Networking

What does it mean to you when you think of the term 'networking'?

To me, it implies that you are opening up to people. I don't think it is something that can be done purely to enhance your career or job prospects; you have to genuinely enjoy meeting different people and be happy to share your experiences with others. It is an accelerated form of the socialising you do with a cocktail at a birthday party. Any other benefit that comes with it is merely an added bonus - to be allowed to see how other people live and work is a form of privilege in itself. People don't open up to you if they see the slightest hint of self-interest in your approach to them.

I'm generally friendly towards people I meet for the first time, but I don't consciously network. I do however, know a number of people who network almost as a full time job. For example, E. has arrived in Hong Kong only 9 months ago. During those 9 months, he has managed to meet 600 people.
"I seldom sleep before midnight," he said with a grin when I expressed amazement at the number of contacts he had made.
"You're still only 23, that's why you can do it," I retorted, but I was still impressed with his achievement. He runs several drinking clubs - which may explain something. He also is a member of LinkedIn.com, an online networking group. He told me that despite his own impressive stats he knows of someone who has 1,200 people linked in to him through that site, a site that has no photos of people (unlike Friendster) but simple descriptions of each person's job/company.
"You can achieve four degrees of separation," he said. Indeed. If I work on this networking thing as much as E. does, I want it to end up with me being one degree of separation apart from Tom Cruise, Ian McEwan or someone else famous. M ha ha ha.