This week I was invited to talk at the annual conference organised by Postdocs at the Institute of Cancer Research; the Conference’s theme was Networking and I was asked to talk about
how networking has influenced your career and any top tips you might have regarding networking techniques.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to spend much of the day there, which was imaginatively held at a ten-pin bowling alley so that informal networking could take place within the context of rivalry over strikes and near-misses. I couldn’t even watch the speed-networking event – 3 minutes to tell your life story – or listen to other speakers. I hope they had a fruitful day between themselves.
Networking is a phrase that was not much in circulation in my early days. I assume it’s part of management-speak, and certainly people like Suzanne Doyle Morris (author of Beyond the Boys’ Club) and other writers on the subject of self-help are keen advocates of the advantages of networking in order to progress. They are probably right, but setting out to do it by rushing up to people, shaking them by the hand and repeating their name several times to imprint it on one’s brain – which I think is what self-help books tend to advise – always seems a bit over the top to me (although not repeating their name several times, by the time you’ve reached my age, means you don’t remember it. Apologies to everyone whose name I have ever forgotten….I’m afraid that’s quite a few people). Nevertheless, talking to people wherever you meet them and then trying to file away their names, life histories and professional activities undoubtedly has the potential to be very beneficial.
I like John Ziman’s description of this in his book Real Science, taking a sociological point of view, looking at the way we interact in terms of the culture we produce. He stresses that a network actually has two components, the nodes – which are the people – and the links which represent the activities and modes of communication that bring two nodes together. So, it isn’t sufficient that two people meet, shake hands and, like ships that pass in the night, move on. There has to be an interaction of sorts for the network to form. Shaking someone by the hand and repeating their name three times is not enough to forge a link, there must be something more specific and memorable.
So, when asked to talk about networking I don’t usually talk about people I have met, or conferences where I have deliberately set out to get to know some famous figure, because I don’t think I have ever operated like that. When I think about my career path, more relevant to me, was the sabbatical visitor from Australia I met when I had just moved into the field of polymers who was delighted to help me get to grips with some very basic concepts which I would have been embarrassed to ask my professor about or the committee member I met a couple of times, with whom several years later I felt I had enough familiarity to contact about some research, out of which a brief collaboration ensued, with corresponding publication. I don’t think one should set out to cultivate the ‘great and good’ but build links wherever we can.
These links need to be strong, thick cables, to support a network of any meaning, not just mere bits of fluff loosely assembled. So, they need to be worked on to provide that strength. I tend to believe, although I know not everyone would agree, that collaborations only work well when there is some good chemistry between the participants. If the collaboration is simply a case of one person using one sort of technique on a sample, and someone else using another then that may be sufficient. But if, as in much of what I do, one is working with people from other disciplines that minimalist approach to collaboration really won’t suffice. It takes time to build up a good rapport with someone when every other word they utter initially you have to ask them to explain in words of one syllable so you can grasp a concept that is their bread and butter – and they need to do the same in reverse. So, meeting someone briefly may be sufficient to create that first strand in constructing the link, but time, energy, enthusiasm and some sort of personal chemistry will be needed if the potential collaboration is to mature into something that can withstand the frustrations of research.
Another type of networking involves building up links to people to whom you can turn for advice. In this case the strength of the link needs only to be sufficient that you feel comfortable approaching them with whatever query you may have. Perhaps you’re job-hunting and recall you met someone in your field from the university advertising a post; can you ask them for some inside information about the strengths and weaknesses of the relevant department? Or you may recall chatting to someone you chanced to sit next to one meal at a conference and they had expertise in a field you want to move into – can you drop them an email asking for advice? Email makes this easier because if they want to say ‘no’ they have time to frame this tactfully in their response, causing less mutual embarrassment. Such occurrences can be relevant at any career stage.
But again, to my mind. the most useful people are those with whom you ‘click’, perhaps fuelled by alcohol when you bump into them several times at the conference bar, and who over time can become people with whom you feel able to share your ups and downs in a more personal sense. We all need people like this, ideally people a step or two removed from one’s own environment but close enough to understand the challenges staring one in the face: should you accept some new responsibility (those in your own department may have a vested interest), or go abroad for a period? What about the problem we all face sometime or other, how should you deal with a difficult colleague – always tricky to discuss with ‘locals’. It is good to get a spread of views and external ones may well approach the issue with a different perspective from those in your immediate circle, but you have to be able to trust the person you are asking, and this most certainly doesn’t happen overnight.
I think many of the aspects of networking beloved by self-help authors relate much more to some sort of instant gratification, and possibly are more appropriate for spheres beyond science and/or academia. The little I have read suggest this, using phrases such as ‘marketing yourself’ and ‘connecting to the right people’, as if you know who these are in advance. Perhaps this is relevant if you are setting about getting a job and meet the Section Head of a company, but may be less relevant for progression in science. Nevertheless, seek people out and see what transpires. If they are your peers they may turn into friends, if they are more senior they may become a useful source of advice and supporters of your career, in essence mentors, in either case they may offer opportunities for scientific collaboration. But nothing comes for free and only by putting effort in will the rewards be forthcoming.
