Living and working in Silicon Valley means that I’ve got an immense network of friends at the various companies here.  I came to VMware on a friend’s recommendation, so I started off knowing someone in the company.  I soon discovered that a couple of other people whom I’d fallen out of contact with are here.  Of course, there are also friends of friends.  I even got a Twitter introduction to someone on the Fusion team.  The network effect is immense.

I’ve been leveraging my network to help me acclimatize.  There’s a lot to learn, and much of what I need to learn isn’t something that you pick up through online training or in a meeting.  The real learning, about what makes the company tick and how everything fits together, happens in hallway conversations or over lunch.

They say that most people find a new job as a result of networking.  This is true, but it only goes so far.  Networking doesn’t stop when you get the job.  You learn about your new job through networking too.  The first few weeks at a new job are about extending your network.  If someone says that they want to have lunch, I take them up on it.  If a friend offers to introduce me to someone here, I follow through on that.  In these conversations, we figure out how our networks already collide.  We strengthen these ties, and create new ones.

My theory is that networking makes it easier to become a productive member of a new team.  I’m trying to execute on that theory now.  Check in with me in a few months to see how my theory stood up to reality.