Networking Guide: Build Deep Relationships Quickly In Tech
You're back on the job search, but you aren't getting any good interviews because nobody is willing to give you a referral. You're on the hunt for a promotion, but you don't have enough peers willing to give you glowing feedback, vouching for your ability to perform at the next level.
Millions of engineers go through this every year, and this is how they learn the hard way that they didn't invest nearly enough time building up their network.
This course is here to make sure that these negative situations never happen to you ever again. After taking it, you will:
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🌟 Understand the #1 rule of networking
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2️⃣ Set up a basic 2-step process for networking
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🤝 Know how to find the best people for your network
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🏃 Develop tools to build relationships fast
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🛑 Save time by avoiding common mistakes
When it comes to an industry as hyper-competitive and complicated as tech, the reality is harsh but straightforward - If you don't have a massive squad of people behind you who truly have your back and are happy to fight for your success, you are not going to make it as an engineer.
This is why it's so important to build up your social skills and expand your network. A strong network comes with a huge plethora of tactical benefits, and it simply makes your tech journey a lot more fun as well.
Alex Chiou is a proven Silicon Valley engineer with 10+ years of experience across top tech companies like PayPal, Course Hero (now Learneo, a $3.6B unicorn), Meta, and Robinhood. His success has also profoundly reflected in his compensation growth:
- 2014: Alex made $85,000 per year as a clueless new grad at PayPal 🤓
- 2021: Alex made $750,000 per year as a high-performing tech lead at Robinhood 😎
In just 7 years, Alex was able to increase his pay by a staggering +800%, and a huge part of this was due to his ability to build a deep network and make people like him.
Applying? What's That?
Alex hasn't properly applied to a job in 8+ years, and that's because he doesn't need to. At virtually every top tech company, Alex has someone there who's willing to vouch for him. This is a big reason why he's gotten interviews from companies like these without even applying:
- OpenAI
- Uber (offered to jump him straight to the onsite twice)
- Discord
- Block
- Instacart
Forging Deep Manager Trust
If your manager isn't on your side, your career isn't going anywhere. Alex quickly learned that the hard way earlier in his career as he wasted so much potential with his first 5+ managers. However, by his time at Instagram and Robinhood, he had figured out how to take his manager relationships to the next level and get them firmly on his side.
How strong was the bond between Alex and his managers? Well, at Meta and Robinhood, Alex told his managers 2 months before that he was going to leave, confident in their trust. Both his managers were happy for him, and his Robinhood manager even pinged him personally to congratulate him for launching Taro on Hacker News!
Bringing People Together (In Perf)
Back at Meta, Alex consistently got the "Greatly Exceeds Expectations" rating on the people axis in performance review (PSC). The people axis judges the engineer's ability to align teammates and grow people, and this is something Alex regularly excelled at due to his strong networking ability. At a top tech company like Meta, everything is 5x easier when all of your project stakeholders are fighting for your success and you don't need to browbeat them with politics.
Ever since high school, Alex knew that he couldn't be the smartest person in the room. That's why instead of winning with intelligence, he took a much different (and fun!) strategy to achieve his great career success - Making as many people as possible like him as much as possible.
