Extroverts think they’re pros at it. Introverts dread it. Most people end up somewhere in the middle. “It” is networking. Some people think it’s as easy as working a room and chatting up everyone they see. They’ll dive into a networking event like a hungry seal in a school of fish. Or they approach it like a 1950s door-to-door salesman trying to sell vacuum cleaners to everyone he meets. This is not networking; it’s stalking.
The fact is, networking mystifies people—and the reason, I’ve decided, is that they dread it so much. People feel awkward asking for help, and the idea of reaching out to someone has all the appeal of cold-calling to sell those handy slice-and-dice-it knives you see on late-night infomercials. This raises an even bigger point: networking poorly is worse than not networking at all.
NETWORKING POORLY IS WORSE THAN NOT NETWORKING AT ALL.
You have to know how to do it—and not just to get your next job. Networking is also crucial for advancing in your current job. Within your company, you’re looking to connect with people who can open doors and teach you how things get done in the organization. Every organization has an informal network of “influencers” (see Chapter Six, “Building Political Capital”) who work largely behind the scenes. These are the people you definitely need in your internal network.
Just ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month, and much more.
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
Julian F.
Head of Cybersecurity
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.
Addison B.
Field Engineer
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.
Amir M.
Data Platform Tech Lead
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
