I am talking about the situation where, for example, EA-1 will talk to EA-2 (for 30 minutes or so) with no goal other than “being able” to ask EA-2 for help in the future.
Nobody is acknowledging the cost here, to the entire community, of having lots of people going around doing this kind of networking and/or suggesting that others do it.
What I suggest instead: If you are an EA-1 and want help from an EA-2, directly ask the EA-2 for the specific help you need. If for some reason this kind of outreach didn’t work for you—I invite you to message me and maybe I can help with phrasing or so.
The example I hear the most: “In order to get a job, I’ve got to network with people”. I am so against this. In almost all situations, it’s better for everyone if you just apply (!). Usually the person doing the networking hates networking anyway. And usually the person working at the org would prefer that not all candidates have a 30 minute off topic conversation with them before applying.
I don’t know how to rant about this, this is the best I have.
Hopefully your takeaway will be “I read something messy in shortform that didn’t make sense, but it had a point that networking has downsides and that there might be better alternatives”
As I see it, the purpose of networking is to tell someone, “Hey, you seem cool. It looks like we share a non-zero amount of goals / values. No promises, but maybe I’ll find out about a cool opportunity later that I’ll share with you—although I don’t have one at the moment.”
Supposedly, you’re more likely to get introduced to a career opportunity by a casual acquaintance—maybe someone you had a college class with and are now friends with on LinkedIn—than a close friend. (Although of course this is weighting all of your acquaintances against just a handful of friends, but the implication is still that more acquaintances = more opportunities.)
I’m talking about, for example, a student who is actively networking with senior people, hoping that one of the senior people will offer the student a job or something, without applying to these jobs. Do you agree this situation is negative?
Against “networking for the sake of networking”
I am talking about the situation where, for example, EA-1 will talk to EA-2 (for 30 minutes or so) with no goal other than “being able” to ask EA-2 for help in the future.
Nobody is acknowledging the cost here, to the entire community, of having lots of people going around doing this kind of networking and/or suggesting that others do it.
What I suggest instead: If you are an EA-1 and want help from an EA-2, directly ask the EA-2 for the specific help you need. If for some reason this kind of outreach didn’t work for you—I invite you to message me and maybe I can help with phrasing or so.
The example I hear the most: “In order to get a job, I’ve got to network with people”. I am so against this. In almost all situations, it’s better for everyone if you just apply (!). Usually the person doing the networking hates networking anyway. And usually the person working at the org would prefer that not all candidates have a 30 minute off topic conversation with them before applying.
I don’t know how to rant about this, this is the best I have.
Hopefully your takeaway will be “I read something messy in shortform that didn’t make sense, but it had a point that networking has downsides and that there might be better alternatives”
+1 karma but disagree.
As I see it, the purpose of networking is to tell someone, “Hey, you seem cool. It looks like we share a non-zero amount of goals / values. No promises, but maybe I’ll find out about a cool opportunity later that I’ll share with you—although I don’t have one at the moment.”
Supposedly, you’re more likely to get introduced to a career opportunity by a casual acquaintance—maybe someone you had a college class with and are now friends with on LinkedIn—than a close friend. (Although of course this is weighting all of your acquaintances against just a handful of friends, but the implication is still that more acquaintances = more opportunities.)
Making sure we’re on the same page:
I’m talking about, for example, a student who is actively networking with senior people, hoping that one of the senior people will offer the student a job or something, without applying to these jobs. Do you agree this situation is negative?