Just Another Explorer: Is Professional Networking Important??
prabal aggarwal
Just Another Explorer: Is Professional Networking Important???
(was originally written and posted on Jan 18 2010 on www.managementinformatika.blogspot.com)
Dear Friends
I am writing this article, because I have recently observed my friends from
premier B Schools like IIMS & ISB, and premier
engineering colleges like IITs and very good career path in top positions of
leading MNCs not able to get the opportunities, which they deserve. The point
is that they don’t know how to search for this options. In other words, they
don’t have good professional networking skills.
Now, professional networking or any type of networking can’t be taught, it is
inborne skill. But, yes you can sensitize the one and help the one to discover
the skill within.
I am not claiming, that I am expert in Professional Networking, but I have my
own ways, which have proved to be effective. So, via this mail I would like to
share my ways of professional networking. And would like to receive feedback
from you guys, which will help me to further improve my skills. Anyone can
connect with me via my email id aggawal...@gmail.com or via my linkedin profilehttp://in.linkedin.com/in/prabalaggarwal.
Now the starting point of any networking is the will, the urge to network. It
can’t be created, it has to be within oneself. I have seen my friends, sitting
at home for an year, after being laid off during recession. They will
continuously use the job portals like www.naukri.com and monsterindia.com, but to no avail.
At these times, they try to meet people who are decision makers in good MNCs
via their personal contacts, or via sites like www.linkedin.com. But, do you really think
that somebody just met me at party or at linkedin, and next thing he does is
talk about a job option from me. Will I help such a guy?? The answer in most
cases is no. Till I don’t know that guy for a fair amount of time, I wont help
him. So, the point is that network, can’t be and shouldn’t be built overnight.
It needs continuous efforts and time.
Now, the medium for professional networking could be many. It could be
attending professional seminars, it could be alumni or batchmates meets, it
could be emails, it could be professional networking platforms like linkedin.
And true networking, needs combination of all of them.
I will tell now my ways.
Few years ago, when I was doing my engineering, one of the professionals told
me to keep visiting cards. I was totally shocked, how do u expect a graduate
student to keep a visiting card. But he had his own point, that this may seem
odd but its an investment. And when I joined MBA, this advice came very handy.
Not many, students in my institute used to have visiting cards. I used to keep
it, though it used to pinch my pocket. It helped me to keep in touch with lot
of high fi professionals, I met during seminars organized by TIE and NEN. Then,
sometimes it so happened, that during the vivas, I came across a professor, who
was external faculty or unknown to me. I used to introduce myself, by exchanging
a visiting cards with him. It may seem odd, but believe me I did it. And this
used to take the viva on altogether at different platform (mostly I got better
marksJ ). Now, since last ten years from my engineering days, I never used to
throw a visiting card, I always used to store it. You never know, who could be
of help to you, in future. So, this was the section covering importance of
visiting cards, especially for students.
Now, there was a time, when I had my first official email id during my first
job. And then best use of it (apart from official work), was forwarding
interesting mails. I used to be in the race of sending most interesting mails
to my friends, and vice versa. These mails could be good pictures, some masala
news, some funny mails, some videos and what not. But, I observed, that most of
colleagues when left the organization, they never used to send the mails , as
they earlier used to. Second aspect was, that these things seemed good, while
in start of career, but later on as the responsibilities grew, I used to grow
irritated, by continuous flux of mails in my inbox. The reason was simple, that
they were irrelevant mails to me, and they didn’t help me in any way at all.
Gradually, it so happened that the friends who used to send these sort of stuff
to me, I slowly started deleting their mails even without reading. I learnt
from this behaviour. It so happened, that when I left my first job and
subsequent second job, on my last day, I made a list of people, with whom I
would like to be in touch in future. And the best and cheapest way, was emails.
But what type of emails, how not to get marked as a spammer?? The idea clicked
me, that one the email should be good one, which adds value to the receiver,
and secondly, it should be infrequent. So, I made a list of email ids. This
feature is easily available in all the frequently used mail services like
yahoo. I made a lists or groups of email ids by tagging them with relevant nick
names like company 1, company 2,…. Or mba friends, engg friends…. Then being an
MBA grad, I had a wide repository of business articles. I used to send the best
articles to my groups, in 2 to 3 months time. Not earlier than that. And it
used to be continuous. This lead me to stay in touch with hundreds of ex
colleagues even after 5 years of leaving the job. I still get mails, from these
colleagues, that how come you haven’t sent an interesting email, since last few
months. I keep on getting calls, from them, sometimes after 3-4 years. But it’s
always a good surprise. So idea, is that you can use emails as a good source of
touchbase with your ex colleagues or friends, without being marked as a
spammer, on the contrary creating respect for your communication. But, still
there may be many of the people, who doesn’t value it or still are not in touch
with you. One can’t please everyone!!! Clapping happens, when both the hands
participate, if one person is not interested in networking with you, you can’t
force him to.
