“Those who invest in both their work and relationships will reap the greatest number of opportunities”. -Peter Fiske.
I have a friend who believes in me and in my passion for science. He knows how much it means to me to be able to share my thoughts on the matter. In an attempt to get my “writing groove back”, my friend and I went to a bookstore. In the magazine section I found the August 27th issue of Nature magazine http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v524/n7566/full/nj7566-507a.html. The careers column titled “Know your network” written by Peter Fiske, highlights the importance of having a professional network to help advance your career, and how social media can be used as a professional networking tool. I was immediately drawn to it. After all, networking is something we all have struggled with at some point in our careers and social media is nowadays the bread and butter of our lives. So I thought would be great to write a discussion about it.
We know it is difficult to keep a balance between work and our personal life, and even more difficult to network outside our job zone. We have been brainwashed into thinking that the only thing that would make our careers successful is the time spent working in the lab: the more time we spend working, the better chances to get published in a high profile journal, the more likely we secure a successful job. As Fiske mentioned in his column, “They [advisers] might implicitly or overtly discourage students and postdocs from engaging in non-research activities for fear that these extracurricular pursuits could marginally erode the trainee’s research productivity”. All that matters is the amount of data we produce, and in doing so we are made to believe that “their [advisers] colleagues will be the main source of your next professional opportunities”. Evidently, this idea represents a lack of real mentorship and leadership.
In reality, all those long hours of hard work in the lab mean nothing without a professional network, especially if we are considering a science career outside academia. If we keep our network restricted to the same people we see every day at work, or to the same people in our academic group, it might not help us as much as we think. We need to network outside our comfort zones. The challenge for scientists is then to find the time to develop and cultivate a professional network. Thanks to social media it is possible for us to develop a network with professionals outside our job zones, with similar career interests or with job positions we aspire to have. But I have to say that even when social media has become a serious tool for professional networking, it is not a substitute for face to face networking. That said, social media allows us to expose ourselves to the outside professional world, which would have been impossible for us to reach otherwise.
Image credit: Kevin Connell
Fiske talks about three levels of networking, and how these are easily distinguishable in social media. The first level refers to the people we feel comfortable reaching out to with questions or requests. Typically these are friends or close colleagues, they know who we are and what we do. People in our first network level are the ones we can ask for personal introduction to someone they know in the industry or any organization we are interested in. The second level refers to their friends and/or contacts. People in the second network level are influential in the further advancement of our careers and development. People in the third level are less inclined to help us because they have no personal connection with us. To solve this, we have to strengthen our connection with people in the second network level, as the author suggested. In doing so, our second network level can become first level.
It would seem at first that only connecting with new people is enough, but having a professional network means we have to dedicate time to build up relationships. Like any personal relationship, our professional network becomes stronger and long-lasting with dedication and communication. We have to establish communication, showing interest in what they do, and help them when they need. If we treat our professional network as personal relationships we create better chances of advancing our careers. As Fiske wrote in his column “The degree to which you help others is often linked to how much help you, yourself receive”.
The take home message is to work as hard in developing our professional network as we work in the lab bench. Only in that way we will move forward in our careers. Remember, after all...“no man is an island”. We need each other.