It’s a widely held truism that your social network is vital when climbing the career ladder, and various figures are produced to illustrate the number of jobs that are filled as a result of word of mouth rather than advertising them on the open market.  What’s more, it is widely believed that this occurs increasingly as you increase in seniority.

So your network is important, but are all networks created equally?  That was the question posed by a recent study from researchers at Northwestern University and the University of Notre Dame, who wanted to test whether the usefulness of social networks differs for men and women.

The researchers analyzed the emails of volunteers recruited from the student body at both universities’ MBA programs.  This consisted of over 4.5 million emails exchanged by over 700 students in 2006 and 2007.  The email analysis allowed the researchers to understand the social network of each student, and how these networks influenced the career progression of each student after graduation.

Beneficial networks

This data was combined with data collected from the school records of each student to compile a networking map that the researchers compared with the careers each student had upon graduation.  The analysis reveals that male students who were in the right networks were around 1.5 times as likely to progress into leadership roles after graduating than men who were in the wrong networks.

For women however, there was no such premium, even if they were in the ‘right’ network.  Where networking did seem to be beneficial however is if they were in a social network that was primarily made up of women, in which case they were 2.5 times more likely to graduate to a leadership role after leaving school.

Whilst the authors don’t have any explanations for why this is, the answer may come from a study published a few years ago, which explored the differences in how men and women network.

The paper reveals that men tend to gain much more, financially at least, from their network than their female peers.  It showed that men tend to gain more, in terms of both on the job performance boosts but also in terms of subjective evaluation by their peers.

Whilst there was no real difference in the number of connections in the networks of men and women, the male networks were much more bound by the ‘old school tie’, which led to the networks delivering greater value later on in their careers.

Enjoying networking

A study from Rotman that was published a few years ago suggests that many of us find networking to be a rather grubby affair, and this puts us off from engaging in it.

“People feel that they cannot justify their actions to themselves, and the lack of justification comes from the difficulty people have in framing some forms of networking as motivated by a concern for other people versus a selfish concern,” the researchers say.

The authors believe that this negative stigma can be overcome provided people begin to see networking as an opportunity to learn new things and not a reflection of themselves as individuals. This mentality is something that I’ve touched upon a few times recently as something that is key to success in all manner of ways, so it’s perhaps no surprise to see it as a suggested benefit for networking too.

They also suggest that it helps to view networking as an opportunity to offer others a bit of help or advice. Once you begin to see networking as more of a two way street, they suggest it becomes a more enjoyable experience. Or a less nauseating one at least.  Perhaps this shift in approach could help to redress the balance somewhat, and make women’s networks just as potent as mens.