April 14, 2007: I entered ISB for the first time to pursue my MBA. I reached the main hall where registration was taking place. As soon as I entered the hall and looked around, I was shocked. I got nervous and whispered to myself, “My God, so many girls.” My pulse rate increased and so did the movement of my eyes from left to right to left. I noticed many of the guys were talking to each other as if they had known each other for years. I preferred staying quiet, and listening to other people’s conversations. Though all the guys seemed Asian, they spoke with a strong American accent. I felt like a “Gaanv ka chhoraa” who had come from Bihar to a place like US. “Gosh, these guys have all come from abroad it seems. How will I talk to them in an American accent? If I talk to them in my normal Bihari accent, they won’t even talk to me. It is better I keep quiet or ISB will disown me acknowledging its mistake in letting a Non-American in.”
When I was at one of the counters for my registration, a hot and a very cute girl standing behind me asked, “Which year did you pass out in?” My heart told my mind, “Sahi hai bete, line de rahi hai. Attitude dikha.” So, without even looking at her, I replied, “2005,” and moved on.
When I tried to match her picture to the girls in the profile book (this book has the picture and profile of each admitted student), I realized she was an HR consultant. Thinking I had a chance to know another hot girl, I waited for her to catch up with me which she finally did before we got into the next line. While we introduced ourselves, I realized she was no different from the others. “Another American at ISB,” I said to myself. Just to build some conversation, I asked her in my Bihari style, “Kya kar raha hai ye log? Aisa lagta hai bahut saal se jaanta hai ek dusre ko. Humse bhi bina matlab ke aakar ‘hi’ bol raha hai koi bhi jisko jaante tak nahi hain.” She replied, “They are NETWORKING…Getting to know you.”
It could be because of my average intelligence or because of my low work experience that I never realized why I needed to network. Four months down the road, I have realized how important networking is (I am being sarcastic ;) ).
I had my reasons for not networking during the first few weeks. I did try to network the first few days at ISB but met all the wrong people who screwed up my time and grades. At the first batch party, I was drinking and listening to other people talking. “Hey dude, I am Mr. X. We haven’t met yet,” one of the guys said to the other. The other guy replied, “What are you saying? We met at the dinner table yesterday.” This is exactly my point. For the first two weeks, everyone used to introduce himself/herself to scores of others in the name of Networking and the very next day used to forget everything. What is the point in wasting time knowing people who will not remember you or who you would not remember the next day, leave aside after ISB. I said to myself, “Let them network now. Networking karne se job thode he lag jaegi meri? I will network in the ‘second week’, once things settle down and we are divided into separate sections.” Call it my reluctance to talk to people or laziness or my bad experiences with some people who I tried to network with during the first few weeks at ISB, that ‘second week’ never came. Believe it or not, one of the guys (who had been attending classes in the same section as I was, for more than a month) was talking to me once. He asked me, “Which section are you in?” “Damn it…am I so unpopular?” I questioned myself and my popularity. “Cool it dude. I must be popular amongst the girls here,” I consoled myself.
Networking did try to screw me up when I had to apply for an ELP (projects that we do for companies). I did not have a team until the night before the deadlines for ELP applications. I could not apply to the first ELP offered on campus from a reputed firm because I did not know how good that firm was and I had missed the deadline for application too. Had I networked, I would have got to know it from my networks. Even for the team formation for ELP, I have been shooting emails to the entire student community to get in touch with other guys like me. I have been lucky enough to get offers from other teams; no, not because people know me but because people know my alma mater, IIT Roorkee. I have said it so many times to myself, “2001 mein jo accident (I got through IIT) hua tha, uski kamai abhi tak kha rahe hain. IIT brand name na hota to kya hota?”
Still wondering whether networking is important or not? The answer is, “It depends.” In your personal life, you never know who you might need and at what point of time. If you are good at developing and maintaining personal relationships, you should network. Do not waste your time if you cannot maintain relationships. In your professional lives, you can network with people who are in the same line that you want to get into. You need not network if you have faith in your capabilities and do not need favors to get to the top. In some cases, networking is a MUST, like, if you want to be an entrepreneur, you better start ‘NETworking’ or your business will be “NOTworking”.
To me, (if you look at the reasons people give for Networking), Networking is all for selfish reasons. You never network because you want to help people but because you want other people to help you when you are in deep shit.
If you thought networking could get you a job, think again. Will you offer any of your acquaintances a job just because you know him/her? Probably not. Imagine a second situation that happens in future: You and I were batchmates at ISB. You had heard I was a stud (just assume) in the field of manufacturing but we had never met or talked to each other. There was one other batchmate of ours at ISB who you still know very well but he is just average in the field of manufacturing. If you needed a stud, who would you go for, your acquaintance or me? If you would go for your acquaintance, you should network but if you would go for me, you should not worry too much if you are not networking. Having a decent number of acquaintances who slog out networking would suffice. That is the strategy I follow ;).
Despite the above stated negatives about networking, I love networking. Just read on and you will know why…
I have not yet mentioned, the most important point regarding how important networking is. For bachelors, networking can help you diversify the risk of suffering if you break-up with your girlfriend. It gives you a chance to own a diversified portfolio of female friends that will enable you to live happily ever after…
Oops!!! Happily only until marriage... :)
