Networking 101 — with case-studies and personal anecdotes!
Establishing a strong network is a crucial part of your professional success. Probably which is why students across the world still vie to get into the top ivy league colleges despite the democratization of knowledge by the internet. When done right, networking can provide a range of benefits from exchanging knowledge, resources, ideas, opportunities that can propel your professional career trajectory to the next level and foster some deep friendships/relationships along the way.
Your network is your net worth!
A fascinating headline of the classic book by Porter Gale, but an exceedingly daunting task to execute efficiently, more so in the age of professional networking platforms. My own journey has been filled with highs and lows.
By the end of this post, I aim to leave you with specific, actionable steps to get started with your networking journey — irrespective of whether you are a 20-year-old hustler or a 40-year-old pro by sharing my top 5 learnings.
Let’s get down to the fun part now —
1. It’s easy to connect but challenging to stay CONNECTED.
In the age of LinkedIn, it’s easier than ever before to get connected to individuals and call them a part of your network. However, connecting with an individual on LinkedIn is merely a small step. The onus is on you to learn from the individual’s experience and expertise, which is only possible if you stay “CONNECTED.”
Now how to stay connected? Staying connected doesn’t necessarily mean meeting people one-on-one. One of the many reasons why people use social media is because they don’t get to meet everyone in person. The key here is to build meaningful connections, and no matter what others say — simple things like wishing them on their birthdays or congratulating them for a promotion or wishing them luck with their new job do matter — they’re humans after all.
Let me share a personal anecdote that might make it slightly more relatable.
Case 1 —
Key: PC — Pratyush Choudhury (Me), I — someone I connected with on LinkedIn during my freshman year.
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Premise: A conversation during Feb ’17.
PC — Hello sir, I am Pratyush, a freshman from IIT (BHU), majoring in Pharmaceutical Engineering. I am fascinated by the healthcare industry.
I am the winner of the Hult Prize India finals 2017 (with a project that deals with the extraction and testing of the yield of Astaxanthin from the algae strain under varying stress conditions of pH, salinity, and metal impurities) and have some prior experience of working in the healthcare sector as I’d interned in the Supply Chain Division of Pfizer in my winter break.
I would love the opportunity to intern at ABC in a profile that suits my background. I would be extremely grateful if you could give me the chance to convince you of my abilities.
I — Hey, Pratyush. Thanks for writing in. Why don’t you send me an email and I will forward your request to a few teams, and we will take it from there?
PC — Sure, sir, and Thank you.
The conversation then went to emails, and due to a fortunate turn of events, I ended up getting that internship. However, that’s not the point I am trying to make here.
Premise: The same people renewing their conversation in August ’17.
PC — Thank you, sir, for helping me with my applications. I had a fulfilling summer in which I got to learn about the various aspects of the consumer healthcare industry. None of this would have been possible without your help.
I — No mention, Pratyush. I saw a spark in you and felt an obligation to direct your request in the right direction. Probably the team saw that as well, and that’s how things worked out the way they did. Keep that spark alive, and there’s no stopping you.
Premise: The same people renewing their conversation sometime in 2018.
PC — Congratulations on your promotion, sir. Here’s wishing you all the very best for the new challenges that lie ahead. I hope you are excited for the new journey ahead.
I — Thank you, Pratyush, for your wishes. And wish you all the best for your future endeavors too.
Premise: The same people rekindling their conversation in Aug ’19.
PC — Sir, it’s been a long time since we last chatted, and I trust you are doing great. I want to start by congratulating you as I learned that you have been promoted and are now leading the Global HR for specific categories. Also, I got to know about the last project — the HR chatbot. I have heard great things about it.
I know this might not be ideal for me asking this, but I was wondering if it would be possible for us to have a small conversation sometime. It’ll be an honor to learn from your experience, and given that I have a lot of interest in the space, it’ll satiate my curiosity. Please let me know. And congratulations, once again.
I — Pratyush, How are you?
Thank you for your message, compliments, and good wishes. I am preparing to leave India soon and have many items to cover off. As much as I would love to, at this moment, I won’t have time for a chat and meet up.
Let’s stay in touch, and we will meet for sure whenever I visit India, or you visit the United Kingdom.
All the best for your future endeavors too. I have been following your LinkedIn updates and am happy to know that you have not let that spark disappear.
