Be The Driver of Your Career Success: The Key to Creating Opportunities
Graduating from university is an incredible feeling. As a natural progression from high school and elementary, many of us are brought up thinking of it as the conventional pathway to a successful career. It represents a milestone; the beginning of life in the real world. And while people often attribute the difficulties of making the transition from school to the workplace, to the challenge of finding a desirable job; I can tell you firsthand, that is only half of the battle. The other half is the paradigm shift in how we learn — and our lack of understanding of this. It’s taken me seven years since graduating, and ten jobs in four different countries to figure this out.
Having spent the majority of my twenties following my curiosity, and connecting with people from all over the world in different professional settings, with different norms and cultures; I’ve been exposed to more career diversity than most people my age. And through informal observation, interviews, and research, I’ve seen firsthand that people who are successful in living life on their own terms have one critical thing in common: a proactive ownership mindset when it comes to their professional growth and career trajectory. In other words, they don’t wait around for opportunities — they co-create them with equally proactive people. I’ve since realized that connectivism — a learning theory that states that knowing where to find information, is more important than knowing the information itself — offers a practical solution for those eager to do the same. You need to build a Personal Learning Network.
What is a Personal Learning Network (PLN)?
Jane Hart, a global thought-leader on workplace learning, defines a Personal Learning Network (PLN) as, “a network of trusted connections with whom an individual interacts (and learns from) on a regular basis.” In other words, a PLN is similar to a traditional professional network, in which making connections is the primary goal; but it adds a layer of depth to the relationships you build within it.
Think of yourself as a tree grounded by deeply rooted ambitions. Your trunk represents all of the knowledge, skills, and abilities you possess. And your branches are the sub-networks through which you acquire additional information; which in turn, render the tree more useful as a whole.
Unlike traditional professional networks — composed of all of your professional contacts — PLNs are more intentional. Connections are formed based on shared learning objectives (e.g., becoming an entrepreneur, improving your design skills, etc.), resulting in more win-win dynamics. And unlike traditional professional networks, in which inexperienced members might feel as though they’re either giving people a sales pitch as to why they’re an ideal hire, or asking favours of those more experienced; a PLN allows you to let your guard down, with the confidence that those you’re connecting with are also openly working toward improving themselves, while supporting you in doing the same. In fact, you would be surprised at how many experienced professionals are facilitating their own learning by sharing their knowledge with others; because they realize that the best way to test our understanding of something is to try and teach it to someone else.
Twitter, LinkedIn, Medium, and other interactive professional platforms have drastically increased the ability to exchange information, and connect with others in record time. Allowing people to build PLNs that transcend geographic borders, as well as corporate hierarchies. All in an effort to learn and expand.
How can a PLN facilitate both your job search and ongoing professional growth?
First let’s acknowledge the reason that the job hunt is so difficult in the first place. Most people don’t realize this but 70% of jobs are never posted publicly on job sites. And 80% are filled through personal and professional connections. Resulting in a huge disparity in employment opportunities available to students ranging from high to low income backgrounds. And while most universities do a phenomenal job of teaching their graduates how to craft the perfect resume and cover letter, as well as the need to network; many high potential candidates could be spared undue self-doubt and discouragement by understanding that in the majority of cases, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”. Which begs the question, how can graduates from low-and-middle class backgrounds access the hidden job market?
Well, networks create opportunities — like jobs. And while most people will tell you to build your network by seeking out people doing work that you aspire to do, they’re missing a key piece of the puzzle. Because if you strictly approach people for the sake of generating information or referrals for job opportunities, the dynamic of your relationships will be one-way streets, in which you’re taking from others without any real sense of how to give back. Not to mention, you might end up building a closed network, in which similar opinions and perspectives are widely adopted. Which will rob your professional growth and career trajectory of a well-rounded nature.
Think back to the tree metaphor mentioned earlier, and imagine each branch symbolizing a subnetwork within a diverse, open network — which is said to be the biggest determinant of a successful career. At least it was for Steve Jobs.
What does Steve Jobs’ success teach us about PLNs?
In his article, The №1 Predictor Of Career Success According To Network Science, Michael Simmons used the graph below to illustrate how being in an open network results in individuals achieving twice as much career recognition and benefits as they would in closed networks. Not to mention, how the diversity of an open network grounds us in reality, as opposed to biases we’re likely to fall victim to otherwise.
Simmons also used the graphic below to map out how Steve Jobs’ pursuit of “his curiosity in different fields throughout his life” facilitated the development of his “extremely unique perspective, skillset, and network; one that no one else in the computer industry had.” Which ultimately led to his creation of Apple, now the most valuable brand in the world — at more than $260 billion.
Though Steve Jobs may not have planned to create a PLN, he certainly developed one organically; demonstrating the value of learning with others, through diverse experiences based on authentic curiosities. He was known for saying that “creativity is just connecting things,” so given our minds are the most generative things in life, it only seems natural that a PLN would catapult our success.
By putting us in the driver’s seat of our professional growth and career trajectory, we’re empowered to create our own success stories. Dream jobs are co-created with others. So build your PLN, and go in pursuit of opportunities to co-create yours.
