Easy Networking 101: Be really good at your job.

About a year ago a friend of mine wrote something smart on LinkedIn: “the number one networking tip nobody will tell you — be good at your job.”

I laughed, of course, but he was right. There are other ways to network, and you can expend a lot of energy positioning yourself as relevant and visible on LinkedIn, Gamasutra, Twitter… but the quality of your professional output is your “real” reputation.

If you want people to want to be interested in working with you, and to tell other people about you: there is nothing so effective as enthusiastically doing your job well.

Console Video Game Development is a Shark Pit

One of the first things I learned when I joined the games industry: designers need to survive in a tough culture. Designers get daily feedback from all angles, all the time, and they are constantly in competition with each other. We all face competition, criticism, and stress.

There are a lot of people who want to make video games, and a lot of them want the same jobs. And almost all of the people already working in games right now want to be promoted, or have a better job next year. We compete globally for opportunities.

There’s a lot of creative stress as well: you want to make something, and the bigger the project the less control you individually have. Despite this, you’re up against tough odds; a successful console game needs to be a success on a planetary scale. That’s pressure.

To stay sane and healthy and positive, you’ll need a network of people who enjoy working with you.

Find Allies and Succeed Together

Your team is made up of many people, some of whom are amazing, and some of whom want your help. It’s also true that some game professionals are just trying to hold on to their jobs, and they will undermine or discredit you if they think it helps them survive. Oddly: none of this matters, because your best strategy is to treat everybody as allies.

People all want to succeed, with the exception of a few toxic individuals here and there. What YOU should do is to treat people as allies, even think of them that way, because it will help you to be effective with them. If you approach people from the perspective of “how can we help each other succeed” you will get stuff done, and people will enjoy working with you.

Do Really Good Work

This sounds obvious, and not everybody has the same level of talent. In video games, whether or not you’re a really amazing designer will mostly be decided by your audience months or years after you make design decisions. But people will know every day if your documents are clear and up-to-date, whether you come to meetings on time, and how you treat your colleagues.

Find your best working mindset, and bring it every time.

If you try hard every day to produce the best work you can — people will remember.

Doing really good work is not a substitute for networking; forging alliances and having contacts is still important. But networking is so much easier when you have nothing to hide. After all, you’re great at your job.