Alpha Framing: Pathway To Success: The True Focus of Networking

Westend61

It’s not what you know, it’s who.

If there’s one mantra that gets thrown around for any up-and-comer, no matter the field of study or career, it’s that one. Expertise, education, and ability; all these things are ways to keep a job. But to get one, which is what most young professionals are concerned with right now? That takes connections, perseverance, and more than a little luck.

Job-hunting is one of the most depressing tests of determination you’re ever liable to face. It often gets to a point where someone is willing to grasp at any straw, no matter how ludicrously farfetched, just to get that little edge over the competition he or she might need to catch the eye of a hiring entity. Florescent-colored résumés, video résumés, a lucky belt buckle, a certain early-morning ritual? Whatever. There are books, classes, seminars, and job fairs, and all throughout that process a person will have to face a heartwarming, well-meaning, but often infuriating situation from friends and relatives: advice.

And it always seems to come back to two things: one is to just chin up and jump back in there, which is simple enough that I’m pretty sure any of us could have figured it out, and the little line-up a couple of paragraphs above this one. Meet people. Socialize. Make the right impressions.

Network.

Aha. The golden word of the internet age. I should have set up confetti for this. It’s like a magic wand, some skill that would miraculously fix every problem in the workplace. Here’s the issue: the people who are in a position to need that advice probably aren’t in much of a position to network effectively. Even if they knew how the process is lengthy and isn’t some catch-all quick fix that will make everything work out in a couple of days.

Just like the job hunt itself, “learning to network” is a difficult prospect. It’s kind of a nebulous idea. We’re usually left with a vague idea of what that’s supposed to mean, and those who tell us that we need to start networking are often left with a vague idea that we’re idiots because we don’t get it.

I’ll be straight here: I work with words every day of my life. Articles up here on Man of the Hour; short stories up on a personal blog; fanfiction projects on an online database. I know words. I eat, breathe, and sleep in the English language, and I have no freaking clue what the word “networking” really means. Oh, I have a feeling. A gut instinct, an impression, something like a shimmering mirage in a desert of buzzwords long dead and forgotten. But I couldn’t define it for you, the way these advice-y people tend to use it.

But let’s give it a shot, anyway, because networking effectively isn’t just a good job-searching tool. It’s something that can help a person find a new path in life, if that’s needed (and often, it is), or just further the path that he or she is already on.

Networking can mean a host of different things, which is part of the problem; it can mean social networking, as seen copiously on sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. It can mean going to job fairs, handing out résumés, and getting your name out there on the market. It can mean pulling in every person you know and hoping one of them might know someone who knows someone who…well, you get it.

Networking can mean starting a blog, or a YouTube account, or editing on a wiki, or general mingling. Even though this piece is focused on the idea of networking as a business exercise, it’s safe enough to look at it like dating. You’re looking for the right person, and to make the right impression on him or her, in order to cultivate a relationship (in this case, employer/employee) that provides what you’re looking for. Granted, equating job-hunting to looking for a date makes the process…well, even more, debilitating to a lot of people (me included) than it already is, so that’s probably not something we want to think about.

Nonetheless, it does come down to another piece of advice, that it can be easy to forget to be yourself. Someone in my own family landed his current job (and from what I’ve heard, it’s a pretty good one) because he lied about his previous experience. Lying in an interview or fudging some info on a résumé is a common, and tempting, tactic. Worked on an important project at your last job? Meh, say you were in charge of it. It makes a better impression, and hey, you probably could have if given the chance. It’s just getting a leg up in a seriously skewed job market, and it won’t have any bearing on how you do this job. They think you’ve run projects before; they’ll have you do it here, and then you can prove it.

I’m sure you who are reading this can see the fatal flaw in the logic used by this hypothetical person I’m addressing. I probably sound like a stuffy old man (“Get off my lawn!”) by warning you not to lie to get into a job, no matter how minor. Not because it won’t work—sadly, it might—but because that’s not you. Even the most chronic of liars has a true self, someone hidden behind all the masks and stories. I am a firm believer that being true to yourself, no matter who that self happens to be, is the only way to make a truly fulfilled crack at life. Most people can tell when you’re being genuine. We all know the signs of a real smile, versus a fake one.

Be honest. Not just to others, but to yourself. Know yourself. Know what you’re truly passionate about, what you really love, and what you really want out of your own existence. That’s what you’re going to present to the world when you network. That’s what you’re going to blog about and discuss on forums; it’s what any potential employer who looks you up on Facebook is going to see. It’s what’s going to bleed through with real substance in an interview. It’s what’s going to shine when you start working.

An effective manager knows which people are best suited to each task in a given project; not just because of expertise or education, but because he or she really wants to tackle that aspect of things. The project will become insurmountable more than the sum of its parts because each section, each facet, was handled by someone who really, honestly, and wholeheartedly wanted to get it done.

Those effective managers are the ones you want to notice you when you network for a new job, or a different career, or to climb up the ladder. So, you have to be transparent about what you love. I don’t mean to oversaturate the internet, or your friends and family, to the point where they never want to hear your voice again. Be temperate.

Say you’re like me, and you love to express yourself in words. You like to write, and you like to discuss the process of writing. The answer isn’t to pepper everyone with advice, hoping to come across the one person who might appreciate it. The answer is to start a blog (a vlog, if you’re more into video), or some other form of web presence, and let the people who appreciate that sort of thing come to you.

I tell every aspiring author I meet (who asks me about this) that the key is not to write for your audience but to write for yourself; your audience will come to you. Don’t think about the people you want to read your work; worry about what you want to present to the world. Write the story you want to read. People who agree with you will feel that honesty and gravitate to it.

So, when you set out to network, follow that analogy. Don’t think about the people you’re trying to attract. Think about who you are, and what you want to show the world. The right people will find you. The right door will open. It might take patience, it might take luck, and it might come in a completely different way than what you expected…but it’s a lot better than trying to change yourself to suit a path you don’t want to take.

So, when it boils down to the heart of it, it’s not what you know or who you know.