Just a node in a network of monkey-shaped puzzle pieces

[flexagon]

Apparently A Feast for Crows is coming out on July 26, ten days after Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It's going to be a good summer for fantasy.

I've been thinking lately about networking. See, networking has always made me uncomfortable--but it used to make me uncomfortable because I thought it kept the best people from getting the best jobs, often rewarding them for the wrong skills (which is not to say I ever thought people skills were evil, just that they shouldn't be rewarded in all circumstances). Now I'm forced to look at it as yet another thing I thought was evil until I suddenly found myself doing it. Oh, the humanity.

What do I think now? I'm still working that out. I know a lot of it comes back (as so much seems to come back, again and again) to the whole monkeysphere thing. Just as we can't reasonably date everyone in the world to find the person who's most compatible, and have to 'settle' for one who's compatible enough and is available, no job ad reaches everyone who's qualified and if it did it would be impossible to interview everyone. And we add to this my apparently indestructable idea that most people want most things to work well, and, like people who are doing a jigsaw puzzle without being able to see the whole thing, will do their best to fit the pieces they see into the gaps they find in the pattern. Of course this is probably just as idealistic as my old thinking... probably some people do try to get people into jobs they aren't qualified for, for reasons of personal gain or basic toadying. But I think, and hope, not most people, and I begin to see how some of it is honest puzzle-solving on the part of sincere people.

I've networked three times now, twice trying to get DSB people into the Frog and once trying to get jg26 into DSB, and I don't feel too evil (in all cases I was thanked--sincerely, it seemed--by the employer for bringing the applicant to their attention). Anyone have thoughts on this?

Comments

[jg26.livejournal.com]

I do find it ironic that you can get a non-people oriented job, with people oriented skills. Its really frustrating that there seems to be no area where people skills don't help. I would have thought that if you were going to go anywhere where a lack of people skills would be null-and-void it would be in computing. I guess I had always felt that those with people skills should go into law, or marketing, or politics... and leave the non-people related jobs to the rest of us. I'm saying this as someone not entirely devoid of people skills... I just want to find a job based on merit and not my abilities to advertise myself. The ideas that I should be selling myself makes me feel kinda dirty (not in a good way).

I'm not sure that this is precisely what you're talking about with networking... but it I've been thinking about it too.

In any case, thanks again! :)

[flexagon]

I used to find it frustrating that people skills help in any situation, until I figured out that they can be learned (and classes for it exist). Then I felt sort of liberated. People too can be hacked! Of course, it would be sort of nice if people weren't so damn predictable in certain ways (smiling does help, etc), but since they are, why not learn to use it?

Again only tangentially related to what you or I was saying before. In your case I was happy to recommend someone to M.S. just to somewhat make up for stealing TBC away from him. :)