Editor's Note: August 2006

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Make a Name for Yourself

Always one to encourage aspiration but sensing apprehension, my father repeatedly told me when I was about to embark on a new city to further career goals: “It’s easy, join a club and a parish and you’re fixed.” Easy words for a man who entered a room and owned it.

But for the rest of us, connecting isn’t as uncomplicated as improving one’s handicap. Getting in front of the right people to show your wares requires an intricate effort to formulate the power Rrolodex. To that end, in Prosper’s three- part series exploring the SARTA genealogy tree concluding this month, the lesson learned is never burn a bridge with ex-bosses, former fraternity/sorority brothers/sisters and like minds in one’s given field. Read this month’s feature that profiles the relationship talk show guru Larry King has with the UC Davis Cancer Center, and you’ll see even old girl/boy friends need a stay-in-touch email once in a while. You just never know who is going to end up where.

Indeed, social networking is nothing new. Whether you need $20 million to start a company or just a nod to secure a monthly parking spot in midtown, it can still be said, “It’s who you know.”

What is new is how we can go about social networking. Now, participating online in a professional capacity (I’m not talking My Space) is a way to make a name for yourself that can enhances career opportunities. For example, an engineer certainly has an educated opinion of how disruptive (or not) a 50-story tower could have be on a downtown, and a land use attorney certainly can shed light on public domain confusion. And these, rather than rant about it over coffee or crank out a white paper you’re just as likely to read about it in their blogs.

Continued...

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