Networking
Networking is not a personality trait. It is a small number of specific, repeatable actions.
Networking has an image problem, and the image is largely accurate about the version most people are imagining: working a room, collecting contacts, asking strangers for favours. Almost nobody enjoys that and it does not work particularly well either.
The version that works is smaller and more specific. It is asking one person, for fifteen minutes, about work they know well, having done enough preparation that the question is worth their time. It is written more often than spoken. And its most important step happens two months later, in a message that contains no request at all.
The reason to do it despite the discomfort is that it changes the conditions under which your applications are read. A referred application is looked at by a person with a reason to look; a cold one is assessed against a specification in a queue. Ten conversations over three months will do more for a job search than fifty additional applications, and the conversations also tell you which of those applications were worth making.
Key terms
- Informational interview
- A short conversation with someone doing work you are interested in, requested as a conversation about their job rather than as a request for help finding one. The small, specific request is what makes it answerable, and asking for a job inside it is what makes it fail.
- Referral
- An application flagged by someone inside the employer. It does not improve the application; it changes who reads it and how carefully. Referrals almost always come from a second or third contact rather than a first, which is why follow-up matters more than initial outreach volume.
- Second-degree connection
- Someone you do not know who is connected to someone you do. The highest-conversion cold approach available, because the mutual contact gives the recipient a reason to reply that a well-written message alone cannot manufacture.
- The follow-up
- A short message some weeks after a conversation, reporting what you did with the advice and asking for nothing. The step that converts a pleasant exchange into someone who remembers you, and the step almost everyone omits.
Frequently asked questions
How do I network if I genuinely know nobody?
Start with your university's alumni directory, filtered by the employers you are targeting. A shared institution is a real reason for someone to reply and it costs you nothing to invoke. After that, second-degree connections through anyone you do know, professional bodies with local events, and specific cold outreach. None of these require an existing network, which is the point.
What should I never do?
Ask for a job in a first message, send anything that could have gone to four hundred people, ask questions answered on the company website, or connect and then immediately request a referral. All four are common, all four are read exactly as they are, and each one closes the contact permanently rather than temporarily.
Do events work, or is written outreach better?
Written outreach is more effective per hour for most people, because it is specific and it reaches people who are not at events. Events are useful for a different reason: they produce several weak contacts quickly and they are easier if you find cold messaging harder than talking. The two combine well — meet at an event, then send the specific message afterwards.
When should I start?
Before you need it, because the lag between a first conversation and a referral is months rather than weeks. Networking begun in the same week as an application deadline produces information at best. Begun three months ahead, it produces people who know your name when something opens — which is a different and much more valuable thing.