HACKER Q&A
📣 superide

How can I have a stable career when I don't like talking to most people?


I'm born into lower income parents and don't have many connections let alone connections to "higher places". I am single, I have only a handful of friends that I talk to regularly and I am happy with that.

I don't want to live for my job, and don't care about company social events or other events for professionals. I want to have a good, steady career without increasing my social activity for work as I get older. I'm a total homebody. Would rather watch TV and movies and do solitary hobbies when I'm at home, find my future partner online and have the rest work itself out.

Currently I'm unemployed but I still have an odd kind of optimism that cold applying will get me a job. Either I should work on my deficiencies, or work on my strengths and not worry about the "network" approach, which can be a better pick?


  👤 ipaddr Accepted Answer ✓
Never live for your job but live for the craft.

In general you should work on your strengths because those are the items that will stand out. But there are minimum knowledge requirements in other areas that can hold you back. Figure out what's holding you back from interview feedback cycle.

Being good at one specific thing makes it easier to get a job vs being a little bit good at everything. But it limits you.

The social stuff can be positive or negative. Not going to the christmas party is better than going getting drunk and offending someone. I stopped going to these things because little good can come out of them and a lot of bad. Risk management. In general it's safer not to interact much with others at work or voice political or religious opinions. I think these days your non-social approach might work out better.


👤 softwaredoug
Network needn't mean talk to a million people. You can also value the depth of connections. And just being heads-up about opportunities with that group.

Networking doesn't just mean seeking things out for your self interest, but IMO helping and serving others. Which can just be your small friend group. It can also just mean "doing your job really well" which is a big help.

Networking can mean that those in your network will actively seek you out to tell you about an opportunity. If you're actively helping others, reciprocity is somewhat natural human response

It's not really, IMO, about cold-calling a bunch of randos and asking for help. It's about building deep connections and helping others professionally. What goes around, comes around, often in positive and unexpected ways.


👤 cafard
I don't see anything wrong with having only a handful of friends. However, the "find my future partner online and have the rest work itself out" seems pretty speculative.

You might find volunteer work a way to ease into a more social way of life. This would not have to be full-on social. Food banks and community kitchens also need people to pick up supplies, wash dishes, and sweep floors.


👤 askafriend
Short answer is: for the most part, you can't. Even if you built a product as a solo entrepreneur, you'd have to at least like talking to customers.

👤 gwnywg
Business = people - you'll need to play the game your company asks you to play, or find a company which does not put much attention to peoples social life.

Having said this, I currently work in place where we do not gather too often, actually we don't meet even once a year. All comms happen over slack/gmeet, with max. 1 meeting a day. I'm not extrovert so I like it that way, but other team members can sit on huddle for most of the day.


👤 atomicnature
Your writing is nice and coherent. Maybe put more effort/energy into writing more, polish your skills further, increase depth, and develop some reputation around that. People may come to value your expertise and inputs. Of course, it may take a while before you can find the right niche/medium for it to be a foundation for a "stable career".

👤 flappyeagle
If you are talented enough there are places that treat remote workers like drones. Throw Jira tickets over the wall and expect code to come out. Most people find this to be a bad place to work but you might like it

👤 neovialogistics
You may massively benefit from having a greater foundational knowledge of transactional analysis, both as a tool to understand how to efficiently manipulate the thought processes of others and as a tool for incisive self-inquisition.

I recommend the 1964 book Games People Play, which should be available at any decent library (possibly from an inter-library transfer). If it isn't at a library near you, it has additionally been uploaded to libgen.


👤 idontwantthis
Read How to Make Friends and Influence People. It sounds like you would benefit from learning the “rules” of conversation. You might even find out you like people more than you thought.

👤 dirtnugget
Sounds like you are made for a full-remote position

👤 rasz
Plumber and similar trades allow for being a lone wolf drop an assignment and go away until I call you its done.

👤 potatopatch
I don't think you have a problem you need to solve on this directly. Be careful to present this as being a no nonsense professional who wants to solve the business problems that should be a mutual priority and make sure you show a little decorum (I.e. acknowledge things were said and that they are serious topics when appropriate) while redirecting conversations back on topic.

Most people will respect that and gain from a person who behaves that way even if they might resent staying on topic.


👤 hnthrowaway0315
Get good skills so everyone wants to hire you. No need to talk to anyone unless necessary.

My biggest regret is that I didn't have a good enough skill.

By skill I meant hard, technical skills which I think appeal more to you.