

Why Networking Sucks for Introverts (and one way I'm trying to fix it for us) - nathanh
http://blog.nahurst.com/why-networking-sucks-for-introverts-and-one-w

======
boredguy8
The "real hack" here is organizing the event in the first place. I can attest
as an "also introvert" that I've gotten a lot of mileage out of, say, hosting
a conference rather than trying to attend them. I have guesses as to why this
is (control of the environment, the role as gatekeeper, having talked with
folks ahead of time), but I'd suggest trying something similar if you're an
introvert and you need to network.

~~~
philk
It's also because as the host you have both a large built-in boost to your
social status and a reason to talk to anyone.

------
Poleris
I wonder how much of what he ascribes to the extroversion versus introversion
(EvI) struggle should actually be ascribed to the sensing versus intuition
(SvN) conflict. (See Myers-Briggs for descriptions of these dichotomies.)

Software engineers have also been shown to be very high on the N scale and
have classically been placed in the NT temperament. (For anecdotal evidence,
see past MBTI surveys on Hacker News and Reddit.)

Main point: communication style discrepancies, by Myers-Briggs definition,
should be attributed to SvN, not EvI.

------
jacoblyles
Voluntary forced socialization is usually fun and exciting, but currently it's
only used in a few industries (like dating). There is a lot of possibility in
hacking social forces.

------
Concours
I've never seen being an introvert as a problem, and still don't see it as
such. Well I'm an introvert, and from the very extreme case, I mean my own
wife says I'm introvert, but I actually don't have problems connecting with
peoples, I don't just like it, you just get boring questions from peoples
talking about things you don't care about, so the site is a good Idea, but I'm
not sure if that's a solution to introverts problems but, it's definetely a
very good Idea for meeting employer and professionals, you can get that much
noise in 5 minutes, great.

------
tankman
If you only permit 20 candidates and 20 jobs, some of the attending candidates
will be only be qualified to apply for a fraction of the jobs - perhaps even
just one or two.

For example, if a Django front-end expert shows up and only 1 company is
looking for a Django front-end expert, then that candidate only gets 1
interview and goes home.

Since most candidates have particular specializations that make them more or
less qualified for particular jobs, it seems unlikely that every candidate
will be applying for every job. I actually wish hiring companies cared less
about skill specializations than they do but that's just how it is - the
Django specialist is often not going to be taken seriously for the Websphere
position even if he lies awake most nights dreaming about J2EE (fortunately,
this particular example is quite rare).

So, if each attending candidate only qualifies for a single job, then there is
a possibility that the entire event will be over in 5 minutes. As a candidate
I would be fine with that, since it's one extra interview under my belt and -
since I didn't pay to attend - I don't lose anything. As the host, you will go
home with $6,000 - minus expenses for the space, unless you hooked up a free
space through a personal connection, in which case you came out with a nice
profit. However, from the perspective of the hiring company, everyone may not
be so happy about the return on their time and money.

~~~
nathanh
That is definitely a possibility. We're coping with it for this first event by
targeting companies that aren't cherry picking skill sets; they're willing to
give someone time to learn as long as it's a smart developer who gets things
done.

For future events, we'll try to break things out more and specialize, not only
by programming language, but we'll start to have events for designers, systems
administrators, etc.

------
marshallp
How relevant should networking and extr-vs-introversion be in the age of
internet. Online forums create more value (more variety, more open critique)
than face to face converstions. I'd bet extroversion and physical networking
increasingly become liabilities in business. Those who communicate onlne and
just get work done should be doing better than 'movers and shakers'.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
Somehow I don't think you'll get much traction with that idea. You're moving
against tens of thousands of years of human social interaction that means face
to face is how we want to be.

Online forums have their place and they are efficient, but the sure don't
create what most people think of as more value.

~~~
marshallp
It might be human imperative to meet face to face, but I'd argue that those
who can control the urge or are naturally inclined not to seek it will do
better financially.

To give an example, Warren Buffet is an introvert and spends most of his day
alone working, and he beat all his competition.

Even very successful actors such Johnny Depp, Harrison Ford, Anthony Hopkins,
Clint Eastwood, are introverts.

Industries where extroverts rule also happen to be industries that create
negative value to society - politics, traditional investment banks, sales.

