Strategies for networking success

- When you think about networking and what is your goal, ask yourself where you are in your career, and what you want to get out of it. And use that to come up with one short term goal for a networking connection. But in reality, I say this in pretty much every context I go to. Every job you go to, every place you go to, technologies will change, industries will change, people, relationships and reputation never will. So everything that you do from a goal perspective, ask yourself what am I learning through this connection with this person? If you have learned something that you didn't know before, you have already won. And second, ask yourself is this a person that I would work with, or I would want to work with? Because they embody something that appeals to you, or that resonates with you, or maybe that you, between the two of you, you partner really well? Then you want to stay in touch with them. Then you want to stay in touch with them. So your goal should be either So your goal should be either can I learn something from them, can I learn something from them, or will my connection to them help somebody else? And as long as you work with those two, and you don't think of it as in the moment what do I need now and do they fulfill it? You'll be fine. If you reduce it to what can they do for me right now? Then that's going to be a very fragile connection, because that context will change, and then the relationship will die. We all have only a limited amount of time. Networks and communities are like gardens. You have to like constantly tend and cultivate them in order for them to be healthy. You can't sustain all your networks. Instead, what you can do is break your whole group of connections into three buckets. People who no matter what, what the context in your life, you want to keep in touch with them, right? You, these are the core network, they're not about jobs, they're not about careers, they're about your support system. Make sure you're very intentional about sustaining that relationship. The second one out is for the time you are in. These are the people that are important to you. Make sure you have curated Twitter lists, that you're following what they're saying online. Make sure that you have Linked-in connections to them, so that you can actually keep them updated when you change. Make sure that if you are doing something together, periodically check in and have coffee if you're in the same town, or find ways to do things together just to sustain that network. But that broader community? That goes to the weaker ties, that goes to this laundry list of like over 20, 30 years collection? The best way you can keep them healthy is to connect them to other people, who can care for them. And the analogy I'm going to give you is, when you're garden gets too big, it's totally appropriate for you to dig up some of those plants, put them in a pot, and give it to your friends who can take care of them. And when it comes time, be like oh you know what, I really miss that pot, by all means say can I have it back and here's another one? But at least this way you're thinking both about the health of that, that network and you're doing something good. You're connecting them to someone they could like help, or who can help them. And by doing that you have done the best thing at all, they're not going to forget you, and they're not going to feel bad if you didn't check in with them. We all have limited amount of time, so we only do that much. If you're someone who wants to network, go to your local meet up, find a meet up, and join it. It doesn't have to be in technology. It doesn't have to be in your profession. Find a meet up that resonates with your interests. I cannot reinforce this enough. Networking is not about your professional career, or about the context. It's about knowing a person, and building a trusted relationship with them, so that no matter what you're request, they're going to be like I know you enough to trust you, to like respond. And to build that, the easiest way is to find a community where you're likely to meet people who already have that linkage with you. I love meet ups. I mean, I genuinely do. And its not just about like tech meetups, its about find the meet up, where they're having a craft circle. You'll be surprised how many people are influential in your sphere, but will be at the craft meet up because we all need that time away. And guess what? Not everyone else is going to be in your technology community is going to be in that circle, so you actually will be able to communicate with them in a smaller environment. But you will be able to connect around something you both genuinely believe in. If you go spend time in any community, where you are, or you already have an interest in that space then everyone you meet in there, is going to be a network that matters to you. And you may not know it, but the fact that you are both in that space at the same time? Means that very likely your journeys are going to have parallel paths, for in some context, in the future.