Network More, Network More

The power of network is always touted as something that most MBA applicants and candidates desire. However, apart from building a network in business school, I feel that it is equally important to develop a "rich" personal network at work. The reason, I use the word "rich" is because I have always tried to actively network with people from other functions. As I introspected a bit, I realized that the limiting factor in my approach is that most of people I have contacted are the people that I have had to deal with as a part of my job function. Therefore, most of these people have adjacent responsibilities. The problem is that there are several functions in a company, that are equally vital, but I really never have met these people. Consequently, I have little knowledge about

So why am I bringing this up? Mainly because as we go through the MBA program, there will be courses that require different projects in different areas. With a cross-organizational network in place, it might be a lot easier to get insight into potential challenges and have an opportunity to solve them. More importantly, this may be a way to demonstrate interest and value to the company( and potential bosses). May be there would be a possibility to translate these opportunities into a lateral move in the future.

So my new motto is - Network more, Network more.

So starting this week, I am sending out emails to "contacts of contacts" to set up lunch meetings to get this going. My networking skills probably need a lot of work. Sometime down the line, I will post something about what I learned from my networking experiences. For now, I am keeping my fingers crossed.