We’ve all seen it. In a crowded event jammed with people a group of junior professionals – or MBA students who have splurged for a ticket – glom onto a senior practitioner, manager or executive. Like moths to the light, many of these networkers are attracted to the allure of seniority, power, success and possible career advancement. So goes the theory: if I can just stand out from the crowd and get them to notice me, I may get that new job I’ve been craving. Thing is, there are better ways to enhance your network’s potential.
How to Build Your Network
At the same event others are busy gabbing with their peers and other professional acquaintances. This group is focussed on individuals with similar titles and areas of responsibility. It makes sense. There is truth to the idea that this is how to build a professional network. It’s with your peers that you’ll share common interests and these folks are probably less intimidating during conversation. These are also people who can open doors for you. Time invested in these relationships has the potential for short or medium term professional gains, such as vendors, research, books, and maybe even the contact information of that awesome thought leader who everyone else is trying to impress.
Focussing your time and energy on these relationships makes sense. But it’s also important to ensure that you don’t forget that third dimension in your potential network: students and other juniors struggling to get their foot in the door. You might not even notice them because they’re often wall flowers, perched on side of the room clutching their drink with a grip of grim death. Other times they’ll be clustered around a table, a whole mini-ecosystem of students talking to students.
Most people wrongly believe that students and entry-level talent have little or nothing to offer us. They probably aren’t in a position of handing out jobs and the professional gap between yours and their experience may make relating to them on a professional level tricky.
It’s too bad this happens because students and new professionals are an untapped and precious resource when it comes to future networking potential. Helping new professionals along with information, advice and mentorship costs you nothing in the short term – but in the long term it could be a big benefit.
Connecting with twenty-somethings and entry-level professionals is a terrific way to spot up-and-coming talent, particularly if you’re a manager. It can also allow you to get the inside scoop on a future great job opportunity for your career path and additional volunteer support for passion projects. Many entry-level prospects can also provide you with insights into how their demographic uses your products and/or services as well as how to use different kinds of technology that you might be struggling with. Not enough mid-managers embrace the idea of reverse-mentoring, and we should.
Then there’s the long term benefit. Like seeds in a garden, some of these juniors will grow into great professional successes. Staying connected to them in the longer term could provide tangible career benefits and support your overarching goal of staying plugged into network information (aptly described in an article by LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman here) – an entry-level employee is more socially networked and has way more potential in terms of bringing-to-bear a community of influencers than forty-somethings in the workforce today. After all, who doesn’t want to be connected to a future CEO or Board Chair?
People remember people who help them out, particularly at the beginning of their career. That’s how loyalty is fostered.
Supporting student and/or junior talent to develop their career potential is both the right thing to do and, if the relationships are properly grown, can leave you with a field of contacts, ideas and talent to harvest.