Network - 1

Networking / Getting that Job

One thing I was surprised to learn is that networking is a huge, huge part of one’s career. Being from Korea, the concept of `networking’, or `knowing people and contacting them for your benefit’ sounded too corrupt, and I was very reluctant to do it. I mean, they do it in Korea, but they’re mostly under the table and illegal. Also, I’m sort of an antisocial person. However, whether I like it or not, I learned, throughout undergrad, graduate school, and in my career, that networking is incredibly important. 

 

Again, this might just be my experience, so take this with a grain of salt. When I was young, I believed that I just needed to go to a good school, get good grades, and then everything will be sorted out. But that was not really the case. I’m not saying that it’s not important, of course it’s important to have good grades and learn what the school teaches you, but as I found out, there are a lot more things at play.

 

Again, I’m only talking for myself, but what we learn in school doesn’t necessarily directly translate to work. A lot of the things I learned became irrelevant, and some things I did for work was never taught in school. And I think that’s why jobs really look at your internships and what you actually did, compared to what grades you had. This might be a side note, but universities, originally, were aimed at making you an all-around knowledgeable, upright member of society. That’s why we have to take those Greek mythology classes and such. However, what we really want, well, what I really wanted was to learn a bunch of practical skills so I can go start making money. If you want that, there are other options you can explore like trade school, or more recently, coding bootcamps. These coding bootcamps, as the name suggests, teaches someone how to code, with practical knowledge and tips. If you are unsure what to do, I think these are definitely worth the look, given how coding jobs are everywhere now.

 

Anyways, the moment when I found out that networking was more important was when a colleague who always copied off of my assignments got all the internships and job offers. My whole not-being-a-citizen thing plays here as well, but it was shocking to me that someone with a low grade and understanding of the material we learned in school was far exceeding my accomplishments. To be frank, I was jealous and hating on him quite a bit. I asked him how - he told me that he knew some people, and those people lead to some other people, and next thing you know, you have jobs / internships lined up to choose from. This sounded super corrupt for me, but this was how things worked. A lot of people don’t like unknowns, and assuming that a lot of people who are in the hiring position understand that grades are not necessarily reflective of job performance, people will obviously hire someone they know is good instead of someone with a higher grade.