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I haven’t had the chance to personally meet this gentleman — who, by the way, is probably just one promotion away from becoming the Chief Human Resource Officer of one of the largest consumer healthcare brands in the world. However, that hasn’t stopped me from staying in touch with him via social media platforms.
His contributions to my professional journey have been immense. Though all of this started with a desperate message from me seeking his help for securing that dream internship, something convinced me to put in the efforts to stay connected with him all these years. I think it has worked pretty well for me.
2. Be frugal in your interactions.
This might come across as an understatement, but when you’re on your networking spree at a conference of that event, it’s essential to understand that you are asking the person for their precious time — I wish I could emphasize more on the this.
The smartest networkers know the reality, which is why they always make it simpler for the other person. There can be numerous ways to make the process simpler, but the first step is still being “frugal” in your conversations — asking them precise and relevant questions; expecting insightful answers which would often stem from their experience and expertise (isn’t that the whole point behind networking?).
Case 2 —
Key: PC — Pratyush Choudhury (Me), I ~ Mr. Brown — someone I got connected with through a familiar friend, Mr. White — the familiar friend. Mr. Brown and Mr. White are anonymized names.
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Premise: It’s my birthday, and it’s early morning (roughly around 6 AM). I receive a call from an unknown number. It turns out he was the ex-CTO of an international Payments Gateway.
PC — Hello?
I — Hello. Good morning Pratyush. This is Mr. Brown here. Mr. White must have mentioned that I’d be calling you.
PC — Yeah, yeah. Hi Mr. Brown, I had prepared a few questions that I wanted to ask you. Please give me a moment to pull that out.
I — No worries. Please go ahead.
PC — So Mr. Brown, I have the following questions for you: I follow this with three exact questions — specifically asking about his pivots in his professional journey; what were the driving factors behind each and his thoughts on a hypothetical professional journey I had planned for myself.
I — This is among the most precise questions I can ever imagine a stranger to ask me. Mostly, people of your age ask very vague questions, which forces me to establish a big premise before they start coming to relevant questions. This is neat, simplifies a lot of things for me, and is really appreciated.
He answers all of them, supplementing them with hypothetical scenarios that I might encounter in my professional life. He also asked me to stay in touch and wished me “Happy Birthday” along with luck for my future endeavors. It was easily the best birthday gift I could have asked for in 2019.
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In conclusion, one can only allot a few minutes for interaction. Once allotted, the onus is on you to make the most of the allocated minutes. If you make it simpler by not making them establish a premise, you free a lot of time that can be spent on listening and addressing your issues.
3. Ask them tough questions and be relentless.
Asking simple, straightforward questions (which you can otherwise Google) just highlights your naivety. Virtually, it also means that you are wasting their time and their potential.
My personal experience tells me that asking tough questions helps. Let’s try and break down what a tough question means. In an interview, a strong green flag is when the questions from the interviewer keep getting tougher. Typically it says that all your answers to that point have been spot on, and the interviewer is impressed and is challenging you to see how you’d react. In other words, (s)he is particularly interested in having that conversation with you.
Going by the same analogy, asking tough questions to a seasoned professional exudes your passion as it’s tough to ask good, tough questions otherwise. But above everything else, it just shows that you are keen on having that conversation with them and that you are invested in it.
Case 3 —
Key: PC — Pratyush Choudhury (Me), I — someone I connected through my blog and LinkedIn posts. “I” stays in the US and belongs to the C-suite of a top tech-driven consulting company.
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I — Hi Pratyush,
I have been reading your posts and they are a breath of fresh air amidst all the copy + paste world of LinkedIn. Keep up the good work.
PC — Thank you for your kind words. I just try to express my thoughts on the platform. The aim is to convey that my maturity/understanding is beyond what my college degree certifies.
I — That is clearly evident. My Whatsapp number is _____________. You can message me there. I typically keep Whatsapp in mute but see it during intervals. So expect a slight delay in response :)
The discussion moves to Whatsapp now.
For the last one month, my learning in data science has stopped as I am busy learning how to create videos :) .. I hope I get bored and get back to data science. In case if you find something interesting do share
PC — I’ve always longed for learning from experienced people — things which you don’t find easily on the internet. I don’t have an interesting thing rn but I have something thought-provoking. I’m not sure if you’d want to take a shot at it.
