What Networking is NOT
We usually think of negative examples first, the “brief business card encounters,” we’ve had with people who attend social events to hand out business cards, but then disappear, or those who establish their neediness by asking everyone if they know of a job for them. We don’t admire those who seem to want “something for nothing.”
Such negative examples accentuate the fact that our attitude about networking affects our ability to do it. When I talk with grad students about networking, the negatives surface quickly. Some equate it with hard selling or advertising, and feel they have to make exaggerated claims for selfish reasons.
Is it any wonder academics are reluctant to network, if it is seen as acting that way? But, looking at the experience of networking experts, we find a different view.
Networking Is, Above All, Mutual Gain
As Wendy Gelberg points out in her book, The Successful Introvert, “Part of the discomfort with networking is that it seems self-serving,” yet, “in reality, networking is a mutual process…." [For more from Wendy, see her articles in Job-Hunt's Job Search for Introverts section.]
Katharine Hanson, Ph.D., defines networking in her book, A Foot in the Door, as “establishing relationships for mutual support and sharing ideas, advice and referrals…”
In their book, Power Networking, Donna Fisher and Sandy Vilas define networking as “the process of gathering, collecting and distributing information for the mutual benefit of you and the people in your network.”
Even Keith Ferrazzi, the quintessential networker who wrote Never Eat Alone, says, “Stop thinking about how to make yourself successful. Start thinking about how you’re going to make everyone around you successful.” He describes the result of being indispensible to others as “a sort of career karma,” and says that what you receive equals whatever you give and more, even though it won’t be equal in each interaction.
Networking Means Service and Sustainable Relationships
Almost everywhere, I’ve found the mutual nature of networking emphasized, along with the idea of giving, of offering assistance in whatever way we can, and of developing a sustainable relationship with another person.
This enlightened “giving” attitude in networking provides additional satisfaction in helping others, and helpful connectors wind up with more than the networkers whose purpose is “getting.” We are likely to develop relationships with people we like, but a “get and run” networker doesn’t stay long enough to develop a relationship.
Removing that negative of “getting something for nothing” from networking makes it more palatable to academics and other professionals. We can think of networking without expectation of benefit as “service” or “sustainable networking.”
Networking Crosses the Status Gap
Another barrier to comfortable networking is the status gap between students and faculty or alumni, particularly when the faculty or alumni occupy relatively exalted positions. Even grad students are often reluctant to approach “important people” in their field. Some are plagued by the “imposter syndrome,” in which they fear being “found out,” as if they are “faking it.” And, shy individuals are less likely to approach others of greater status.
Years ago, as a grad student, it once took me nearly two hours at a party to work up the courage to approach a well-known researcher in my discipline to ask several questions after a presentation on his most recent book. I was surprised that he took my questions seriously and asked about my ideas, and I was astonished to receive an autographed copy of the book from him a few days later.
Had I followed up then beyond a thank you note (or at other times with other people whose ideas intrigued me), my career path probably would have been different.
For Academics, An Intellectual Interchange IS Networking
What I didn’t recognize then was that, among academics, an intellectual interchange is the basis of “networking,” although it masquerades as simply talking about intriguing ideas and work or research. When we share ideas or philosophies or research interests, we are networking.
Similarly, when we discover other shared situations - we went to the same school, we’re in the same occupation, we’re from the same geographic region, we’re fans of the same team, or our mothers were both dancers….. that sharing becomes the start of a relationship (however fleeting). Humans have a natural social tendency to collaborate, to contribute, and to offer help - when we “know” each other, having established common ground (however small).
I have seen many alumni offer their time and mentoring to any students of their school, merely because of that shared bond, with no expectation of any return, yet many students are reluctant to initiate the contact, feeling they are asking too much or they’re intimidated by the status gap.
In reality, I think the alumni are seeing their younger selves in the students and are offering the help they wish they had received then, or they’re passing on what they did get as students. Thus, the students are actually helping the alumni feel good about themselves.
Networking Builds Sustainable Relationships
The networks that develop among academics often grow eventually into collaborations, jobs, and enduring friendships, with all parties gaining in the process. To reach that gain, networking has to develop beyond the brief business card encounter. If one doesn’t follow up, both lose the value of that relationship, and the potential for career growth.
© Copyright, 2009, Kate Duttro. All rights reserved. Used with Permission.
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Job-Hunt's Academic Job Search expert Kate Duttro is a career strategist, coach, and instigator. She writes the Career Change for Academics Blog, for current and recovering academics, and other smart cookies. For more than 10 years, she has provided career services at the University of Washington, where she has counseled, taught classes and workshops, and dug out information for thousands of undergrads, grad students, post docs and alumni in all phases of career development. Holding several degrees, including a PhD in anthropology, Kate has also earned many professional certifications in the field of career coaching.
