It's the Network

I was visiting with Russell last night, and he is contemplating two job offers again. The thought crossed my mind that he has advanced his career quite well, and that it is largely due to the networking advantage. He became friends with some important people at earlier jobs who have helped present opportunities along the way. The disadvantage (well, one of…) of working at a small family-run business, where most of the employees stay until retirement, is that it lacks outside contacts. The only network I developed would keep me here. Then I remembered the one network contact I did have, and the job I turned down. The guy who hired me at GE Power Systems had transferred to GE Medical in the Milwaukee area. I was in Wisconsin at the time, and he offered to get me in at Medical. If I recall, I turned it down because I didn’t want to be in Wisconsin for however much longer. In retrospect, that was probably a really dumb idea. After being in a nowhere job at a nowhere company in a nowhere town for 4 years now, I would have been much better off climbing the ranks of GE. I would have Six Sigma certification, medical requirement experience, and be in a large organization with facilities ALL over the place. In other words, as I look through job postings now, I would be qualified for many many more of the good jobs in cool locations. “If I knew then what I know now…”