How do I Network and Why It's so Important

First I want to start by saying that this post (and probably the subsequent ones) are written entirely by me, some may be more professional and some may be just me sharing my loud thoughts.

I want to show you how networking really changed my life, even though I’m horrible at it.

This begins waay before I started my career, I would usually not engage with others, and just do things myself (whether we’re talking about technical things, or everything in general).

This naturally started to change when I began working with others in tech, I had to ask for help, listen more, and engage in discussions. This was the starting point that made me realize that I had to improve my communications skills.

Networking is not what I thought it was: I thought that when people said “Networking is very important“ and “You should Network more”, they meant going to meetups, talking to more people, engaging in online communities, and sharing in public, alongside other examples. But actually, it’s deeper than that.

Of course, all of those things will definitely speed up the process a lot, so I recommend them, but the network that helped me the most, is just saving the connections that you create during your life. It happened so many times where someone that I’ve met 5 years ago helped me land a job, or supported me in a new adventure, even though we didn’t talked for all those years. I realized that, our network, our connection, did this.

To finalize this section, this is what I learned: It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to purposefully network and go to meetups, focus on the people you meet throughout your journey, and create a connection with them, either by being a good coworker, by helping them in any way, or by just being there. When you need it, they’ll most likely be there for you too.

🗺️ Where To Network

It really depends on what you’re looking for and what suits you more. So take this with a grain of salt, because it’s based on my experience and what I personally prefer and like.

The first and obvious option, is within your work of course, like I mentioned in the previous section. Actually, for this one to work out, you just need to be a nice and helpful co-worker and it’s enough. Let’s focus on the extra ways to network.

The best option to create meaningful connections, in my opinion, are online communities where you can actually talk to people.

Some good examples of this are:

• Slack groups focused towards your field (such as Tech or a specific technology);

• Whatsapp/Telegram groups;

Just to name a few. The core piece here, is that it should be a place where you can directly engage with others, and not something like social media where usually you don’t (easily) create a conversation.

I reinforce Slack groups (or Discord, or any other platform). Because there, you can even have one-to-one in DMs, to ask questions, ask for help, continue a discussion, etc, with a specific goal. If you are more or less active in a community, you’ll be more easily recognized, which will be in your favor in the future. The most niched the community the better! I also recommend not joining dozens of them, otherwise it’s very hard to keep active and up to date! Focus on communities that will help and impact you.

I have connected with one of the smartest people I’ve met that way! Those that are active in a community are powerful, people respect and listen to them, mostly because they’re actually helping and guiding others. You don’t need to be this person, but you’ll surely meet some like this.

I don’t want to deviate a lot from the goal of this post, so let’s get back on track on how do I personally network:

🗻 How do I Network

Keeping an eye on the community

One of my biggest problems was keeping track of the community posts and discussions. I solved this by finding the one that interest me the most, that I have the most connections, and that I can easily engage. For me, they’re Slack groups, since they’re side by side to my work Slack group, it’s easy to take a quick look throughout my day.

If I see a question that I’m interested in or that I can easily help with, I respond.

If I find a complex problem that I want opinions on, I post! Of course, there are many more reasons to post. To share something cool, to ask for guidance, etc.

Making friends

Okay hear me out, friends are more willing to help you than random connections! :shocked-pikachu-face:

In all seriousness, this requires actual effort and wanting to make friends and deeper connections. In my experience this is 1000x easier while working in an office than remotely. Because you go out to have lunch, you’re together most of your day everyday, and you interact more!

Remotely, this is really hard, people live far away, and you only see each other for work related things, like meetings and calls. The environment just makes things difficult.

Still, it’s totally possible! Of course, it depends on many factors, you don’t just actively try to be friends with everyone or someone, it just happens, especially when it’s a coworker with similar interests. If you have the chance to go to an offsite or meet with your coworkers in person, it definitely helps!

🧬 How it changed my life

Back to the premise of this post.

It may seen like a stretch, since technically I could achieve this without connections, but honestly, it could take a lot of additional luck and effort.

I got two of my last jobs via connections and networking. Those jobs were incredibly better than the previous ones, and with exponentially higher salaries too 💎 this enabled so much for me. And not doing all the effort alone is worth it.

I also got affected by a layoff, and found me next job in two weeks this way.

Now, I got affected by another layoff, apparently they follow me, and so many people are already helping me find a new job, this is just amazing. (If you’re reading this and is aware of a nice Senior Fullstack position let me know 👀 ).

Here are some actionable things you can start doing right now

1. Think of a coworker that you haven’t talked since a long time. Then just message this person asking about work or anything else. It’s important to stay connected, even if very infrequent.

2. Join a community group about your work. There are many out there, try to select the most active one.

3. Start mentoring or be mentored. It’s a great way to connect, and you end up learning a lot. You can do this simply by scheduling one-to-ones at your current job with someone, or looking for mentorship opportunities out there.

4. Engage more in those communities, ask questions, answer questions, help others, it doesn’t need to be about work