Working relationships
I've been in my job for 3 months and have received positive feedback from my manager about my performance. I currently put 99% into my work and 1% into building relationships with the department. I would not say I isolate myself, rather, I keep reasonably quiet and just focus on my work.
This is my first job out of University - how important do you think forming strong relationships is at this stage in my career? How would you balance the two?
You sound like my grad (possibly you are him; if so, I've told you a few times you need to always arrive before 9am, regardless of problems with NJ transit).
I suggest you cultivate relationships more, particularly with your intake cohort (even if they are in other divisions). Your fellow grads today are the network you need to rely on to do you grinding analyst work for the next few years, that will refer work and opportunities to you in 2 - 5 year time.
If that's outside your comfort zone, get used to being outside your comfort zone.
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1% into building relationships sounds more like "stay out of my way, I have no interest in talking to you and only want to see or hear you if we are discussing work" than "keeping reasonably quiet and focusing on work."
Make more of an effort to interact with your colleagues - it'll make work more enjoyable and when evaluations (and bonuses, promotions etc) come around, they are definitely not based on 99% work and 1% how much people like you.
You're not Asian, by chance?
If it helps your cultural prejudices, I've encountered white Anglo grads who are entirely socially challenged.
Interestingly, there are aspects of some Asian cultures which make them, on average, more socially attuned within within their own cultures than Anglos are within Anglo culture. However, put someone with that cultural background into white culture and it all goes skewiff.
Two of the most outgoing people I know have an East Asian heritage. Not surprisingly, neither are first generation to the US. Both of these ladies are married to white guys, if that has any relevance.
Anyway, what are these aspects of Asian cultures you refer to?
I'll focus on China, as that's the Asian culture I'm most familiar with. Non-exhaustive list:
Lack of rule of law - Legally binding contracts are often useless in China, largely because the courts aren't a level playing field and, even if they were, the wheels of justice move slowly, the laws leave gaps which can easily be exploited and money/assets can disappear long before you have the legal rights to get your hands on them.
So you need to rely heavily on relationship networks and other soft skill semiotics to get enough comfort to deal with people, whether it's investing money or buying your groceries from them.
Crappy consumer protections - Similar to above. Food scandals abound in China. So, to get by without being poisoned, people often have to switch on to relationships, signalling, knowledge networks etc to work out what food or other products to avoid. Unlike in the US where, say, you can buy something from Walmart in the confidence that they wouldn't sell something dodgy because the risk of you suing the crap out of them is too high.
Telling the truth is for idiots - Chinese culture doesn't apply the same value to telling the truth = integrity etc that the West does (eg George Washington and cherry trees). At best, someone who tells the truth is an idiot and a danger to himself. At worst, that person gets everyone else into trouble. I encountered this regularly when dealing with Chinese companies my bank had invested in or was looking to invest in. We could never trust that we were being told the truth. So we had to rely heavily on networks, relationships etc to validate/verify/give us comfort that we were getting told something that was reasonably close to the truth.
Getting ahead in a statist, SOE-dominated economy where corruption abounds is all about who you know, very little about meritocracy and how well you can do math.
Those are just a handful of aspects in the Chinese context which make networking and other soft skills much more important than in the West. There's more, but I have to go to Chinatown for yum cha.
Don't make your work more miserable than it already is. Build relationships and maybe you'll actually make some friends too.
Was about to say this. I realize you're all trying to get ahead, but it never hurts to build a relationship for the traditional social benefits rather than the professional benefits
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