High Excitement-Seeking is the Extraversion facet that makes novelty, stimulation, and a certain amount of risk feel energizing instead of stressful. At work, it's the colleague who volunteers first for the volatile client or the highest-stakes pitch on the table — not despite the uncertainty, but partly because of it. The real question isn't whether this trait is good to have. It's whether your team matches people to pressure on purpose, instead of by accident.
- Excitement-Seeking is a distinct Extraversion facet: craving novelty, stimulation, and risk, separate from Warmth, Assertiveness, or optimism.
- A volatile situation energizes a high-Excitement-Seeking colleague and drains a steadier one — neither reaction is wrong.
- The risk runs both ways: an under-stimulated high scorer disengages from steady work; a low scorer burns out faster under sustained volatility.
- Naming who actually wants the unstable project, not just who's available, prevents both mismatches.
- No position on this facet is better for work generally — each end has its own strength and failure mode.
What does high Excitement-Seeking look like at work?
Excitement-Seeking is the desire for novelty, stimulation, and a measured amount of risk. At work, this is the person drawn to the volatile market or the project nobody else wants, precisely because of how unpredictable it is. A colleague high in this facet often thrives under pressure, not from carelessness about the outcome, but because unpredictability itself holds their attention in a way routine work doesn't.
A colleague lower in this facet finds genuine satisfaction in steady, predictable work and doesn't need the adrenaline to stay engaged. Neither end is more "extraverted" overall — Excitement-Seeking is one of six Extraversion facets, alongside Warmth, Gregariousness, Assertiveness, Activity, and Positive Emotions, and two people can share the same overall score while sitting at opposite ends of this one.
How is this different from Adventurousness or just being an optimist?
Adventurousness is an Openness facet: willingness to try an untested approach without knowing the outcome. Excitement-Seeking is an Extraversion facet, and it's less about trying something new and more about craving the stimulation of risk itself — a colleague can be high in Adventurousness and calm about it, or high in Excitement-Seeking while reaching for the loudest version of a familiar task. Positive Emotions, another Extraversion facet, is simply a baseline tendency toward joy, independent of whether the situation is volatile.
Why does the same unstable project energize one person and drain another?
Call it a colleague's Volatility Appetite: how much genuine energy a person draws from an unstable, high-stakes situation, independent of how skilled they are at handling it. Volatility Appetite isn't competence. A capable colleague with a low Volatility Appetite can still run a turnaround project well — it will just cost them more, and they'll recover more slowly. A colleague with a high Volatility Appetite isn't necessarily the most qualified person in the room; they're the one for whom the instability itself is fuel rather than friction.
Teams routinely staff volatile work by default: whoever's available, or whoever raises a hand fastest. A high-Excitement-Seeking colleague raises their hand fastest almost every time, which can mean a quieter, equally qualified colleague never gets asked. At the higher end, the risk is chasing the exciting path because it's exciting, not because it's the right call. At the lower end, the risk is absorbing sustained volatility with no recovery — executing a crisis competently while quietly burning out, since the stimulation that recharges a higher scorer is simply depleting them. Christin Camacho's book Why You Need Neurotic People on Your Team frames this as a matter of configuration, not character: the assignment, not the person, was wrong.
How do you staff high-stakes work without guessing?
Before the next volatile project, ask out loud instead of defaulting to availability: "Who finds this uncertainty energizing, versus who'd execute it well but at real cost?" Give your highest-Excitement-Seeking colleague a standing outlet, like a rotating "wildcard" project, so the craving for risk has a legitimate place to go. Protect your lowest-Excitement-Seeking colleagues from indefinite volatility: if they're carrying a crisis well, check the cost directly and build in a known return to steadier ground.
Related Reading
See Assertiveness at Work: Why the Loudest Voice in a Meeting Isn't the Best Idea, Positive Emotions at Work: Why Your Most Optimistic Colleague Might Be the Last to Hear Bad News, and Adventurousness at Work, the Openness facet most often confused with Excitement-Seeking.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Excitement-Seeking the same as being reckless? No. It describes what a person finds stimulating, not how carefully they act once they're in a risky situation. A high-Excitement-Seeking colleague can be just as careful with details as anyone else.
Can Excitement-Seeking change, or is it fixed? It's stable, not fixed. Your traits are your default, not your destiny — where you start and drift back to under pressure, not a ceiling on what you build around it. Where someone stands on a trait relative to others grows steadily more consistent through adulthood, leveling off around ages 50–70; consistency isn't the same as permanence.
Is a high- or low-scoring colleague better for high-pressure work? Neither, categorically. A high scorer brings energy that sustains through volatility but can chase intensity for its own sake. A low scorer brings steady execution but can burn out quietly under prolonged uncertainty.
How is this different from Gregariousness? Gregariousness is about enjoying the company of others, especially in larger groups. Excitement-Seeking is about craving stimulation and risk, which shows up just as easily in solitary high-stakes work as in a crowd.
Christin Camacho is the author of Why You Need Neurotic People on Your Team and the founder of Big 5 at Work. Curious where you land on Excitement-Seeking? Take the free assessment at big5atwork.com/quiz.
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