How to build a genuine professional network
Investing in genuine career relationships will provide a safety net during a layoff, accelerate your career growth, and help you discover new opportunities
As the old adage goes, “It takes a village to raise a child.” It holds as true for a parent of a newborn as it does to a job seeker looking for their next role. This season in tech is also a rough one, with layoffs leading many to seek employment because they are forced to. In 2023 so far, almost 800 companies have had tech layoffs impacting over 220k people. That’s more than a quarter of San Francisco’s population.
I was also personally impacted. Last month I was laid off, and ended up recently landing my next job a month later through my network.
At the time, it felt serendipitous for a friend to refer me to an opportunity that matched what I was looking for as my next step. Over the years though, I had cultivated a few different ways of building out a diverse network so when the time came to make an ask, I had folks who were willing to help me out.
Genuine networking is a pill, not a vitamin
Now is the best time to build, invest in, and expand your network. But first, let’s take a step back. I’m not talking about the stereotypical images you may have about the term networking, or asking you to force yourself into bad experiences like that awkward industry event where you ran out of things to say after a few minutes or past trauma on how to best answer that dreaded question “what do you do for a living?” where your first impression can make or break your perceived likability. That’s not what this is about.
What I do want to share is how to build a genuine professional network. One where people will support you when you need it, understand your strengths and interests well enough, and will vouch for you when you’re not in the room. And given that a relationship is a two-way street, you provide the opportunity to do the same for others in your network.
Whether you’re an introvert, new to an industry or profession, or feel like you’re too busy to add anything else onto your plate, I want to assure you that it is possible to develop and maintain relationships. It doesn’t have to feel forced or burdensome.
Genuine networking takes time
The truth is that building real relationships will also take time. But that shouldn’t be news to you. Anything worth doing takes time.
Genuine networking is all about allowing opportunities to come in a way you would have done it anyway, where it feels easy and natural. Basically, it taps into your zone of genius (and can even help you discover it through conversations of how you talk to others about yourself).
It will take initial work to find the places and people you want to stay connected to, but just like any good design project you want to start broad before you narrow. Given that humans are social creatures and a lot of us have become more isolated, it’s really in your best interest to put in some work to building and cultivating any type of social relationship.
Genuine networking helps you cultivate friendships based on common professional interests or growth areas for any technical or leadership skill, and thinking of it similar to exercise or eating veggies — building out your network is good for you!
How to invest in your relationships and build your professional “village”
If you’re looking to build out or expand your network, here are a few approaches that worked for me:
1. Join or build a community
What I recommend to emerging designers, hiring managers, or those who are looking for their next role to do is look for groups that support your professional niche and even the intersection of your identities or growth areas. In addition to “product design,” I’ve joined groups around being a mom, a woman, a leader, and a designer interested in product and growth (btw, in this last case I mean “growth” in the customer activation and retention sense, not in the personal development sense I usually refer to). You can search for local groups that meet online or in-person, too. You’d be surprised what exists out there!
Here are a few I recommend:
- Facebook groups: Moms in Tech, Women in UX, Tech Ladies
- Invision’s Design Leadership Forum
- Hexagon UX
- Friends of Lenny’s Newsletter
- Growth Designers
- and of course Capitol Creative Alliance if you’re a creative in the Sacramento/northern CA region* :)
*On that last one: When I moved out of the Bay Area in 2019, I founded a meetup that put on a monthly UX lecture and workshop series for a few years, including in-person portfolio reviews. Through this experience, I led a team of six volunteers who met biweekly on Saturday mornings, and I had the chance to connect with speakers and other professionals that I wouldn’t otherwise have had the chance to meet. I‘ve been able to help folks find their next role, connect to each other, and even volunteer to guest speak at events or classes.
We eventually joined forces with a few other local creative groups to form the non-profit Capitol Creative Alliance, where my local network has grown even bigger and I am able to provide recommendations on who in my network is strong at a particular skillset, whether that’s the ‘unicorn’ combo of dev+design, or someone with strong illustration chops. Offer: If you‘re looking to start up your own community and need a sounding board, I’m always happy to chat!
