Something interesting happens when you start professionally networking. People start to notice you. The number of connections that I have on LinkedIn currently exceeds 400. These are all people that I know personally, or have in one fashion or another interacted with professionally. This isn't the same thing as a Facebook friendship. I don't currently use Facebook (which is a long and rather non-relevant story here) and even when I did, I had less than 400 friends. Yet, each one of the interactions I have on LinkedIn has some kind of relevance me professionally.
Something interesting happens when you start having a wide professional network. People start to notice you. I have recruiters contacting me routinely with new potential positions. Most of them are just desperate and trying to meet a head count for a nameless entity that they may or may not really care all that much about. Some of them don't even really speak fluent English. I even had one ask me if I was fluent in "C Pound". <phone click>
However, if you can tolerate a little bit of "recruiting noise" networking is one of the best ways to find employment - whether through a conventional "career" or by acting as a consultant. When you put your experience and your knowledge on the internet for everyone to see, you expose yourself to potentially amazing things. My current position is absolutely no exception to this rule. Every job I've held has been "better" than the last one, whether through an internal move or by changing to a different company. Because of my family responsibilities and the relatively low need for contract work in the market I live in, consulting hasn't really been a viable option for me to consider. Plus, I really do love my current job.
However, with the wide berth you get having a global profile on the internet, companies from all over the country/world know about you. And there's a talent shortage for good engineers right now. But, the best companies want to ensure they get the right people. And they're going to dedicate resources to researching finding the right people for their organization.
Amazon has contacted me twice about starting a position with them. Unfortunately, moving to Washington isn't really in the cards for me. But it's exciting to me that large companies like them take notice of my capabilities. And it was easy to do. LinkedIn is really a powerful tool that no professional should ignore.
There's other kinds of professional networking available, too. Believe it or not, Twitter is a great resource for professional networking. As long as you use it properly. There's also this archaic medium called face-to-face conversation that works pretty well too.
Most of the engineers I know either consider themselves socially inept, or just really don't care about the socialization aspects of their careers. A small core group of guys that I know really well all stay in touch via Google Hangouts. I think this kind of communication is critical. A few of them even keep me honest on this blog, making sure I'm not screwing up spelling, grammar, and other important things. And they're giving me content feedback, too.
Your professional network may just be one of the most important tools you can rely on for growing your career into the thing you want it to be. If you ignore it, you'll likely be stuck just applying blindly for jobs that you may or may not even want. If you capitalize on it, I really don't feel like there's a limit to where it can take you. What do you think?