I — Sure.. why not?. I am all open for anything that is thought-provoking as well.
And we end up having a good discussion around certain upcoming trends in the technology world. I ask him for some feedback on my efforts too.
PC — While beginning my college career, I didn’t know how to start. I was more of a Product Management Enthusiast and didn’t enjoy pure software development as such. I like Data Science/ML now but again seeing how different pieces fall together to create significant business value is what excites me and keeps me up at night. Coders and Developers have Github to store their projects. Medium blogs are my way of documenting my thoughts/opinions/experiences and saving them for the future. Luckily, earlier this year, I got an appreciation email from Satya Nadella for my LinkedIn efforts. Couldn’t have been humbler. I would love to pick your brains and would be grateful if you can share some gyan.
I — Oh that is really great.. Getting appreciation from him is really great.. looks like I am talking to a legend in this chat :)
Boss. You are very smart enough to know what is good and not right for you. You really don’t need gyan for sure that I know :) I am pretty sure you will continue carving that niche for you and in case you’re stuck anywhere, I am just a call away.
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Despite the admiration, I might not get a chance to meet this gentleman in-person ever and yet he’s always been available to review my work, give me suggestions/feedback, hear me out on my career plans and share his thoughts. While only he knows the reason behind his generosity, I believe he likes to hear me out because I ask him tough and intelligent questions that stretch his thinking as well. As long as you challenge the thought process of a person, (s)he would definitely listen up with rapt attention.
4. Social Media is a powerful means; exploit it.
A cornucopia of opportunities, social media is one powerful tool to up your networking game. A professional networking platform like LinkedIn is a confluence of like-minded people. Blame it on the horrendous traffic or the long working hours, certain professionals (especially the consultants, bankers, VCs, and entrepreneurs) don’t quite have anything better to do at those times.
And just like most humans, these professionals are also driven by the sinister human desires — some flock there for personal brand building, some use social media because they want to share their life accounts for others to learn from, and some just skim through the feed to kill time (which is subjectively better for them than scrolling through a TikTok for example).
Case 4 —
Key: PC — Pratyush Choudhury (Me), I — A complete stranger and a consultant by profession. His peers were equally unimpressed by him is what he claimed in our first conversation.
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Premise: “I” comments on my LinkedIn post. Albeit contrary to what I had expected, his comment was insightful for all the readers.
PC — Hey I,
Thank you for taking the out to comment on my post. I really appreciate your efforts in sharing those insights with everyone.
I keep following your posts on LinkedIn and I must confess they do intrigue and tickle the business enthusiast in me.
I — 👍
PC — I just wanted to ask one thing — inspired by your posts, I am also trying to engage with my extended LinkedIn community. Would it be fine if I tag you in a few posts where I think your insights/views might help the community that’s reading the content?
I — Of course. I. Might not reply at times. Like I have a mega bid submission in a few days and I’m numbed out. But if it’s thought through, eventually I will.
Also, engagement is a two-way street. I help you. You help me. Together we grow. Of course. Whenever possible. Let’s not make it a daily chore. Life is hard as is.
— — — — — — —
We have become friends over time and look out for each other in ways be can. He’s an ex consultant and that helps me satiate my curiosity too.
Case 5 —
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There are few people in technology who can claim to have made a profound impact in the world of technology than Satya Nadella. And I am such a big fanboy that I am going to be absolutely shameless about it.
The thing about admiration and fanboying is that you tend to track each and every impression of your star. The process has never been easier, thanks to social media. And this is exactly what I have been doing over the last few years.
This was one major inspiration pushing me to try and generate analytical pieces regularly on LinkedIn, thinking about why it makes sense now or why it might make sense in the future, on all things technology. While only some of them were able to manifest meaningful discussions, I learned that regularly publishing your thoughts is not just inspiration but also grit.
And little, did I know what was headed my way.
It was the morning of the 5th of February, ’19 (Indian Standard Time), when I got an email note from Satya’s office acknowledging my blogging efforts. This was a reply to an email I had sent him thanking for regularly sharing his insights and learnings on LinkedIn. I had also mustered the courage to include a few links to some of my blog posts on Microsoft, why I admire his leadership and how I see the world of technology shaping up in the near future.
