Why is networking important?
We are all told that we need to network and networking is important to having a great career, but why? We know the benefits of networking, but have you ever thought about why it’s so important. I like to explain with a simple illustration.
Suppose that you need help from someone to do something. Maybe you want to hire them into an important role, or award a new contract to them or otherwise just get something done. And let’s say you have a choice between two people who are both qualified for the role. Here are a few scenarios:
- Random person vs a friend, who do you choose? your friend of course.
- Random person vs an acquaintance (someone you’ve met once or twice, but don’t really know them well), who do you choose? the acquantainance.
- Random person vs a friend of a friend (you don’t know them personally but someone you trust does), who do you choose? the friend of a friend
- Random person vs an acquaintance of a friend, who do you choose? the acquaintance of a friend.
- …and keep going…
And keep going. and going… and going. If you were to put random person against a friend of a friend’s friend, or an acquaintance of a friend’s friend and so on, in basically every instance, you would pick the person where you or someone you know actually knows them (on the assumption that you don’t have a negative impression of the connections involved).
So the conclusion is: sucks to be a random person. And it’s better being that someone who knows someone…
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