This quote says it all:
It’s from an article on the 9/11 memorial and how an algorithm was used to inscribe the names in particular places.
That could easily be applied to your career as well. The connections you have, with people that know you, respect you, like your work, like you, etc. are the most important things you have.
Your skills matter, but the skills help build those connections.
Learn to network.
Cross posted to The Modern Resume
If the Gartner Group is correct, and we are looking at a workplace that is more dynamic, more disconnected, more virtual, and involves us working with many more people that we are not very familiar with, are you prepared? Do you know how to work with a team that might come together in a short period of time and disband a few months later? Do you know which people in your company you like working with, and perhaps more importantly, which ones you don’t?
The idea of swarming teams that come together for projects and then disbanding them is one of Gartner’s predictions for the workplace over the next decade. I met someone recently who works at a company that is trying some of these techniques. People are working in virtual teams, and it seems to be working well.
Some time ago I was giving a talk on the Modern Resume, and someone asked me what they should do on LinkedIn or any social networking site. This person had signed up and didn’t know what to do after that. My response was to start networking with people, which is a hard thing for many people. I had to go back and spend some time thinking about what networking really is, reading a little about the topic, and coming up with a list of things that you can do to build your network online.
I think social networking is an interesting skill that might become more valuable as we interact with an ever increasing number of people in a virtual sense. Whether your company decides to implement swarms and virtual teams, there are plenty of opportunities to meet other professionals in your field outside of work, and many of these opportunities are over social networks like LinkedIn or Twitter.
Steve Jones
I wrote recently about my efforts to network a bit more at events. Part 1 was to spend more time with people that engage me. This entry continues with the second thing I’ve done.
Since I speak, it’s easy to pick out people that have been in my sessions. I make it a point to look around the room as I speak and make eye contact with everyone, or at least look at everyone. Do that often enough across 60 or 90 minutes and quite a few people stick in your mind.
Then when I see people walking around later, I’ll say hi, and ask them if they enjoyed the session, did anything stand out, maybe ask about their job, etc. I look for a connection.
If you’re not a speaker, you can do the same thing. When you go to an event, look for people in the audience. You can pick the speaker, but it’s often easier to connect with audience members. Scan and pick out a few people. When you see them later, even immediately after, strike up a conversation. Ask them if they enjoyed it, ask them what they thought of some point, or if they understood something.
Try to engage for 3 or 4 minutes. You might never see them again, but you also might find a new friend that you keep in contact with.
I’m not a big networking person. I know that it’s good for my career, but I’ve been lucky enough to get myself fairly well known, my picture is on daily emails from SQLServerCentral, and so a lot of people know of me. As a result, I don’t have to do a lot of networking.
However I have started to make it a point to do some short sessions with people I don’t know at events. It’s easy to spend time with people I know, and that is valuable, but that doesn’t expand my network, or help me find people that I might want to know better.
So I’ve started to do two things that help here.
Quite a few people want to say hi to me, shake my hand, or even ask a quick question. So instead of saying “thank you” and moving on, I decided to try and do more. As people do engage me, I stop, take a few minutes, ask them a question or two, get to know something about them, and make sure that I don’t disengage for at least 2-3 minutes.
In doing that, I’ve found a couple things happen. The first is that I tend to remember the person more so that I recognize them again. It means that I have a little more of a connection, and it might lead to more interaction later on.
I can also potentially get some good ideas. I’ve heard a few cool things about SQL Server or careers from a few people that I’ve stopped to ask a question about. Someone told me a LinkedIn story that helped them get a job. Someone else told me how they use SQLServerCentral, and that’s valuable information for me. Another person gave me some insight into their job, which is for a media company and that was just a neat thing for me to hear.
For Part 2, tune into the next blog entry.
Voice of the DBA 