Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

Do you ever spend time networking within your own company? If the answer is no, ask yourself why not?

Two stories:
1) My sibling was working in the R&D group of a software company when they happened to be chatting with the Development Lead for the core application they built at that firm. Turns out they were short staffed and hard-pressed to meet a deadline. My sibling says something about being slightly bored and underutilized at the moment. Next day, my sibling’s desk is moved to the core application team and they meet their future spouse. Go figure. All that from a conversation they had by the water cooler.

To elaborate further, this put my sibling on the path to a senior development job within their company and positioned them well for future work. Otherwise my sibling might have ended up a research monkey writing white papers all the time and generally being an academic pinhead in Silicon Valley. Nice work if you can get it, but the money just isn’t there.

2) This week, I get a COMPLETELY random phone call from within my company. This is a really, utterly, most sincerely, random call. I only pick it up because it’s internal and I think they might have misdialed. I have never, ever seen this person’s name before. He says, “Hi! I was searching LinkedIn.com on Subject XYZ and I saw you have expertise in it. I’d love to talk to you.”

Next thing you know, he needs me to act as a consultant/resource on a development project he has going on. I’m referring him to my boss so we can nail down what kind of level of effort is needed and how much of my time my boss will allow me to use for this project. If all goes well, my team will have an additional high profile project and we will look like awesome team players within the company! That’s really exciting stuff. It’s what I like doing best and I am really looking forward to 2008.

I hope these two vignettes show how talking to other people within your company can create new opportunities for you. Sure, it helps to make friends, but what’s more important is to make allies who are on your side. I could have ignored the call that came in or said, “Sorry I really don’t think I can help you.” I admit, I did hesitate at the notion of being sucked into something in which I don’t think I am an expert. However, he was desperate for any information and it turns out by answering with “Let me see what I can do,” it gave me time to dig up some informational resources and brainstorm how I could help this guy out.

Let’s just say, I have a feeling that there are going to be some monetary rewards for this. Not only a one time Above And Beyond award, but my annual performance bonus as well. Having people all over the company say good things about you is good stuff. Your reputation is just as important as your actual merits and talents. Be sure that all of them are solid. You never know what kind of opportunities might come your way by talking to people within your firm.

Single Ma’s reputation as a valuable asset has brought her more work-life balance that she was seeking. If the right people think you are worth keeping, they’ll keep you. They’ll seek you out.

I had another opportunity this week to make a new friend at work. She’s working on a project with me and stopped by my cube to meet me in person. A long time ago she was told to send me a monthly email. But we never actually talked. Since she recognized my name, she came by my desk. She’s young and energetic. I think I could learn a lot from her about scripting and I can teach her a lot of Oracle stuff. It’s a two way street and I think because of it, our shared project is going to work better.

Talk to people in your company. Say hi. Don’t be a jerk and ask the CEO who he is though. I did that once at a company cookout. It was humiliating, but that’s what they get for not having corporate bios with photographs on our website. My only saving grace was that I was asking about waiting for the Redskins football ticket drawing and trying go back to work, thus signaling my good brownie behavior.

Sorry for rambling along, I wrote this very late at night, but I hope you get the point about professional networking within your current employer. There are benefits to it that can be harvested later if you sow the seeds now during the holiday party season!