[The Networked Society] Link, with some thoughts.

[sofiaviolet]

[Originally posted at The Networked Society]

A bit of a throwback to our strength-of-weak-ties conversations: Tenured Radical: The Social Network: Or; Does Networking Really Matter To An Academic Career?

In this post, Tenured Radical argues that deliberately "networking" (or strategically cultivating lots of weaker ties) is not particularly beneficial to academic historians in terms of their career prospects. Knowing the right people will not automagically get you the job you want. (I suspect this to be broadly true almost everywhere, actually.)

I think one of the most important parts of this post is Tenured Radical's differentiation between the various things that can influence a hiring process. Networking for its own sake: not so helpful, especially when compared to the kinds of influences over which you have more limited control. On the other hand, given the general hype surrounding networking and the fact that you can make an effort to network, I am completely unsurprised that people glom onto networking even when it's of limited utility for their concrete goals: it's popular and it can give a sense of greater control over one's life.

Tenured Radical does see upsides to networking for less concrete and less self-centered goals (Getting Shit Done, exchange of information and ideas) than the job search. I think it's best summed up in this bit from the end: This, I think, reveals the basic value of networking: when it works, it isn't about you. It's about you in relation to others.

Comments

[oursin]

Hmmm - networking is not first-order career beneficial, I wouldn't think -won't get you a job - but it has a knock-on effect that you may be more likely to get invited to speak, be involved in projects, get known and do reputation-building stuff: always provided you don't concurrently get a rep for being a diva, ignoring deadlines, and leaving your footprints on people's backs as you walk over them to get at the superstars they were talking to. And providing your actual work reaches a certain standard of competence...

[sofiaviolet]

Yes, true. I think the actual problem with networking comes when people use it as a substitute for competence. And given the current buzzword status of networking, there are perhaps elevated numbers of people using it in that manner.