Career

How to network

I hated the word for years, mostly because of what it’s made to mean. Stripped of that, it’s a simple thing: be useful to people before you need them.

1. Stop calling it networking.

   The word implies a transaction with a hidden agenda, which is why most people are bad at it. Call it meeting people whose work you find interesting, and the behaviour sorts itself out.

2. Give first.

   An introduction, a link they’d want, a note on something they made. Small and specific. A ledger you have never put anything into is not a ledger you can draw from.

3. Make the ask small and exact.

   “Can I pick your brain?” is a request for an unbounded amount of someone’s life. “Twenty minutes, three questions about how you moved from X to Y” gets said yes to.

4. Weak ties do the work.

   Mark Granovetter’s 1973 finding still holds: most people find jobs through acquaintances, not close friends. Your close circle knows what you know. The useful information is one ring out.

5. Follow up within forty-eight hours.

   One short note referencing something specific they said. This is the entire difference between a conversation and a contact.

6. Keep a list.

   Name, where you met, what they’re working on, when you last spoke. Not a CRM, a text file. Memory is a bad system and you will meet more people than you think.

7. Go where the people already are.

   Conferences, meetups, the comments under good writing, the small Slack or Discord where the actual practitioners talk. Proximity does most of the work that charm gets credit for.

8. Write in public.

   Publishing what you’re learning inverts the thing -- people arrive already knowing how you think, and the conversation starts three steps in. It is the highest-leverage move on this list.

9. Ask for advice, not a job.

   Advice is flattering and cheap to give. Jobs are awkward and expensive. People who have given you advice tend to become people who mention your name in rooms you aren’t in.

10. Close the loop.

    When their advice works, tell them. Almost nobody does this, it takes ninety seconds, and it is the single most reliable way to be remembered warmly.