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Maybe they don't care to network.. maybe these foreign workers would rather work and do well in their field than suck * to get ahead? I'm not saying they can't

• mindcrime 14y ago
  This is an interesting line of discussion, but it's really orthogonal to one's race/gender/ethnicity/etc. Some people (like|accept|are willing to play) the "networking game" and some people aren't. In either case, it's a simple truth that a willingness and ability to play that game usually corresponds with more money, more responsibility, etc. I know it offends the sensibilities of many hackers that something so important should reduce to something so subjective and uncontrollable as human relations, but in the end, we are all salespeople... we're selling ourselves to others, all the time. And choosing not to engage in that is making a choice to do a poor job of selling yourself. It would be nice if the entire world could just perceive our knowledge, wisdom, skills and experience, and just come to us and evaluate us objectively, but it just doesn't work that way. It's not fair, but who ever said life was going to be fair. Whether you're Indian or Caucasian, male or female, Catholic or Atheist, or whatever, learning to network and sell yourself is something you need to do if you want to advance and be successful. Now if you're content with your current position, salary, lifestyle, etc., then don't worry about it.
  • eshvk 14y ago
    > This is an interesting line of discussion, but it's really orthogonal to one's race/gender/ethnicity/etc. Some people (like|accept|are willing to play) the "networking game" and some people aren't. In either case, it's a simple truth that a willingness and ability to play that game usually corresponds with more money, more responsibility, etc. Exactly. Most jobs in companies are not ridiculously hard to do, you don't necessarily need to amazingly brilliant to do that. Hell, I was challenged more in grad. school than I have been in any job after that. On the other hand, I get paid shit tons more. The "real world" has a lot of bullshit to deal with like meetings, chit chatting with your boss and getting ahead. I don't think it is good but on the other hand, you would be particularly foolish if you think that the world is a meritocratic system.
• nthj 14y ago
  > Maybe they don't care to network.. maybe these foreign workers would rather work and do well in their field than suck * to get ahead? Yeah, I'd definitely rather work and do well in my field than play the popularity game. Oh, and I'm a young white reasonably-good-looking male. I've been delivering great software for years. But I didn't get anywhere career-wise until I got over myself, stopped wishing the world worked like a meritocracy, put myself out there, and made friends like crazy. I don't care about the popularity contest, but I play the game anyway, so I can get the work I want. Maybe this game would have been more difficult than it is if I had been a different ethnicity, or from overseas, or whatever. I don't know. I'm not saying it was easy. But just because somebody wants to do good work and magically achieve success for their work alone doesn't mean the world is going to bend the way they want, no matter what their skin color is.
• eshvk 14y ago
  > I'm not saying they can't network, anybody can indeed over come that... but some people, and maybe foreigner workers fall into this category, don't care about the popularity contest.. they're just trying to work There is this perception (especially in tech.) that "networking" or "social skills" is something that jocks and cheerleeders do. It is claimed that this is easy and doable. If it is so easy and doable, why whine about it? This is how the world works, deal with it or start your own damn company.