[BartSpaans]

Relationships are always the most important thing in every line of work, and are often valued more than how good you are at your job.

- Want a promotion? I hope your manager likes you

- Need collaboration from colleagues? Better not be a dick to them

- Want to look for new opportunities? Better have a network

We are social beasts at the end of the day.

[bezier-curve]

Unfortunately this also seems to pave the way for cronyism, and people climbing up the ladder without merit to back it up. What should be considered is a balance between soft and hard skills.

[ctkhn]

True, but this is already how most management works regardless. If you don't optimize for the existing system you probably won't get high enough to change it at all.

[dakiol]

I guess it depends. I'm not really good at relationships, but I can be a very normal guy in almost every scenario. So, I'm not like asking my manager what did he do during the weekend (but if he talks about it, I listen and follow the discussion), nevertheless he's a professional and if I do my job the way they like it, I'll get a promotion (if I don't, then I need to switch to another company). Similarly, I'm not friend of my work colleagues, but I'm definitely not a dick. It's easy to not be a dick; it's not easy to be "friendly". I don't have a work network at all. The people I have worked with in the past are Linkedin connections now (I do have the phone number of a couple of people, though), but I have never relied on them to get a job (among other things, because they live in different cities, countries and continents).

So, many of us are doing just good by being really really minimal social beasts. I think the key is to not being a dick, but that doesn't require being a social person in my experience.

[nuancebydefault]

To me this feels like you are thriving on regularly getting promoted? My guess... maybe that is for you the required confirmation that you are doing well?

Indeed I think the importance of a work network is overrated. My LinkedIn is hopelessly outdated and to switch jobs, all I seem to have/need is my CV and professional years. In my experience interviewing is very much like dating.