5 Autistic Professionals Share Their Networking Tips

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Interesting article. How would you answer these five question?

(Source: https://xceptional.io/employees/5-autis ... king-tips/)

5 Autistic Professionals Share Their Networking Tips


Networking – it’s a word that has provoked strong emotion, from being a “bloody nightmare” to sending a “cold chill” down people’s spines. But what does networking mean for the autistic professional trying to get ahead in their career?

I decided to ask autistic professionals directly about this topic, focusing on these five questions:

Do you go to networking events (virtual and in-person)?

Do you go to such events to meet people, find jobs or for professional development?

How do you personally navigate such events?

If you don’t go to networking events, what are your reasons for avoiding events?

Do you prefer to use virtual networks like LinkedIn?

Unsurprisingly, many people cited difficulties with noise and navigating the social dynamics to be key challenges of networking events. Several people emphasised the importance of structure and communication about the purpose of the networking event to ease anxiety.

Others embrace virtual networking instead, with a couple of professionals indicating they prefer to direct message people on LinkedIn or use the platform to connect with like-minded people.

(Read the rest https://xceptional.io/employees/5-autis ... king-tips/)

TL;DR: the only way to win this game is not to play.

Do you go to networking events (virtual and in-person)?

No.

Do you go to such events to meet people, find jobs or for professional development?

Not applicable.

How do you personally navigate such events?

Not applicable.

NB at this point I'm going to take issue with the framing of the exercise itself. It's 5 questions if and only if you answer 'yes' to question 1; otherwise it's only 3 questions, and because of the lack of direction at questions 2 and 3 there's an uncomfortable implication that if you answered 'no' to question 1, you got it 'wrong'.

If you don’t go to networking events, what are your reasons for avoiding events?

Noise, crowds, smalltalk, pressure - the typical things that might make an autistic person uncomfortable - but also dishonesty, by which I mean such events are full of people claiming to have talents they don't have in order to get work at companies claiming to be much better places to work than they actually are.

In any case, I don't have a career. I have a trade. The better I get at what I do, the more I get paid. This works for me. It also works for the people I work for, who don't mind me being 'weird' because of the amount of money I make for them. I am far more comfortable on freelance contracts, where there is no expectation of loyalty or bonuses on either side, and it is never cost-effective for a company to move a contractor off the project they were specifically hired for, which happens all the time to employees.

Virtually everywhere I've worked, I've stayed in contact with at least one person. I have plenty of people who can vouch for my technical abilities and I have never been short of references.

Do you prefer to use virtual networks like LinkedIn?

No. LinkedIn is mostly just shallow noise produced by people who use the number of 'connections' and the volume of 'posts' to mask the fact that they're actually pretty mediocre talents in real life. It became much worse when Microsoft took it over some years ago and gamified it, encouraging everyone to one-click 'rate' everyone on their skills (for a very broad and loose definition of 'skills') as if people were restaurants on Yelp.

What I do find LinkedIn useful for is identifying companies with job opportunities, and applying to them either through LinkedIn or directly. The 'networking' side of it I won't touch with a twenty-foot pole. When I'm applying for jobs I add a full CV to my profile and make it available to the companies I'm talking to. Otherwise, I have no info on my profile at all, neither personal nor professional.