How To Find The Best People For Your Professional Network

Many software engineers are introverts who have a hard time connecting with others - We've been there too! This can make it really daunting when trying to build your professional network: How do you identify those who you'll get along with? This video covers how you can find those people who would be great to bring into your professional network.

Here are the core points:

• It's not too different from making friends - The most basic barometer for a relationship's success is how much you two have in common. Having mutual interests and similar backgrounds maximizes the chance that you're able to interact and understand one another.
• The most successfully relationships are bidirectional - The most successful professional relationships are those where each person is able to provide a lot of value to the other. The split should be as close to 50/50 as possible - If there is one party providing an overwhelming majority of the value, this relationship is not meant to last. When you're evaluating whether someone would be a great addition to your network, don't only think about how they can help you, think about how you can help them as well.
• Identify those who actively add value to others - If someone is kind in a general setting and always happy to help others, it is likely they would be a great person to know in a more personal 1 on 1 way. When you strive to add value to these people, they will almost certainly return the favor, and at its core, this is what a healthy relationship looks like.

Related resources:

• [Masterclass] How To Build Deep Relationships Quickly In Tech - The full video where this clip was taken from
• Effective Communication Guide - Building Relationships
• "How to get referrals?"