Professional Networking....more than a one night stand!

I remember attending a career fair at Carnegie Mellon University towards the beginning of this decade। There were hundreds of smartly dressed, intelligent looking graduated students, trying to strike a conversation with prospective employers. It was obvious that they were eager to get noticed and to make lasting first impressions. They engaged in conversations with a lover's zeal. More than anything, they wanted to almost immediately land a job with the company of their dreams.

Those however were tough times, Enron had just collapsed, the stock market was yearning for investor confidence and newspapers were filled with news of bankruptcies and layoff's. A vast majority of the recruiters at the fair were not there to hire. They were simply there to maintain their relationship with the University, or because they had paid in advance for their booths! it was depressing to be there.

Many of my peers gathered the career fair loot: a couple of oddly sized t-shirts, alligator clips, and few business cards, but no interviews। However I heard a recurring theme, almost all the recruiters had asked the students to email them their resumes। I was puzzled, how will the recruiters remember the students they had spoken with and had interest in compared to the others? Or will they just include their resumes in the often overlooked HR database for 'future reference'?

Fast forward 6 years। I'm not a recruiter by any stretch of imagination, however among other things I am now required to help recruit for one of those 'most desired companies' and voluntarily I advise graduate students on career advancement at a leading University. I often speak with students on their strategy for success and almost always networking is pretty high on their list.

Dictionary।com defines the term 'networking' as, 'a supportive system of sharing information and services among individuals and groups having a common interest।' Common wisdom dictates that networking helps to enhance, among other things, prospects of finding better career opportunities. Tools such as 'Linkedin' help prospective employers and employees connect. However how the networking phenomenon is generally perceived is no less than a nightmare.

Generally speaking, networking is often confused with the number of entries in your address book, or people you know, or may know off। In reality, networking is really all about developing dependable relationships with a group, or groups of individuals with whom you interact, in regular intervals.

It is of little surprise that the term networking is fast being replaced by 'professional relationship development' or simply, relationships. To over simplify, any relationship has at least two steps; step one is to develop a relationship, and step two is to nurture, which of course happens overtime. Like anywhere else, professional friends are developed by winning trust and by emerging as a dependable partner. Additionally, people are more likely to remember you, if you pay attention to what they have to say. As Cicero, once put it 'Friendship make prosperity more shining and lessens adversity by dividing and sharing it.'


The nature of relationship and the frequency of contact are just as important as having a relationship itself. Often informal interactions and discussions lead to meaningful opportunities. How people interact in casual settings is a big indication of how they will deliver in business settings. In any social setup, and particularly in the capitalistic society in which we dwell, our gains are directly proportional to the value we offer to others.
Human aspect is at the core of the modern services oriented marketplace। How well do you know your peers, your co-workers, your neighbors? Do you know their interests, and ideas? Do you remember details of their personal life? Do you know their current professional opportunities, challenges and accomplishments and are they comfortable discussing them with you?

So go ahead, send out a couple of emails to long lost friends, clients, colleagues, or pick up the phone and call folks you haven't reached out in a while and tell them you were thinking of them and wanted to connect. It’s never too late to start building a bridge, and you never know where life might take you next.