Coincidentally, according to Pacific Time, this was the day that marked his 5th anniversary as the CEO of Microsoft.
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An average netizen spends about 5 hours on their smartphones per day, 80% of which is spent on social media. Imagine dedicating a fraction of the time stalking people you look up to and trying to document a piece/multiple pieces that talk about why you admire them. Keep doing it until the day you think you are ready to send this across to them via email/Twitter/Social Media messages. If (and this is a BIG if) everything goes well, you might get lucky and hear back from them just like I did.
It might sound stupid but can be extremely rewarding for there is no greater vote of confidence for your efforts than the person’s note who inspired you to take this up in the first place.
5. Stay on your toes, always.
Besides you, lie stretches of opportunities — sometimes the depth of this line would surprise you.
The funny thing about networking is it comes from the most unexpected of the places during the most unexpected hours. Hence, it is imperative for you to be on your toes, all the time.
I guess moving straight to the anecdote, in this case, which would help, both, elucidate the impact and save time.
Case 6—
Key: PC — Pratyush Choudhury (Me), S— A stranger I befriended at an Airport Lounge during a long layover.
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Premise: S was wearing an ISB hoodie while I was wearing an Amazon T-shirt. S was alone, sitting on a desk while typing away on his laptop. There was no vacant space anywhere and hence I decided to request him to see if I could tag along.
PC — Excuse me? Do you mind if I sit here?
S — No, no. Please. He scoots over to make some space for me.
PC — Sir, Are you an ISB Alum? I ask this because you are wearing this hoodie.
S — Yes. Actually I did my PGPMAX (executive MBA program) from there.
PC — What was the experience like?
S — I went back to school after 15 years after completing my M.Tech from IIT Kanpur. The course and curriculum required a lot of grit and character. But it was worth it as it did propel my career, professionally.
PC — What do you do now, if you don’t mind me asking?
S — I run my own business now. It is in a niche area where we marry core civil engineering with technology and consult clients like Indian Railways, NHAI, Border Road Organization, etc. We are scaling up and are currently looking to deploy our solutions on the cloud and at the edge.
PC — That is really nice. I have some experience there as I interned at Amazon Web Services this summer.
S — That’s good to hear. We are looking for a Cloud Consultant to understand our existing solutions, evaluate the maturity of different cloud providers and help our developer team deploy the solutions onto the cloud. Do you think you could help us here?
PC — Sure. It would be something new for me as well. I relish challenges and I am definitely up for it.
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A random conversation at an Airport lounge ended up getting me a sweet deal and opened up an interesting opportunity for me. To give you some perspective, I have been operating as a freelance consultant and up until now, I have generated a little more than INR 60,000 for me in revenue from my 4 assignments. However, this single project gave me more than that. I guess the key takeaway here is to keep your eyes and ears open as no opportunity would pass by without knocking. But it is completely up to you to make the most of it. And the people who don’t understand it term it as luck.
Disclaimer: The names have been anonymized and certain details in the conversations have been tweaked to maintain privacy and avoid any potential clashes with the Non-Disclosure Agreements I might have.
It is humbling to be able to share some of my learnings and experiences in the form of a blog post. With a selected collection of case studies and personal anecdotes, I have tried covering a relatively less talked about topic.
Please note; I like to believe I am slightly above average when it comes to networking. And while I have tried to share many actionable and transferable accounts from my personal experience, it is absolutely possible for you to follow them to the core and yet not get any success or not follow any of this and yet get far better conversion rates — please use it at your personal risk.
I do believe that this post can help students network effectively and leverage the experience of those around them to catapult their professional careers into the desired directions. I started late and had to learn the basics the hard way for I didn’t have such a guide early on in my college life.
I know it has been a long read but I hope it left you better than it found you.
If I made any errors, please do not hesitate to let me know. I’d be happy to learn your take/critique on this.
This is usually where I urge the reader to give the story a few claps as it is a great sign of encouragement for the writer. However, since the aim of this particular post is to help, I’d urge the reader to give it a few claps and share it in their circles and with anyone else, frankly, should they feel it can help them. Please remember, however, that you need to be logged in for the same.
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Views expressed here are my own and don’t reflect the views of any of my employers, present or past.
