As your confidence grows and you feel more comfortable approaching and connecting with people, your network should start to grow. At this point it’s important to check that you aren’t being too focused and developing a network which is full of people who are very similar to you.

You need advice, support and insights from people at different career stages and in different positions to achieve your potential. This list has been developed through discussions with researchers and academics to help you develop a network that will support your career.

When you analyse your network, does it contain people who…

• Provide opportunities can they suggest you as a speaker, connect you with a key researcher, pass on reviewing opportunities?
• Celebrate your successes can they tell people about your work, promote your publications or cite them?
• Are “hubs” for other networks and groups are they interested in a wide range of people and enjoy connecting others, even when they don’t directly benefit?
• Influence agendas are they in senior positions where they may make decisions about funding or appointments?
• Share your values and interests are they interested in what you do and help you to remain resilient when times are difficult?
• Act as critical friends are they willing to review and identify weaknesses in your CV, job applications, grant proposals and presentations?
• Mentor and advise you are they generous in sharing advice and perspectives about challenges you are facing?
• Have complementary research expertise and skills are they potential collaborators who you could work with to develop more ambitious ideas and impact?
• Can provide insights into research funding are they familiar with the factors that influence success in funding and do they know who might fund and support your research ideas?

Remember that this list was written after talking to academics. If you are a researcher who is interested in pursuing a different career path, you will also need to know people who are working in this field and can help you market your experience in a way which is relevant and convincing, or can introduce you to those who could help.

Although aimed at accountants in the US, this article lists seven types of people that are useful for any personal network and is very similar to the one above for academic researchers.

This article demonstrates that networking is seen as a factor in career success across most professional areas and should reassure you that people working in all fields will be aware of how important it is and usually willing to broaden their networks.

Another report in Nature discussed a study that correlated network size to academic success:

This research is at a preliminary stage, but the results aren’t surprising. If someone is well known and has many connections there is a greater chance that someone reviewing their work for a funder or journal will have seen them speak or met them at a meeting. If they have heard the researcher talk about their work the proposal or manuscript will have the advantage of building on some initial familiarity. They are also likely to have developed stronger communication skills through talking to many people about their work and learnt what engages people and makes them more interested. All this can be distilled into more compelling proposals and papers.

Networking is often of benefit “behind the scenes” so listen carefully when people talk about luck in their careers. Rather than being at the mercy of fate, they have often benefited from opportunities and support from their networks. This idea is investigated further in this blog, based on an academic networking workshop entitled “How to be lucky”.

Before we move on, here’s a question to consider: 'Is my network as diverse as it needs to be?'

If you feel that you have a good balance in your network, the next section looks at linking your network with your career plan.

Move onto Part 5: 'Broadening and growing your network'