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Good News for Young Strivers: Networking Is Overrated

nytimes.com

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Re: Good News for Young Strivers: Networking Is Overrated

#31

Post by mattlondon »

neerkumar wrote: post #3

Horrible 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.

Sorry to nit-pick but perhaps try

- "them" instead of "her"

- "they" instead of "she"

Much more gender-neutral this way - no implications (intentional or non-intentional) about someone needing help because they are female.

Re: Good News for Young Strivers: Networking Is Overrated

#32

Post by projectramo »

neerkumar wrote: post #17
projectramo wrote: post #6

Some 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…

Will they help you for sure? Or only if they know you are good at what you do?

Re: Good News for Young Strivers: Networking Is Overrated

#34

Post by Pulcinella »

anotherbrownguy wrote: post #26

The article gives example of Justin Bieber and Adele. For those two examples, there are hundreds who got where they are just because they knew someone important. Miley Cyrus, Jaden Smith, Charlie Sheen, Ben Stiller, Angelina Jolie, Paris Hilton. Actors/singers make very poor examples for this given that most of them mostly get to where they are by networking more than anything else. Lets say there was an absolute mas…

I don't even know why the article would consider Bieber as a of case not networking. The article itself states that his career took off when he signed with Usher.

Re: Good News for Young Strivers: Networking Is Overrated

#35

Post by loco5niner »

mattlondon wrote: post #31
neerkumar wrote: post #3

Horrible 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.

Sorry to nit-pick but perhaps try - "them" instead of "her" - "they" instead of "she" Much more gender-neutral this way - no implications (intentional or non-intentional) about someone needing help because they are female.

An honest attempt to be politically sensitive (say 'she' instead of 'he' sometimes) gets put down for not going far enough. Not helping the cause here.

Re: Good News for Young Strivers: Networking Is Overrated

#36

Post by ghaff »

mjw1007 wrote: post #7
Jun8 wrote: post #2

After 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…

I agree: the article may well be right that a cold-calling style of 'networking' doesn't do much, but it doesn't seem to have anything to suggest that the good oldfashioned "having the right parents" kind is no good.

I think that's about right. I periodically get something along the lines of "I'm one of the 50,000 people who went to one of the same schools you did and I'm interested in a job at your company." I might exchange some info but I'm certainly not going to bat for someone I have a very peripheral connection with.

On the other hand, every job I've gotten since school has been very directly through someone I had worked with in some manner and knew well. In none of the cases did I go through a standard application process.

Re: Good News for Young Strivers: Networking Is Overrated

#37

Post by jondubois »

If anything, this article only highlights the fact that it's very difficult to get the attention of investors. It demonstrates how important networking has become but I do understand the point about 'empty connections' - I've tried the cold approach in the past.

What it says basically is that you have to be really talented first and have done a lot of work... After that all you can do is wait and hope that you get lucky; try to network slowly but don't try too hard to the point of scaring away investors.

In my case, I started an open source project, it's somewhat popular within its niche - To most people it means nothing at all but on a few occasions I met people who knew about my project and when I told them about my work their eyes lit up and they treated me quite positively (E.g. they try to hire me).

Re: Good News for Young Strivers: Networking Is Overrated

#38

Post by bitL »

afarrell wrote: post #27
bitL wrote: post #11

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, b…

Its not about what you know. Its not about who you know either. Its about whom you can trust to solve problems and decide wisely -- It always has been and until there is a clearly rational way to evaluate trustworthiness to do an ambiguous job, it always will be.

It's always about who shares your own biases or persuades you his simulation of what you expect is adequate to fool you a'la Faceless Man.

Re: Good News for Young Strivers: Networking Is Overrated

#39

Post by SkyMarshal »

Shotgun networking, where you go to meetups just to get as much facetime and intro's as possible but with no real connection to people, is overrated.

But thoughtfully targeted networking where you're able to identify a small number of people who have something of unique value to you, and then bring something of similar value to them, resulting in a potential mutually high-value collaboration, is not overrated.

Re: Good News for Young Strivers: Networking Is Overrated

#40

Post by jknoepfler »

The author conflates networking with shameless self-shilling. This makes for a pretty thin strawman.

Networking, in the sense of maintaining strong professional relationships and having a presence at professional events, creates a strong passive upwards pressure for someone who is talented. If you "spring to mind" as someone I can trust to "do X," or if you spring into the mind of the person I task with finding someone to "do X," then you are that much more likely to be offered the opportunity to "do X".

You may find the same kinds of "do X" opportunities through other means, but as X becomes increasingly specialized and requires more trust, networking becomes more and more important. For example, I can mass broadcast an ad for entry-level Java developers. I cannot do that to find a systems architect to design a high uptime, low latency, massive throughout web service. I'm likely to go to a short list for the latter and avoid interviews completely, if at all possible.

Obviously accomplishments are important. Accomplishment one of the foundations of a strong professional identity. Without evidence of your abilities, networking won't put you on anyone's short list. That's a catch-22, and you also need luck and the ability to inspire someone to take a chance on you to get your foot in the door. Both of those are improved dramatically by networking.

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