Networking - The Value of Keeping in Touch

Networking isn't just speed dating for business, it can also be about extending short term working relationships into an unknown future. This is my story:

Zurich, Switzerland - 2007?

I’m invited to join a recreational touch rugby team by one of my work colleagues. At the time this didn’t seem like an event that would echo through the years. It was the act of colleagues becoming friends, of an Aussie inviting a Brit to a sport common to our backgrounds but foreign to our hosts, the Swiss.

As with IT programmes around the world, things move forward, projects end and, in this case, my Rugby playing Aussie friend moved back home. 10,000 miles and a hemisphere away, the probability that we would work together again was very low. We connect on LinkedIn, for no other reason than it is a fairly new social site.

London, England – June 2022

My wife excitedly tells me that our visas to move to Australia for her work have been granted. A new adventure, a new chapter in my life, but what am I going to do in Australia for 4-5 years. All of my professional experience is in Europe.

15 years of seeing updates on LinkedIn is not the best way to foster a friendship, but it does maintain a thread of connection. A thread that reaches around the world. One tentative message to Brett Cowan , my erstwhile Rugby playing Aussie friend, later and 15 years dissolves into an offer of help. The only problem is that my friend lives in Brisbane, 1000 miles away from where I’m moving to. No problem for him, he’ll just reach out across his network for me. Within a day a web of connections and contacts has opened up for me. I’m given a view of the IT industry in Melbourne that it would probably take a decade or more to amass on my own as well as a raft of advice on who might be hiring. ?

(Quick aside: Brisbane and Melbourne are approx. 1000 miles apart but are considered close by Australian standards, which is the equivalent of London to Vienna, Australia is huge)

Melbourne, Australia – August 2022

Looking for work upon arriving on a new continent with jet lag and picking up a Covid infection on the way in is a lonely and disorientating experience. Without my newfound connections it would have been overwhelming. I received a message from William Erskine (probably the most effective and engaged networker I've ever met) before I've even had a chance to check the jobs page to tell me that I might be a fit for a role one of his connections is looking to fill.

An introduction from Will and a recommendation from Brett finds me exchanging messages with Michael Pollino , the General Manager of AccessHQ’s Melbourne office. Michael patiently waited for me to recover from Covid and after a few coffees (this is Melbourne after all) I’m very happy to be part of a company that shares my goals.

Would I have found AccessHQ without my extended network? Possibly, but it probably wouldn’t have been as smooth and experience.

Takeaways

• IT is a remarkably small world and people have long memories. The things you do and the way you behave today will be remembered, give future you a head start by always making an effort.
• Even if you don’t think it will lead anywhere always connect with your colleagues on LinkedIn before you leave a project or company, even if you are only moving department
• Don’t be afraid to reach out to your connections if you need help or advise.
• If a connection reaches out to you, please respond, you might be about to change their life.

Huge thanks go to Brett Cowan , William Erskine and Michael Pollino for agreeing to be named here. Special thanks to Michael Pollino and everyone at AccessHQ for their patience and help during my first months in Australia and for proving there are people passionate about testing down under.?

#networking #realstories #qualityassurance #testing #relocation #jobhunt