In our always-connected world, it’s sometimes easy to lose track of the value of direct human interaction. But that interaction—networking, in other words—is one of the most valuable aspects of any career, and it’s a critical soft skill to master and maintain.
Networking is the process of getting to know other people in your field. I’ll share a sad fact from recent experience: you can upload your résumé to as many online job postings as you want, and you’re likely to hear back from only a tiny fraction of them, no matter how well qualified you are. Even with the best résumé, finely tuned for the artificial intelligence algorithms that take a first pass on all applicants, the odds that a human being will ever see your information are slim. Many online job postings get thousands of applications—too many for any one to stand out easily.
In writing this book, I spoke with hundreds of people who got new tech jobs, moved up in their companies, or transferred to different teams in their companies. The majority of these people told me that they’d never have gotten the job if someone else hadn’t spoken up for them internally. If their network of colleagues hadn’t lifted their résumé out of the digital pile and called the hiring manager’s attention to it, they never would have gotten an interview. That’s “why networking.”