I am technically allowed to show up, do my work, and leave, they still look for good cultural fits within the teams so there is still some pressure to fit the culture.

It's funny that everyone seems to have a radically different "take" on things. I have never, ever had a startup like that. (Open offices, hilarious team building bullshit like in the 1970s, etc.) Purely for me it's just totally unheard of. Maybe it really depends on your niche, the fields in question.

Every job I've had (I'm a developer) has required me to actively and constructively participate in a team, none of them (not even slightly implicitly) have required me to see anything of that team outside of hours. Not wanting to socialise is fine at the vast majority of places - as long as you can be a team player at work.

Not a direct answer to your question, but it tends to be hard to get away from open plans in dev jobs these days - have you considered listening to music, noise-cancelling headphones or making a specific request to minimise visual and physical distractions (if that's the problem, you can e.g. ask to sit facing the wall, back to the wall or in the corner or ask for some sort of desk divider in front of you) - possibly do the latter before even signing the contract.

I'd say going to lunch with the team every day may be considered normal, but entirely optional, in a lot of larger companies, and beyond that any socialising outside of work more than once a week would be very rare and even as often as once a week is perhaps somewhat rare. How often are you talking about? What is acceptable? Or do you just want to avoid it entirely? Even if you don't enjoy it, you can perhaps find some level you can live with. Working with teammates, however, is not optional, but any given company may vary in the amount of interaction required.

I'd be fine with working with people (though I'd rather not), but I want to be left alone for lunch. I don't want to go out with them at all after work. Any "croissant Mondays", "pizza Wednesdays" or "beer Fridays" sound like an absolute nightmare.

If you are in the USA then a government developer job is exactly what your looking for. High cubical walls, strict 8 hour days, static technology. No creativity, or social skills required or expected. Boring af, but if that's what your looking for, you'll find it here. I think the cubical next to me is empty, come on over.

@am21 Sounds perfect. Unfortunately I live in the UK, not the US. :(

Companies who's main focus is not software, but that have a software 'department', are more often setup in this way.

Three words : The. Civil. Service. But in practice you absolutely need to develop soft skills (which you're possibly avoiding) and it will pay off big-time if you do IMO. It will make getting from Junior Dev to Senior Dev a lot easier.

Look into traditional finance companies or government jobs and ask about the corporate culture before taking a position

Government jobs are not that different around the globe, see if UK gov is asking for positions...

I can pretend to be social and go along with it, so if necessary then I can cope, but I just dislike it so much that it makes me miserable. Thanks for the tips so far everyone! I realise this question makes me sound like a big complainer!

@R.Que don't worry about it; you don't sound like a complainer. Some people just aren't wired for so much social interaction.

Hi. Welcome the financial services industry.

"I just want a job where I can show up, get my work done, and go home." Yeah, you and hundreds of thousands of wannabe programmers in India, not to mention the rest of the developing world. Just remember who you are competing with for your idea of a "dream job" - and don't forget the median salary for an entry-level software developer in India who doesn't need to interact with a team in the UK is less than £5,000pa. That's not a typo. You want to live on £100 a week in the UK? Go right ahead and follow your dream...

I always wondered about those folks who blow all their time at bars with people they work with. They go to all these team events. Its such a crappy fake atmosphere. Thank God I work in what the OP describes. We may not have video games or activites but we show up, get the work done, and go home - no pressure.

@JonH I hope I can one day find a job like that. At my old job all the people did was go to pubs and bars, expensive restaurants and so on. It was central London mind you so everything is horrifically expensive and I had to travel 2 hours to get there in the first place, so staying till 9pm getting drunk was not my idea of fun. I thought I'd like startup culture but I was wrong. Seems like it's increasingly rare to find a company that values autonomy and professionalism.