I've recently returned to professional programming after working in another profession for 10 years. My former profession (let's call it "medical transcription" for the sake of my anonymity) is a dying profession, and is being replaced by a combination of technology and global outsourcing.
Now, with relatively few exceptions, the only people who can actually make a good living at medical transcription are the master networkers and salespeople. And even though they present themselves as being "successful" at making a good living at medical transcription, what they really are making money doing is selling courses and books to people who want to get into the (dying) profession. Of course, they never mention to those people that it's increasingly difficult to make a decent living at medical transcription.
This isn't the first time I've watched social butterfly networkers and salespeople take advantage of people and engage in ethically dubious conduct, so I have a bad taste in my mouth regarding networking. I'm also an introvert, so I'm naturally very bad at networking.
That said, I also realize that I could be doing much better financially and professionally if I had a strong network of friends and colleagues, particularly as I'm starting at a new profession in my 40s.
It's frustrating.
EDIT: Changed a few sentences to make it clearer that the dying profession I'm referring to isn't programming.
I have not had the same experience as you have. Maybe it depends on the city? In the Bay Area hardcore engineering is still in enormous demand. I had expected automation and the cloud to reduce the demand for engineers, but it’s actually increased the demand for engineers familiar with cloud technologies.
I was unclear. The profession I'm talking about is not related to engineering. However, I don't want to be more specific because the profession in question is fairly unusual and I don't wish to identify myself.
Think of how much society is set back because people who have no interest or ability with "networking" aren't given the opportunities that they should have had. Instead, we end up with the most socially aggressive / self promoting running practically everything (badly).
If you call it 'getting out there and speaking to people, listening to what their problems, hopes, opinions are, and sharing the same yourself and making a connection to see if you can mutually help each other' then it suddenly sounds like a better thing, doesn't it?
Networking isn't talking to people about important things. It's talking to people with the specific goal of moving your career forward. That's what makes chronic networkers insufferable, and those people give networking a bad rap.
It isn’t. Someone I know (who hired me at one of my jobs) is an expert with people. He’s had many Successful exits and somehow always has a team that loves to work for him that’s great at their job. Knowing him has led to me discovering way more teams I could work with.
It’s great and very helpful to people like me - who are less effective at building that network of people. I think it’s great these people exist. They’ve been a multiplier on what I can do.
So the degree of success of your career may be entirely due to your luck in meeting a person like that. It doesn't seem very efficient, from the point of view of getting the right people into the right positions.
It's not a misunderstanding, I'm asking if that's the best way to achieve optimal results. How many social problems are caused by people not being offered opportunities for spurious reasons?
It works both ways. Society would be better off if some of the people who have no interest in networking accepted it as a necessary evil and learned how to do it.
That approach requires learning to make friends in the first place. I don't naturally tend to talk to people in that mode. I find most "social" spaces disorienting and exhausting to be in for more than a few minutes; when I do convince myself to go to a party or other social gathering, I tend to get conversation-starters along the lines of "are you okay?". The very few actual friends I've had in my life have mostly been others who are socially awkward, and none of those relationships are still active because either my family moved or theirs did.
That is to say: I think there's a lot more variation in this space than most people are prepared to acknowledge.
>Think of how much society is set back because people who have no interest or ability with "networking" aren't given the opportunities that they should have had.
Your frustration is likely borne out of the assumption that people deserve all those opportunities.
Maybe I've been going to the wrong events, but I've never gone to a networking event where I made a contact with whom I ever had contact for a third time. Extremely rarely would I have contact for a second time. Well... no, sometimes I'd see them at additional networking events.
I've stopped going to networking events to network. Usually, I won't go if the sole focus is networking. If there's another purpose that's the primary purpose, I might go, depending on what that is.
Edison, EINSTEIN, and Musk?? You think that "general relativity project" would never have gotten off the ground without some solid networking skills by Al? Or developing quantum theory from a Swiss patent office? Maybe go with Edison Jobs and Musk instead.
Actually Einstein was great at reaching out to others in the field and discussing ideas with them. He also voraciously applied to various programs to find great places to work.
He’s no Edison in terms of networking, but it is interesting that even a cononical super-nerd creating theories in their basement (or patent-office) still gets value out of it.
