Human networking

[blu at vl.com (Tom Metro)]

Scott Ehrlich wrote:
> Of the job postings I've scoured, with the overwhelming talent that
> currently exists in the market, human networking has become ever more key
> in at least gaining an interview for most any preferred job.
> ...
> I propose a networking email list to bring everyone together in one
> central place.
> ... 
> Some areas I feel such a central list would help are to:
> 
> - gain an inside connection with an organization
> - gain a feel for an organization's environment when applying for or
>   interviewing at said organization
> - assist people in transition from one professional area to another or one
>   aspect of life to another

I've always been skeptical of groups that have a primary purpose of 
networking, rather than networking happening as a side effect of some 
other activity. It seems the best these organizations can hope for is to 
draw people in by offering talks and information on career improvement 
and job searching. If this is the "bait" being offered, then the people 
they attract will primarily be unemployed people, and that isn't the 
ideal audience to achieve the goals you list.

Despite that, these groups do apparently work. Perhaps David Kramer can 
elaborate on what http://www.windnetworking.net does to address this 
limitation. But it does make me wonder if there is a better way.

It seems what you really want is some compelling way to draw together 
the IT people in this region. Career related discussion could then 
happen as a byproduct of that.


> I know about Linked In, Monster's networking, and other
> similar web sites, but they seem to cater to the country, if not the
> world, can cost money, and are just too generic.  I'm looking to bring
> together the IT talent that exists for the Metro Boston/Eastern
> Massachusetts area, and help people connect.

A lot of companies are trying to go after the social networking market, 
and LinkedIn's approach is only a part of the solution. It is good for 
connecting with people you already know and people that they know, but 
it doesn't facilitate casual communication, like a discussion list does.

A step in the right direction would be setting up LinkedIn groups for 
local user groups, like BLU. And perhaps one for New England area IT 
professionals. But it might cost money (LinkedIn suggests that they'll 
waive fees if you promote them to your group), and it's still not clear 
that you could motivate people to join a "New England area IT 
professionals" group, or even LinkedIn.

(You might have better luck working with http://www.mydirectties.com/ a 
competing service offered by a local startup. It's less polished than 
LinkedIn, and obviously has a smaller existing user base, but they'd be 
more likely to be flexible and adjust their service to achieve your goals.)

Meetup.com is another approach, which has other pieces to the puzzle, 
but has a poor business model (it's too expensive).


> An argument can be made that user groups are made for this, but there are
> some who cannot make it to such meetings, and user groups can tend to
> attract only those people interested in the niche of that group, and many
> IT people simply are not good with human interaction/networking, and feel
> more comfortable behind a keyboard.

Existing mailing lists seem to be the answer to all of the concerns you 
raise, except the niche problem, but I'm not sure how you go about 
making a generic, umbrella organization compelling to join. What does 
the busy, employed IT worker have to gain from the group?

  -Tom

-- 
Tom Metro
Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA
"Enterprise solutions through open source."
Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/