Item — HN Reader

Maybe it's just me, but it's always been my experience that it's a better career move to A) always avoid using fancy business-isms outside of meetings, and really whenever possible and to B) try to get information from people first by making them like you as a person and comfortable around you, then asking.

It's been my experience that most people find "HR speak" to be scary, pretentious big words, kool-aidey, or just hard to decipher. But I don't work in FAANG so I just wanted to put this out there to see how everybody else feels.

2 comments

Fair enough. My language when I’m doing writing tends to sound a bit over the top because I’m trying to use super generic language (given I have no context about someone’s role).

How’s this:

“Hey! I’m John on the infrastructure team. I’m still fairly new here, and I’m trying to gain a lot of context around the different teams and team members. Any chance you’re free for a quick 1:1?”

Then, in the 1:1, probe them a bit more about how they fit into the team.

“Oh. That’s cool! I didn’t realize your team took care of that. How does your role fit into that work?”

Fully agree. And this is actually a well known fact. People following the rules perfectly as seen as losers in business. You are expected to break the ice with a more personal non textbook approach and therefore showing you are "street smart".