3 ms·

LinkedIn networking when you're an introvert

14 points by he11ow 7y ago

he11ow 7y ago
As a general personal observation, tech folks seem to be more comfortable listing skills than talking about the their professional value-add. I thought this was true even twenty years ago when there was a lot less of the self-promotion. You can definitely see this in the hiring threads. I guess partly it's because they can - you can list languages and frameworks, where other professions might not have something so clear-cut. But equally, it makes it very hard to distinguish between any number of people who list, say javascript, React, Vue etc. etc. as skills. So I think it's a proper skill, talking about what you do and what you know, and targeting that to people for whom this adds value (and can therefore generate new career opportunities). For sure I know it had taken me a long time to learn, and in the back of my mind I always have that version of me who didn't know how to do this.
- nikofeyn 7y ago
  that's good advice. i list both because they're related. i have a certainly philosophy and thus tend to gravitate to certain tools because they support that philosophy. it seems to have been a good one-two punch. also, putting things like this on your resume, e.g., philosophy, inspirations, interests, personality types, etc., seems to work out well as a sort of implicit filter. people who value those things and the things you value will notice them. those who don't are probably people you won't be happy working for.
nikofeyn 7y ago
why does the title mention introvert? the article doesn't mention introversion at all, and introversion is not equivalent to shyness.
- he11ow 7y ago
  Fair point, I was deliberating between the two: I think shyness is the manifestation of introversion in this particular case. Meaning that, if you're in a room full of people, the introvert would hate the idea of networking whereas the shy person may not necessarily hate the idea, just struggle to act. With both you'll see a pattern of apprehension - the manifestation is the same. The point is that building solid professional networks is hard for most people, because it's an awkward social setting. It's the built-in awkwardness that manifests shyness. That's why the emphasis throughout is a structured way to remove the awkwardness, by turning it into something more of a repeatable process.

14 points by he11ow 7y ago

As a general personal observation, tech folks seem to be more comfortable listing skills than talking about the their professional value-add. I thought this was true even twenty years ago when there was a lot less of the self-promotion. You can definitely see this in the hiring threads. I guess partly it's because they can - you can list languages and frameworks, where other professions might not have something so clear-cut. But equally, it makes it very hard to distinguish between any number of people who list, say javascript, React, Vue etc. etc. as skills. So I think it's a proper skill, talking about what you do and what you know, and targeting that to people for whom this adds value (and can therefore generate new career opportunities). For sure I know it had taken me a long time to learn, and in the back of my mind I always have that version of me who didn't know how to do this.

nikofeyn 7y ago
that's good advice. i list both because they're related. i have a certainly philosophy and thus tend to gravitate to certain tools because they support that philosophy. it seems to have been a good one-two punch. also, putting things like this on your resume, e.g., philosophy, inspirations, interests, personality types, etc., seems to work out well as a sort of implicit filter. people who value those things and the things you value will notice them. those who don't are probably people you won't be happy working for.

nikofeyn 7y ago

why does the title mention introvert? the article doesn't mention introversion at all, and introversion is not equivalent to shyness.

he11ow 7y ago
Fair point, I was deliberating between the two: I think shyness is the manifestation of introversion in this particular case. Meaning that, if you're in a room full of people, the introvert would hate the idea of networking whereas the shy person may not necessarily hate the idea, just struggle to act. With both you'll see a pattern of apprehension - the manifestation is the same. The point is that building solid professional networks is hard for most people, because it's an awkward social setting. It's the built-in awkwardness that manifests shyness. That's why the emphasis throughout is a structured way to remove the awkwardness, by turning it into something more of a repeatable process.