Then, the next way to do networking is participating in professional seminars
or alumni meets. Now, I was ardent participant in all the free professional
seminars organized by NEN and TIE. Apart from it, I used to participate in
conferences, which were of my interest, and which my pocket allowed me to. The
biggest challenge I faced, when I came back to Delhi, after completing my MBA in Mumbai. I
lost touch with quite a few batchmates of my engineering, and now most of my
MBA mates were in Mumbai. And it was the time, I was looking out for
socializing and to expand network. Instead of waiting, for somebody to take
initiative, I initiated Delhi Chapters of my engineering as wells as my MBA
college in Delhi.
This led to frequent meets of these chapters, where I was able to network not
only with my batchmates, but with quite a seniors as well as quite a juniors.
This actually expanded my network to a great extent. So, idea is don’t wait for
anybody to take initiative. If you want to network, then create your own ways
and take the initiatives. Another thing, I would like to emphasize here is that
email is not a substitute for phone call and phone call is not a substitute of
face to face meeting. Also, to make the communication effective and meets easy
to organize, I created email groups of the participants and the possible participants.
These sort of group services are easily available like yahoogroups.com and
googlegroups.com. But, the problem was that I found that these groups were
equally linked to the inboxes of all types of people. Some busy some free, some
interested some not interested. And all the mails posted in them were not very
relevant, which irritated quite a few members. This is an evil; I am not able
to understand how to cope up with technically. At the same time, the groups I
created with the view of networking, soon started having mails, where alumni
started helping members to get jobs, to get more business. This was a real eye
opener for me.
Then the latest tool, which is a boon to any networker are social and
professional networking sites like orkut, facebook and linkedin. I like www.linkedin.com best for this purpose. It has helped
me to connect with the people, about whom I used to read in the Economic Times
or see on CNBC TV 18. It has totally punctured any boundaries imposed on
professional networking. On the flip side, I had once the tendency to increase
my network blindly i.e. my no. of connections should increase. But, later on I
realized the difference between Active Network and Passive Network. If I am not
interacting with the person I am connection of, then how it is better than
repository of electronic visiting card? So, again the idea is to interact with
the people you find synergy with. It can lot of topics for students regarding
their studies, for professionals regarding their careers, for academicians
regarding the research they are doing, for businessmen regarding their
business. Infact, if you don’t have any purpose, than it will be very tough to
network. In that case, at max you will be able to get back in touch with your
old associates or friends. But, what about meeting new people. I don’t think it
can be done without a purpose. So, have a purpose, and don’t be afraid of
meeting and interacting with new people, that is the essence of networking.
Another aspect, I will like to emphasize here is that networking can’t be done
by being selfish. If you seek to take help only, it will sooner or later
diminish your networking capacity. Be willing to help others also, and that too
in selfless way. This is the true essence of networking. Take interest in the
people’s work, and try to think how you can add value to him or help him out
via your network. Sooner, or later this will give you returns far more than you
have expected.
Now, the purpose of writing this mail is not to boast about myself or my
networking skills. I am also on learning path. But, to help my friends, ex
colleagues and alma mater to take advantage of the skill, which is not taught
in colleges i.e. Networking. Second purpose, of this mail is to start a
dialogue regarding the importance of Professional Networking and the ways to do
it. So, friends do reply to this mail to start the dialogue.
Regards
Just Another Explorer
(Prabal Aggarwal)
PS: I got lot of queries, via forwarded mails that can one forward or use this article. The very idea, of this article is to share experience, so that the mistakes I did in my professional life, others shouldn’t do it. Even if one professional or student is benefited by this, my purpose is more than served. So, friends if you like it spread it. That’s the whole idea of sharing.
Friends, as an author of this article, I authorize anybody, can use this article for publishing on any media i.e. print, visual, audio, internet, forwarding emails, intranets, etc. Only request is that, the name of the author, body of the article shouldn’t be changed or altered. Secondly, would request to mention that this article was originally written & posted by Prabal Aggarwal, on Jan 18 2010 on www.managementinformatika.blogspot.com. You, can start discussing with me and other readers, by commenting on the blog post. Also, if anybody using this content, feel like that monetary contribution should be made, you can donate on my behalf that sum of money to Project Why (http://www.projectwhy.org/), not for profit organization.
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