This is Steveer Robbins. Welcome to the Get It Done Guys, quick and dirty tips to work left and do more.

Today's episode is part one about networking for new college grants and everyone else.

We're going to start with background, however, because you need to know why this is so very, very important.

Congratulations. Good news. You've graduated. That means

you know all the things. You've spent 18 years being given a syllabus, subject areas, facts,

labs, problem sets, and final exams. You worked hard and you got the promised rewards. You can

get the right answer. I have nothing but deep

respect and admiration for you and everything you've done, so much respect, in fact, that I'm going

to tell you what I wish I had been able to tell me at your age. Now, everything changes. Meritocracy

is a lie.

Heading off into the world, no one will care if you get the right answer.

To the extent anyone cares how well you work, they'll mostly measure you based on stuff like

hours and whether you wear the right clothes and whether you come in between 805 and 845

and appear to be working hard enough. As for your promotions, they may be based on your achievements.

If you're clearly an expert, people sometimes do notice.

But if they like you, people always notice.

And the people who evaluate you will rarely have been trained in how to evaluate someone

else's work.

So what they'll do instead is simply rationalize how they feel

about you, and that becomes your evaluation. What you really learned in school is how to do good

enough work to be a useful cog, and how to take outside direction, accept evaluation meekly,

and feel really good when you perform the task they gave you. Welcome to real life. Networks

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