Pelicans

Before we identify your pelicans and dragonflies, let’s get on the same page about the values behind career networking. Wayne Baker, in his book, Achieving Success through Social Capital (Jossey-Bass, Inc., 2000), could not have said it better. “If we create networks with the sole intention of getting something, we won’t succeed. We can’t pursue the benefits of networks; the benefits ensue from investments in meaningful activities and relationships.” Networking is never about using people. Rookies or people you don’t want to hang around may take that approach, but your approach is more honorable: you’re taking the risk of helping first, without a guarantee of any return. Since you can’t help everyone in the world equally, you have to decide where to spend your time, just like you do when you’re developing any friendship.

Now, to the pelicans. Have you ever seen a pelican flying over the surface of the water searching for its next meal? When it spots its target, bam! This bird intuitively makes an immediate nosedive (or is it a beakdive?) into the water. It goes deep, disappearing quickly. Just as you think it’s going to drown, the pelican surfaces with a giant fish in its bill. Mission accomplished. You’ll want to be a pelican with many parts of your network. You’ll want to dive deeply, immersing yourself in your element. Delving deeply into your profession or industry to learn from the experts enables you to become and stay an expert also. The depth of knowledge and connections that come from these long-term, high-reciprocity ties are part of your New Job Security.

Dragonflies

Contrast the pelican’s style with the dragonfly. The dragonfly rarely slows down. It constantly skims over the water’s surface, touching down briefly then off again, moving continually from reed to water to a piece of driftwood then away. Staying on the surface when you’re building a network gives you a sense of momentum. These short-term, instrumental ties are perfect as you start a new job, as you’re learning new skills and take on new responsibilities, and, to a lesser extent, during your long term career. How else do you find out that shipments aren’t going out of the loading dock like they were last quarter? How else do you know that another company is going to outsource the payroll work that you’d like to bid on? Short-term, instrumental ties can feed you ongoing, real-time information.

Although keeping that wide-angle view of what’s going on in the marketplace is valuable, you also need the in-depth knowledge of your targeted industries and your profession. Use your networking abilities to network down and into your specialties as well as across the marketplace in general. If you stay too broad, you won’t have the expertise in any one to two areas that people are looking for. Targeted industry insights will sell you and build your reputation. You’ll know what the needs are, which companies are hot, who the movers and shakers are, what the right vocabulary is if you’re changing industries, and maybe even the names of some potential customers for them. You’ve come up with the big fish.

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