Ways the World Can Change
I was facilitating a training session with a group of tech professionals this week, when in-person networking came up. At one point, I said “Yeah, it’s interesting I think, how networking can still be an important skill to learn.”
“What do you mean ‘still’?! Of course it’s important - always has been, always will be.” One of the participants jumped down my throat. A man, 50-something. He was adamant: being good at in-person networking is a basic requirement for success in business.
Then another participant chimed in - a woman, late 20s-ish. “Not at my company. We’re fully remote. We hire by scouring LinkedIn, then reaching out to people we think will be a good fit. We very rarely meet in real life.”
They were both certain that networking either was - or wasn’t - important. And from their respective perspectives, they were right.
I don’t think the man was entirely wrong. There are clearly still industries and situations where networking remains a vital skill to have.
Neither do I think the woman was entirely right. The fact that more companies are taking more of their work online doesn’t mean we can ignore networking.
There are two reminders here:
- Things change. Am I changing accordingly?
- Not everyone sees this the same as me.
And of course, this isn’t only about networking…