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June - 2002 - issue > Career Advice
Networking to Save Your Career
Saturday, June 1, 2002

Readers of my earlier article on how best to search for a job in a harsh economic climate felt that it was somewhat repetitious because it repeatedly emphasized the importance of leveraging one's personal network. But there is no escaping the fact that the most effective way to reach hiring managers and to understand the company and the position you are seeking is in fact via your personal network of contacts.


This was heavily underscored during a recent siliconindia Career Factory workshop in Silicon Valley, when most of the discussion on the panel that I moderated was about how hiring managers were being deluged by resumes and how the best way to stand out was to be recommended by people known to the managers - whether internal or external to the company.


Given the importance of the personal career network, it is now more critical than ever to invest some effort into forming and expanding yours! Let us look at a few ways to do this.


What is a Personal Career Network?

Most people already have different networks, based on contacts and relationships of various kinds: close relatives, distant relatives, friends, current and former co-workers, alumni of various educational institutions they have attended, cultural society acquaintances, etc., etc.


A personal career network (PCN) is a mission-oriented overlay that is superimposed on a person's general social network. A PCN transcends the boundaries of personal networks. It leverages all your contacts, for the specific purpose of finding a job or advancing to the next step in your career.



Forming Your Core Network

Creating a personal career network requires a considerable investment of time and a significant, focused effort. The best way to begin building your PCN is to identify the specific sub-set of individuals within your already existing social network who can help you advance your career - either in finding a job or finding that next ideal career move you have always been yearning for.


Most people's social networks have such contacts. Identifying them is just a matter of listing them and picking out the ones that have the most relevance to your PCN. For instance, it could be that second cousin whom you have met a few times at your first cousin's home, who just happens to be a general partner at one of the big venture fund companies! It could be a friend with whom you are in occasional touch by e-mail, who happens to be a manager at a big software company or a premier networking company.


Create a contacts list or spreadsheet with these individuals' names, current affiliations, titles, contact information and how / why you feel they can help you with your career.



Growing Your Network

Metcalf's law states that the power of a network is proportional to the square of nodes in it. While true of a network of computer systems, it rings even truer for a personal career network. It is not just whom you know, it is also whom those people know and so on. However, one big difference between a computer network and a PCN is that the power of the personal network falls off dramatically after you have crossed two links, since people are inherently more loyal to the people whom they know directly.


Therefore, it is of paramount importance to keep adding direct contacts to your PCN. Here are some ways that you can establish valuable new contacts:
-- The most effective way I know of is to make an effort to attend industry conferences and trade shows and make an explicit effort to target and meet influential people. Examples are the annual siliconindia Conference, the siliconindia Tech Factory workshops, TiEcon, and trade shows such as Networld+Interop and Comdex. If you are a core technical person you might want to attend, or better yet, present papers at technical conferences such as JavaOne and use these occasions to network with relevant people. Volunteer for trade show duty for your company - this is a great way to help the company and increase your ability to network at the same time!

-- If you are already working, an extremely effective way to make connections is to participate in external business meetings and other interactions. Customer meetings, installation, trouble-shooting or consulting projects for customers, working with alliance partners and working with vendors that sell to your company all build up your Rolodex.

-- During any social get-together, seek out those individuals who can help and get to know them. Make sure you say something interesting about yourself that will help them remember you.

-- Frequent the online forums and bulletin boards where professionals in your line of business discuss issues. Without being strident, post relevant, helpful notes. I know of several people who have become well known through such exploits and have gotten the respect of their peers, and consequently have a loyal network they can call upon should they need help.

-- Be willing to help others when they seek assistance with their careers--they will help you in turn. This is not unlike companies forming alliances!

Quality, Not Just Quantity

While the power of a PCN increases with the number of contacts in it, mere numbers alone cannot substantially add to the value of your PCN. Even a few extremely influential contacts can add a tremendous value to the PCN, while a large number of ineffective contacts may be no more than names and numbers in your list, not contributing any real value.
Quality is not just how well connected a contact is, but also how willing and effective they are in their efforts to help you. Seek out and connect with highly connected individuals. At get-togethers, conduct specific, deep conversations with a few new individuals, rather than merely saying hello to as many people as possible, or sticking only to people whom you already know.



Nurturing Your Network

It is not enough to just build up your address book. You need to nurture your contacts to keep the linkage strong. Unlike computer networks, a personal network withers unless efforts are made to keep the relationships fresh.

-- Call and chat with people whom you know closely. Keep up with the changes in their lives and careers.

-- Update your address book with recent information about your contacts. Over the course of time, each contact will most likely grow in importance and value and their information will of course change. Hence the address book needs to be periodically updated to maintain its accuracy and increase its value.

-- Leverage e-mail. It is a great, non-intrusive way to renew relationships and keep them warm.

-- When you meet the people in your PCN at conferences or networks, talk with them about relevant issues and make sure their information about you is updated.

-- When you move or change your contact information, notify your contacts about the change.

Summary

In my view, next to honing your skills and strengthening your track record, there can be nothing more critical in support of your career goals than improving the size and quality of your personal career network. As we have seen, the way to establish an effective personal career network is to invest time and effort in creating and nurturing it. You can do that by being conscious of this goal as you come across new contacts.


Keep in mind the quality - the effectiveness and connectivity of the people in your network - as well as the quantity of people in the network. It is important to keep your contact information fresh and your network relationships strong by periodically keeping in touch with people.



Prabakar Sundarrajan is CTO and EVP of strategic planning and corporate development at NetScaler. Sundarrajan has more than 20 years of technology experience in the networking, Internet and eBusiness markets. Prior to joining NetScaler, Sundarrajan was senior vice president, technology for Exodus Communications. Before that, Sundarrajan was a product manager with Transarc Corporation, a subsidiary of IBM. Sundarrajan holds a Master's in Computer Science from University of Massachusetts, Amherst.


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