This. The entire progress of science happened because illuminaries and savants started sharing their discoveries and discussing them in groups. There was an enormous amount of individual work involved as well, of course, which was the main element, but without the networking part to vet and discuss the result science would really not have happened.
I'm one of those people who hug their glass of water, finds a cozy (i.e. devoid of people) corner, and pretends something is very important in their phone. The few contacts I had from those events were never helpful, and I'm not a kind of person to keep an Excel and reach out to people on schedule pretending I care. (I understand there are people who do care, I'm just not this type.)
I found the best way for me to meet new people is... smoking a pipe. It's a greatly enjoyable hobby by itself, and it always draws people at least to comment on the smell or ask me something like "hey, where do you get this stuff?" (I'm in China and naked tobacco is illegal here... go figure). Once the ice is broken, I feel much better about having a conversation. It also helps that most people who are interested in the pipe are somewhat relatable.
I've found the biggest issue for me to be finding places to network. I'm currently an educator (want to shift careers) and don't live in a city, which means my options are limited. I love going out and meeting new people and learning about them, though, so I wish I could find a place to do this.
'Keep it short and sweet' or 'minimize friction' if I were to summarize it.
I don't know that there are excellent ideas with solid execution that go to the graveyard, because nerds just couldn't network their way to the top however.
There has never been a better time for intelligent, hard working people to see their ideas come to fruition. There is all sorts of infrastructure in place to help you - schools, loans, accelerator programs like Y Combinator, the internet!
While I don't want to minimize the value of having social skills for your relationships with your loved ones if nothing else - it is important to know who are and bet on your strengths, there's plenty of infrastructure to fill in the gaps.
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Now, with relatively few exceptions, the only people who can actually make a good living at medical transcription are the master networkers and salespeople. And even though they present themselves as being "successful" at making a good living at medical transcription, what they really are making money doing is selling courses and books to people who want to get into the (dying) profession. Of course, they never mention to those people that it's increasingly difficult to make a decent living at medical transcription.
This isn't the first time I've watched social butterfly networkers and salespeople take advantage of people and engage in ethically dubious conduct, so I have a bad taste in my mouth regarding networking. I'm also an introvert, so I'm naturally very bad at networking.
That said, I also realize that I could be doing much better financially and professionally if I had a strong network of friends and colleagues, particularly as I'm starting at a new profession in my 40s.
It's frustrating.
EDIT: Changed a few sentences to make it clearer that the dying profession I'm referring to isn't programming.
If you call it 'getting out there and speaking to people, listening to what their problems, hopes, opinions are, and sharing the same yourself and making a connection to see if you can mutually help each other' then it suddenly sounds like a better thing, doesn't it?
It’s great and very helpful to people like me - who are less effective at building that network of people. I think it’s great these people exist. They’ve been a multiplier on what I can do.
Nobody is "given" these opportunities by some Opportunity Santa. Those who go out and search for opportunities find, create and take them.
That is to say: I think there's a lot more variation in this space than most people are prepared to acknowledge.
Your frustration is likely borne out of the assumption that people deserve all those opportunities.
I've stopped going to networking events to network. Usually, I won't go if the sole focus is networking. If there's another purpose that's the primary purpose, I might go, depending on what that is.
He’s no Edison in terms of networking, but it is interesting that even a cononical super-nerd creating theories in their basement (or patent-office) still gets value out of it.
I found the best way for me to meet new people is... smoking a pipe. It's a greatly enjoyable hobby by itself, and it always draws people at least to comment on the smell or ask me something like "hey, where do you get this stuff?" (I'm in China and naked tobacco is illegal here... go figure). Once the ice is broken, I feel much better about having a conversation. It also helps that most people who are interested in the pipe are somewhat relatable.
'Keep it short and sweet' or 'minimize friction' if I were to summarize it.
I don't know that there are excellent ideas with solid execution that go to the graveyard, because nerds just couldn't network their way to the top however.
There has never been a better time for intelligent, hard working people to see their ideas come to fruition. There is all sorts of infrastructure in place to help you - schools, loans, accelerator programs like Y Combinator, the internet!
While I don't want to minimize the value of having social skills for your relationships with your loved ones if nothing else - it is important to know who are and bet on your strengths, there's plenty of infrastructure to fill in the gaps.