Technology used to be a bit more immune to cronyism in the past, now it's epidemic for anything above grunt positions - for grunts grueling interviews are in place, for higher ups it's now totally who knows whom and who does something for whom. I want to throw up every time my organization posts a new job position at a higher level and I get bombarded by managers inquiring if their friend or two can't get in there, bypassing whoever would be deserving the spot by working at a lower level - frankly, I don't understand how those people can look into a mirror...
Good News for Young Strivers: Networking Is Overrated
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Re: Good News for Young Strivers: Networking Is Overrated
#12After giving some examples of very poor networking efforts (if those can even be called that) the author moves on the the banal conclusion that networking is important, too, but you have to have something to say. Nowadays, when I get a chance to mentor younglings my main point is that networking is a HUGE part of success (other important point being not to waste time on a PhD, but that's another topic). As with any e…
Why do you think PhD is a waste of time?
I would say that PHD is not a waste of time only if you plan to stay in academia. If writing papers and chasing grants is your jam, go for it.
If you are looking for one more thing for your CV, don't bother with phd.
Re: Good News for Young Strivers: Networking Is Overrated
#13Horrible article. Networking doesn't mean asking someone for her email address or exchanging business cards. Networking means creating meaningful relationships based on mutual benefits. If you are in a position to help someone, help her. She will then help you back later on when she can. And this is by no means overrated. If anything is underrated.
I completely agree. In my career so far I have had six different jobs. Five of them came from personal connections with people who I had directly worked with before, either professionally or as a student. Two of them didn't even require interviews!
Re: Good News for Young Strivers: Networking Is Overrated
#14Correct, avoid people they will suck your time and energy. Be very selfish with your time, you will never get a nano-second back
Um. I guess it depends on what you are optimizing for?
Re: Good News for Young Strivers: Networking Is Overrated
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do you think PhD is a waste of time?
I would say that PHD is not a waste of time only if you plan to stay in academia. If writing papers and chasing grants is your jam, go for it. If you are looking for one more thing for your CV, don't bother with phd.
...unless you are in Europe, where it's an almost required gate to upper management.
Re: Good News for Young Strivers: Networking Is Overrated
#16What no one likes to admit is that the benefits of networking are highly dependent on your demographic. Young white dude with excellent credentials? Great! There are plenty of other white dudes who will hear you out. Older lesbian Latina from an unknown school? Not so much.
Therefore, if you're more like the Latina and less like the young White dude you should focus on technical ability more and networking less. That being said, everyone should maintain their relationships at a minimum, for no amount of technical excellence can defeat irrelevance.
People will definitely try to shush this blatant reality, but anyone who's not White will definitely tell you for themselves. For what its worth, it's less about being White and more about the fact that all of the incumbents in this particular industry are White. For basketball you could easily replace "young White" with "young Black"
Re: Good News for Young Strivers: Networking Is Overrated
#17Some of the other comments here focus on the poor examples of networking. What about the larger point: that networking is an effect of achievement, not a cause. If the author is correct, even "good" networking is not as effective as making something worth making. (I assume that this "maker" bias is intuitively appealing to the larger HN community.)
Not necessarily. You can do great networking without having built anything.
Say you are a student. Some startup founder starts a business where she targets college students. You like her business. You then reach out to her telling her you are emailing all students in your dept via internal dept email list or FB groups to let them know about her startup.
That's great networking. That person will help you in future for sure. And you haven't really built anything yet.
Re: Good News for Young Strivers: Networking Is Overrated
#18Horrible article. Networking doesn't mean asking someone for her email address or exchanging business cards. Networking means creating meaningful relationships based on mutual benefits. If you are in a position to help someone, help her. She will then help you back later on when she can. And this is by no means overrated. If anything is underrated.
Perhaps. But you should experience some of the "networking" advice that is foisted on the average job-seeker, fresh out of college or otherwise. One reason it is difficult for some people; it reeks of superficiality if not insincerity.
Yeah, there are explicit "networking events," which are generally horrible because there's no subtlety to them.
Then there's tech meetups or conferences, where you and I might nerd out over common problems we've had to solve, and in the process realise that we might enjoy working with the other person.
The thing is, one has to put in the work and put themself out there. Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
Re: Good News for Young Strivers: Networking Is Overrated
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do you think PhD is a waste of time?
I would say that PHD is not a waste of time only if you plan to stay in academia. If writing papers and chasing grants is your jam, go for it. If you are looking for one more thing for your CV, don't bother with phd.
The main reason to do a PhD is for your own personal drive and satisfaction. Unless you value the work for its own sake, it is unlikely to pay off.
Re: Good News for Young Strivers: Networking Is Overrated
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do you think PhD is a waste of time?
I would say that PHD is not a waste of time only if you plan to stay in academia. If writing papers and chasing grants is your jam, go for it. If you are looking for one more thing for your CV, don't bother with phd.
Degree-less person here and vehemently disagree. Maybe across the field in general, but some of the most interesting areas of work have Ph.Ds and/or significant levels of domain experience as gatekeepers.