2. Actively engage in the communities you join
Most of the groups above are digital, but some also have local offshoots or gatherings by city. However you decide to engage, life is too short to be dead weight in any community you join. :) As someone who has spent a good amount of time and energy designing for active participation in forums, I encourage you to be self-driven here!
From time to time, engage with group members by:
- Asking for advice
- Providing your perspective on a topic
- Sending a DM to someone who sounds interesting and see if they’re open to a coffee chat
- Sharing a resource you’ve found helpful
- Volunteering your time, whether someone needs a research participant or another pair of eyes to review their portfolio
Sometimes, this engagement is a one-time thing. Other times, it leads to a few more chats, and maybe a chat on one topic leads to others and before it, you’ve made a new friend.
In terms of job searching, a lot of these groups will also have hiring managers seeking recommendations for a freshly open role, or job threads for job seekers. If you’re looking for a role or have someone to recommend, these groups make it easier to be more than faceless resume in an ATS abyss — you can reach out to hiring managers directly, get some clarifying questions answered, and even play matchmaker if you know someone who would be a good fit for the role.
3. Deepen relationships with people you enjoy connecting with
While networking is great to get to know others in your profession better, you’ll realize that some people truly “get” you. Maybe this is a lifelong connection, or a relationship that becomes extremely relevant for a season of your life.
When a former coworker and I reconnected digitally during lockdown and realized we both wanted to build on a concept of Life Experience Design, we spent over a year building a course and podcast around it together.
When I was working on a game idea as a passion project (which later became a story, and finally evolved into the essence of Swishie), a learning experience designer reached out to learn more. While I never launched the game beyond a game narrative prototype, at the time she provided me with awesome feedback over the next few months that helped me refine the project. We continued to stay in touch through each of our career and live transitions over the years. She originally lived in another state but coincidentally ended up moving 30 minutes from me, where her extended family happened to live. We’ve met up in person a few times since.
In summary, when someone crosses your mind or you have an interesting idea, dig into your mental rolodex (do people still know what that is? haha) and reach out to someone just because. If they don’t respond it’s not the end of the world, and I wouldn’t take it personal. They might just be in a busy season of their lives and will reach back out when things calm down.
Tools and resources
Other than relying on Slack and Facebook notifications and regularly carving out time to to engage with community members, and seeing career updates from those I follow via LinkedIn, I use Google Calendar to schedule reminders to touch base with folks at a regular cadence (e.g. 6 months or a year out) and use Calendly to make it easy to share calendars to reconnect with someone.
I’ve also started a spreadsheet to also remind myself on how I met someone if it’s the first time we’ve chatted and quick notes on what we talked about, but most of these conversations are organic and I take more of the “people flow in and out of our lives” approach.
Now, it’s your turn ✨
These relationships: touching base can be as simple as a brief email, a LinkedIn message, or a text to connect for a coffee chat. It doesn’t matter if it’s been a year or two — life’s busy. If you can swing an in-person meet up, great. (This is particularly convenient if you are traveling to the person’s home city — then you get a tour guide or great restaurant recommendations on top of reconnecting with a person). Otherwise, a video or phone (yes, phone calls are still a thing) call to catch up helps water that relationship.
Make sure these aren’t always transactional, but come from a genuine place of curiosity, empathy, and an open mind to see how the other person is doing. Who knows — their pivot to coaching, starting a new certification, or decision to take a break from working will be just the inspiration you need to uncover or unblock something in you.
In summary, building a genuine professional network takes time and energy, but it’s time well spent when you think about it as adult friendships being good for you.
To do so, go broad and then go narrow: explore and join communities, actively participate in them, and find some folks you’re interested in connecting with. When you find people you enjoy talking to, try to reach out regularly because it feels good to connect and not just because you need something.
