Is networking not a thing anymore?

Or, at least not as big a thing as it used to be for entry-mid level positions? I'm doing research on a career switch and I've noticed some comments from professionals, in fields like consulting, that make it seem as though networking is a faux pas. I've always felt this was the case for cold e-mails for non industry people not familiar with the concept, but seems that it's now a dominating view.


 

I think cold emailing might not work as well in general as it used to? Could be wrong but I've been doing a lot of cold emailing lately and people mostly haven't been that responsive at all. I worked in a meeting setting job in 2020 where I was doing lots of cold emailing and people were generally pretty responsive. Then 2 years later, this year, mid 2022, I tried to start my own company and tried to get sales meetings through cold email and it went way way worse than it went 2 years prior in my meeting setting job. Obviously this is just one isolated incident but I also have been doing a lot of cold emailing recently for a hobby of mine (music project) and out of the 300 people I cold emailed so far nobody has been interested in helping me out or discussing further except for maybe 1 guy, 1 out of 300 was a maybe. It's possible that the level of cold email just ramped up in the past couple of years and it doesn't work as well anymore? Could be totally off base here just providing my perspective.

 

The job I’m just starting was from an executive I worked with in 2010. He said “if you ever need anything, call me.”

I did in fact call him 12 years later and the offer still stands. What a guy.

Networking is the answer.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

easyname

did you keep in touch with him or just call him out of the blue?

The last time I saw him was 2007. I left our company in 2010 and he left a VM in 2010. I didn't talk to him for 12 years and then sent him a message via LinkedIn to get the conversation started.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 
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