Networking a must for Career Success

“We are living in one global village where networking brings

Synergy and mutual support for sustainability on any business”

We all know networking is very important for any career as it provides business-growth opportunities while interacting with other professionals and share business ideas Internet technologies have removed geographical boundaries and time-zones have become a great boon for global business. Digital marketing, payment gateways and direct delivery process have given a new dimension for doing business. You should take advantage of social media networks and other professional forums for the furtherance of your career. Professional workgroups/forums like—LinkedIn, Yahoo groups, Google+ help in establishing new alliances and associations to diversify your business. In this world of uncertainty and high competition, you cannot succeed alone and for the growth and stability of your career, you need to network with others and share your thoughts, expertise and provide mutual and timely support. It well said –

“You can run a race alone but you need a company to complete a long journey”.

You must be in the company of good and inspiring people as they will infuse good spirit in you to achieve excellence.  Do not look around for very juniors or yes-men/women or mediocre people because of your comfort zone. Instead, you must seek association with upcoming people. The people with whom you could develop networking for advancement/sustenance of your career are:

·       Mentors and councilors. You must stay in touch with your mentors which could be your past teachers/professors or industry leaders. They will have rich experience in various capacities during their careers.  Due to good hands-on experience, a mentor would have his/her contacts in the industry to guide you and prepare you per upcoming interviews.

·       Good Friends. Good old saying - “people are known by the friends they keep” is ever true.   Therefore select good friends, who have a positive attitude and are forward-looking. They may be your old school/college mates or senior or juniors from your organization or outside organizations. You should trust and respect them while supporting and seeking their support on a need basis. The good old saying – 

“Friend in need is a friend indeed”.

 Friends may be in the same location/city or same country or from other countries. It is important to have like-minded and trustworthy friends who easily get along with your wavelength. You must be equally reciprocal to support your friends. Use a friend as a sounding board to trust and discuss issues that bother you most. Knowledge sharing and keeping friends updated about coming events and opportunities helps a lot in pre-planning and becoming proactive.

·      Class fellows and Alumni. Both class fellows and alumni are of great value to provide you timely support, which may be professional/technical, financial assistance or moral support. Your seniors in your own country or those studying/ serving abroad will provide relevant inputs to plan your strategy for seeking new job opportunities. They will guide and help for your initial administrative needs like boarding and lodging.

·      Past  Colleagues.  Your colleagues (including boss and staff) in the most recent job, would provide good feedback when a new employer carries out a background check.

·       Vendors: Various suppliers of materials and sub-contractors, who are delivering part of the product, which was outsourced, will always meet your timeline and quality standards.

·        Customers: You should get feedback from them and if you are keeping your commitment of time and delivery, they will speak high of you to your boss and  to another customer too. Effective networking with customers can help you in getting repeat orders and growth of your company. This will add a feather to your cap.

·    Neighbors: Neighbors could be very helpful, particularly from the family aspect.

·      Relatives:  Stay in contact with your family members and close relatives, who are working in their own country and abroad and who can guide/support you.

·      Club Members:  You could have a membership of saying Health club or Adventure club or Social club /institution. You will develop contacts with many professionals.

·         Bankers, consultants, lawyers, and Charter Accountants.  They could be very helpful in developing your household requirement and mitigate the financial crisis if any.

·         Professional organizations, societies, forums.  Be a member of various professional bodies/associations and societies, which have national/international repute. If you participate in their seminars, conferences, and present/contribute technical papers, you will get noticed by the audience. This provides you a platform to showcase your talents.

·      Member sports club: If you are a sports person, do join a related sports club, where you will come across sports professionals. For example, golf is a sport to come across various levels of professionals and businessmen. You may be noticed by someone for your competence/personality and you may be offered some job opportunity.

·      Religious Leader: You may have contact with your religious preacher to seek a way to pray to God and seek peace. , happiness and good health for all. He/ She can guide you on spirituality. However, do not get exploited by any such person who is fanatic. You must not criticize other’s religions since we all are equal, irrespective of our religion, color or creed. Do respect the religions of all people working in /outside your organization and participate in their religious functions.

·       Doctors: Be in contact with your family doctor as well as with the doctor engaged by your employer.   Get your periodic medical examination done and follow the doctor’s advice. Do not follow Google -Doctor for self-medication as that could be harmful.

·           Means of networking

·      One on One. This is face to face (f2f) meeting and interaction during various conferences, seminars, symposiums.

·      Social Gathering.  Interaction during club functions, sports meets social gatherings like weddings, birthday parties, and picnics.

·     Written Correspondence. Formal letters should be sent through postal service/ courier. These letters should be rather few and of a very important nature.

·    Email .  Use official/ business email ID for sending and receiving inputs. Avoid answering non-business emails while on duty at the workplace. You may attend some urgent emails during tea or lunch break, but not while on the job. There are two main categories that Emails;

·         Re-Introduction Email. Let us say you haven’t seen this person for quite some time and are trying to bridge that gap and rebuild your relationship. Think back to the last time you interacted with this person, at what place, when and what did you discuss.  Include reference to these in your email message to help the recipient to recall their memory.

·         A Follow-Up Email.  It could be that you have very recently met this person and you are following up on your most recent interaction.. A great spin-off of that practice is to record post-meeting thoughts immediately after on your smartphone.

·    Social Media. You need to join some of the following social media networks to share knowledge, offer and seek assistance related to job opportunities and coming events.  During 2017-2018, some commonly used social networks are:

§  Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram.

§ Website / Portal, Blogging.

§  WhatsApp, Messenger ( MicroSoft or Face book),

§      Google+ , Yahoo Groups.

Challenges. One of the challenges in networking is everybody thinks he/she is making cold calls to strangers. Actually, it's the people who already have strong trust/relationships with you, who know you're dedicated, smart, committed, and a good team player, therefore they can help you. Even though you’re actively connecting with people on Face book , Whatsapp, LinkedIn, participating in networking events, and exchanging business cards with hundreds of people, yet you  may not be getting full advantage. Your time and energy are not infinite – use them efficiently by nurturing the contacts that have the greatest potential. Contacts will typically fall into any one of the following five categories namely  Bi-weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, bi-annually, and annually, You need to be disciplined and do not spend your valuable time in responding to every call on social media network.  For responding to social media calls, you may set a time of 30 minutes, just after lunch and 30 minutes just before leaving your workplace. The modern business world is of alliances and collaborations, where each member draws strength from other members and collectively they become winners. The same formula applies to project teams or marketing groups. 

Do not walk alone since career is a long journey needing the company of progressive and supporting people. Always join hands to have collective wisdom and synergy. The good old saying is ever true-

“United we stand divided we fall”.

That is why many competitors go for technical alliances to gain strength from each other.  They follow win-win strategy for their business success and sustainability

For more information please refer to my book-  “Career Challenges during Global Uncertainty” available  on www.amazon.com

Dr Sarbjit Singh, Former Principal Apeejay College of Engineering, Gurgaon, Haryana, India.