Currently a High School Senior, and sent the tuition fee for Riddle. I am terrified.
- Thread starter niceguy810
- Start date
QFT
Richman
JC’s Resident Curmudgeon
Networking >>>>> Plain Competence. It's the real life version of rolling a natural 20 on a charisma check.
I've seen totally, catastrophically incompetent people move ahead networking because "awwww, no, Jacks a good guy".
knot4u
Repeat Offender
I once worked for a place that had a group of supervisors, during the morning break at 9am they'd all gather around the shop foremans aircraft carrier sized toolbox and discuss what was going on as they ate a snack or drank some coffee. It was at that point an intern from some local A/P school showed up, (nice kid, not a dummy, just had zero experience) and because he didn't know anyone on the floor other than the shop foreman he'd hang with them during break. Eventually he started buying donuts and bringing them in for the supervisors a few days a week. At the end of his internship he was hired full-time, he was still very inexperienced but he had a good attitude. I recall going into the supervisors office (they all shared one office with about 5 desks in it) one morning just before Christmas to ask a question and I saw a box with a bunch of bottles of booze in it. It was not uncommon to see a box full of booze, everytime we weighed an airplane we had to empty all of that crap out of it to get an accurate empty weight, normally they'd be stored on a bench, shelf or in a cage next to the airplane. But these bottles in this box were in the supervisors office and they all had bows on them. I asked them if they were planning a party at lunchtime, and added that we we're pretty busy and being drunk at work is frowned upon. Then I was told about how the former intern had figured out each of their favorite liquors (except for one who didn't drink, not because he'd ever had a problem, he was just one of those people that never drank in his whole life, his bottle was Martinellis). I left that company awhile later and eventually ended up going back there as a vendor and that intern was now off of the floor, was wearing khakis and a polo instead of a uniform, and didn't even have a toolbox on the premises. He still didn't have a lot of experience but he's a smooth tongued devil and suddenly everyone on the floor resented him. He was a full-blown lipstick kissass that'd add the tongue if he thought it was beneficial for him. Networking is different than removing any semblance of dignity as a kissass.
Richman
JC’s Resident Curmudgeon
There’s a better than even chance those types of people leave a poop grenade with the pin pulled somewhere. You definitely don’t want to be around when it inevitably goes off.
It's an older meme, sir, but it checks out.
Ahh, college… And the NGPA Winter Warmup which I should be able to make next year!
WacoFan
Bigly
This is a good post. There are different kinds of "Networking".
There is what Knot describes above, which is also called "obsequious ass kissing". This has a limited impact - it might ingratiate you with people higher on the food chain, but it often leads to resentment from everyone else. This is NOT a durable plan.
Competent networking has a much larger blast area. An important key is first, don't be a dick. Second, learn and practice really effective communication. Those two things are 90% of the battle.
My nephews dad is "on the spectrum". Really nice guy but awkward and weird when it comes to many interactions. So my nephew was talking to me last year and was kinda nervous about school. I said it's easy - just be friendly and nice to people and most of the time they will be friendly and nice back. It's really that easy much of the time. My brother in law overheard that and thought I'd said something profound and such. Because spectrum/awkward and weird.
ppragman
No pasa nada.
The Russians have the best word for this that roughly equates to "butt-hole licker" (жопализ) to refer to this sort of behavior, but I recently learned a new insult in Spain to refer to a "toady" or a "stooge." You can call these people mamporreros as well it appears - though there's more of a henchman vibe with that than just an ass kisser - because mamporreros have to get their hands dirty at times whereas a жопализ (zhopaleez) is just a kiss-ass.
In non-rude contexts a "mamporrero" is a horse breeder's assistant who manually "guides" the "club" of the male horse into the mare. I do not know if this holds in Latin American Spanish (curious if any here knows).
Richman
JC’s Resident Curmudgeon
My plumber, really good kid. Took his college school money, invested in trade school, spent a bit working for a plumber in town, worked hard, took the money and bought a good work truck, hung his own shingle, wife works the phone and the invoice.
Kid’s program is dialed tight. Yes sir, no sir, absolutely on time, on target. The guy would be a rock star even without the current miserable state of contractors.
I got referred to him because he was polite, fastidious, fair and punctual. That’s how you network for business.
Skåning
Well-Known Member
They’re less than subtle with the double entendre’s