Networking at work

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Hi all my manager wants me to network at work. Does anyone her have good ideas of how to do that. I'm really just a quiet developer who prefers to sit at my desk and get my work done and go of for a walk by myself during lunch.
I can do small talk for a short amount of time with strangers in these corporate network meetings but it never extends beyond that and I have no idea what ta say beyond that anyway. It's just awkward silence moment.
People usually aren't interested in me anyway and to be honest neither am I interested in them. I like my solitude. I have two kids and partner so I get plenty of social life anyway.

These days software development is a team sport. It involves system analysts (also known as product owners or product managers or business analysts, etc.), UI designers, developers, testers, technical writers, users and more. It’s to everyone’s benefit that these functions collaborate (the Agile Manifesto’s first principle is valuing individuals and interactions over processes and tools).

So, if your manager wants you to network, perhaps he just really wants you to establish better work connections with others on the team. One way to do this would be to set up a meeting and review your designs with others. Or perhaps, conduct a regular demo of what you are building to get feedback.

We do agile already, it's not that, he means outside the team so unstructured networking with others in the corporation that it may be good to know later. It's part of the promotion ladder. Teamwork and networking are not the same thing.

Did you indicate that you wanted to be promoted?

No it's just part of the process, I'm either working towards a promotion or working myself out of the company.
Anyway it's entirely irrelevant to my question, does anyone have good advice on how to network effectively when you don't have the best of social skills to carry it through?

If you are like most developers I have worked with, this "process" (essentially, your company's culture) sucks. I would suggest shopping around. There are many other places that allow developer to be, well, developers.


Unfortunately, I cannot help you with this. There are books out there. I understand "How to Win Friends and Influence People" is a great tool. I have never read it. I also believe there are a lot of resources out on the web (e.g. TED Talks).

Good luck.

I have relied on asking questions. People seem happiest when they feel that you need something from them. If your working on the same project, just ask them what they think of your approach to a particular effort. Say things like "I want to get another perspective on this" and try to get over the fact that you actually don't. If you dissagree with their advice, don't shut them down. Just tell them what you were thinking of doing, and thank them for suggesting an alternate approach that you can consider. This way you have opened up a dialog, made the other person feel needed, and showed them a bit of how you would approach the problem. It is annoying, but I've come to think of it as part of the job.