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Comment by bluefirebrand | Hacker News Reader

This is one of the hardest things for me to grapple with in my career. I hate that there is realistically a hard ceiling to how successful I can be because I don't have strong network effects working for me.

I'm from a pretty small town, low income family. Edit/ I also did my Computer Science degree at a small university that was a community college when I started my degree. /Edit. Making my way in the world often feels like being a small fish in a vast ocean. People from wealthier families, or who have built-in connections from growing up in the big cities or going to prestigious universities don't really understand what an advantage their networks are.

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I have some similarities in background as you and I _hated_ networking but I've been very happy with my career trajectory. You need to make sure you filter out highly political jobs during your job searches, do the best work you can, and maintain touch with the good people you've worked with. For the latter I email/text folks I want to work with again every quarter (using a calendar reminder to prompt me) just to keep the connection warm. For the first one, asking questions like "How do key decisions get made at this company?" or "Can you tell me about the last project that didn't go as planned, what happened afterwards?" will give you reasonably strong signal.

> You need to make sure you filter out highly political jobs during your job searches

I think this has been a big source of my grief so far. I keep winding up in heavily political companies.

Thank you for the advice. Networking is definitely something I intend to take more seriously. It's become much more clear to me how important it is as my career progresses.

Almost all companies are heavily political. It's inevitable given human nature in hierarchies.

Understanding social hierarchy is a skill that can be learned and you can raise your position in that hierarchy using that skill.

When people say "I'm not political" they're really just confessing to low social status and acumen. I personally wish things were different, but as you note they're not. So one may as well accept reality and play the game as best as one can. One can have a very successful career as a follower if one recognizes the traits of good leaders and the traits that good leaders are looking for.

> When people say "I'm not political" they're really just confessing to low social status and acumen.

Right. Politics is a tool often used to keep people with low social status where they are.

Maybe. They could be fearing being disliked, estranged, or an argument for having the "wrong" beliefs. (Politics, religion, computer languages.)

Much like gossip, politics is pack violence and order by other means, and is usable by people who have less physical power but more social influence. If you don't have either physical and social power, then you're dismissed as not a threat and ripe to be stepped-on. Gossip is often a political attack technique to take-down a physically-strong leader.

I would agree that almost all companies are political to some degree, but I wouldn't agree with heavily political. It's a sign of poor leadership if they end up in that state because you can minimize the impact of different goals and incentives, be they personal, professional, or organizational which is what drives basically all of politics.

Job-hop friend. Job-hop.

I was in a similar situation to you and through work I've developed a pretty good network of former colleagues. After about 10 years, it my network ended up stretching so far that I had contacts at basically every major company my city.

I mean, very few of my former colleagues ended up in the upper echelons of businesses, but almost all of them are in senior IC roles for which a recommendation carries a lot of weight, especially for an opening on their own team.

It takes time. Some people have a jumpstart, it is true, but there are ways for us who didn't, to build a network of trust.

Be good at what you do, genuinely help people, without expecting or calculating whether it'll be beneficial to you, stay close with those who help you, and who you helped.

Eventually, you'll find your way into a good cluster. Some start in the middle of it, we started in the periphery. Accrue good faith and trust and it will only keep growing. It's non linear. Something something preferential attachment.

Don't get me wrong, I do quite well compared to a lot of people. I'm not unhappy with my career. I am just not great at networking.

I have also had bad luck with jobs so far. Everywhere I go, people above me seem more inclined to try and keep me where I am than help me improve and grow. I always have very good relationships with my teammates though, so I know I'm doing something right.

I feel ya, people are hard, and bosses really influence how we experiences work. Advocating for oneself IS hard, more so when we are relatively comfortable.

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