schmoozers claw and fight their way to the top, assisted by free baseball tickets for the kids going both ways.
In a way it makes sense: You want people working for you that you know already or have been vouched for: it’s a weird kind of frenemy situation: I know your family and they’re lovely (so long as you play ball).
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What color is your parachute, a classic for job hunters, nails it. Everybody’s opposite of what we think. We progress bottom to top when the reality is top to bottom.
#2 is the merit but that #1 is FAR more powerful than the #2.- this is the correct view.
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I followed #1 long ago once and got a Systems Analyst job at $62,500 in 1999 without even an associate’s degree under my belt. I could do it again too. it works. [making myself invaluable as a temp and then making myself less available (cutting my hours from 7.5 down to 4 to take college courses) sped them up a little… because I really DIDN’T care. [I wanted to be a special ed teacher for middle schoolers].
Anyway, whatever my intentions may have been, the system functioned just as the chart says and i took the opportunity. It was a blast.
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Not without strategy it doesn’t though. Lots of talented people languish in positions because they’re not complaining. If you sit there waiting for your ship to come in, you’ll be retired in that position before you know it.
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You gotta know when you’re being used. More than a few would call me “their secret weapon”. Of course it was a fine complement at first and I enjoyed the praise.
One day, i realized what that really means: It means they’re taking all the credit for your work and keeping you a secret.
Fuck that. So I started taking credit whenever someone tried to pull that on me. it works.
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The most intelligent people I’ve seen are usually underemployed / unemployed, debating arcane issues on the internet or in a park during the day, love learning for learning sake.
The people who get ahead in business have to learn the mostly unspoken rules (and each organization is unique in their parameters : you may find a key network comes through a disheveled data analyst who has the ear of higher ups, or through that annoying gossipy lady who never seems to get any work done but seems to know everybody).
But even though each organization is unique in the particulars, you have to find the hidden networks. They’re not always dark and mysterious, meeting in boardrooms in secret but rather haphazard networks that are particular to your placement and needs at the time.
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