> I don't have a professional network per se, just a bunch of friends I clicked with at various companies.

You might not want to label it as such, but that is exactly what a professional network is. People can genuinely be your friends and still be part of your network.

Hence the 'per se'. Some people go out of their way to groom a network of people specifically for their careers, I was just trying to articulate that difference.

Eh, I find work "friends" to be even more ephemeral than school friends. Nobody I've ever worked with in the past has ever contacted me after I left the company we worked for. At least school friends are around for a more or less guaranteed period of several years.

Edit to add: I have initiated contact before and been well received. Nobody contacts me. It's tiring to have to do 100% of the work to maintain these relationships.

I think that's a little strange. You haven't maintained a single relationship after having been coworkers?

Try messaging someone you used to work with to check in - you may enjoy catching up or even stumble into being able to give or receive help.

Can confirm. I've seen at previous jobs that some cliques do form, especially among high-rising careerist or very social folks. Other people just don't intermingle that much and are sidelined.

Maintaining contact happens rarely. And no, a linkedin add doesn't count at maintaining contact if the last private message was exchanged on the last day of work.

I suspect there's a sort of introvert / extrovert miss match.

Sounds like it’s on you for either not being someone they liked working with or not putting any effort at maintaining contacts. Can’t always expect other people to pull all the weight.

I've had the same experience. I have no idea how this advice is working for people in most job markets - it certainly doesn't seem to be a thing in Australia.

I get it. I'm definitely not an asshole; even my ex will tell you that. People seem to like me. I’ve never gotten any feedback from any manager or team member of mine saying anything about bein difficult or anything. I try to help people out when I can.

The times when I have contacted people, it's been about as well received as I'd expect a contact from a former coworker to be. It's just that nobody ever initiates. I'm not getting anything out of trying to maintain these relationships except stress, so, why bother?

And, now, someone (actually 3 someones, because I was at +3, now at 0) has gone and downvoted my original comment for whatever reason. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm in my second role in Australia. Can't say whether it's a thing but people from my previous role (people still there and people who have moved on) definitely keep in touch with each other.

I did this for a while and certainly got some leads but the really well paid roles still seemed to come mostly via recruiters.

The "networking" was also very time consuming. It was also fun but if i had a wife and kids I wouldnt have had the time for it.

The good recruiters seemed to have a knack for finding the companies that were the right combination of rich and desperate whereas companies I found through my network were generally from companies that were always keen on talking to a decent technologist but werent exactly craving somebody with my precise skillset to start next week.

"That's the career advice I would give, build good bridges and make friends with people."

I agree. Personally I'd include recruiters in that group of people as well.

I don't work with keyword monkeys...the ones that send you job opportunities for jr. sysadmin roles 20 years into your career, because a 10-year-old resume they dug up from somewhere mentioned bash shell scripting in there somewhere.

I work with a handful of recruiters I've developed a good relationship with and who know what I'm looking for.

> I don't have a professional network per se, just a bunch of friends I clicked with at various companies. I know if they're enjoying somewhere, I probably will too, since we value similar things in the work.

I wish this were true for me. I do have people I click with but I have a personal value not to work for anywhere whose main revenue source boils down to "more eyeballs / clicks" and this rules out pretty much everywhere my past coworkers/friends have gone to work.

That is a professional network.

I think he meant that he dosen't have a huge professional network, just something slightly informal.

That is a professional network.

I was just trying to articulate what I see as a difference between a purpose built career network and a network of actual friends from work. There is a difference between those two types of networks not captured when you call them both a "Professional network".

Not to beat a dead horse, but the reason you keep getting these kinds of replies is because it seems like you have an idea about a second type of Professional Network that is different than what you described as your network of friends. Everybody's just trying to say that the real Professional Network is exactly the network of your friends, and if there is another kind of "purpose built career network" that people are talking about, it's the imitation of what you've got, not the other way around.

What you've described from your own experience is the substance of what a professional network is, and has always been. LinkedIn connection requests are trying to create a digital product in the form of the real-world phenomenon that you've experienced and described. If we're going to call one of them a professional network, everyone in this subthread is saying, let's give the real thing the name professional network, and the imitation a different name.

(None of this is intended to disparage LinkedIn. It is what it is, but if it's trying to be a substitute for real relationships between humans, it will always be the shadow, not the substance.)

Eh I think there is a huge middle ground between "network consisting of work friends" and "LinkedIn network". Maybe it's different in academia but I know plenty of people that have a strictly professional network built from real world interactions - conference meet ups, seminar series, collaboration projects, etc. They would be happy to call each other up for work purposes but would never do something purely social together or consider each other friends.

I don't think the type of network I've just described is imitating anything. They are mutually beneficial but purely professional relationships. The fact that the internet has enabled people to have a much larger number of superficial relationships doesn't mean that what the poster was describing is the only way to have a "real professional network". Yeah it's a professional network, but it's not the only kind.

That is the case I think, the two ideas about types of professional networks seems clear, and it would seem I probably see it differently to some. To me, "professional network" is better at describing a network curated for your career.

It's a tough one, because while I can see that it is also a professional network, said network would be pretty offended if I called them that. So I don't necessarily disagree with you, or even with the other commenters, but there is at least some room for subjectivity about what to call your own personal relationships.

This is exactly what I was trying to describe. People on HN are so much smarter than me lol. I used the word "informal", and you expressively described what I was intending to communicate.

To me all you’ve described is a professional network with strong and weak ties.

The difference is the intention behind the relationship I suppose. I don't think it matters if we disagree, it was an off the cuff statement. I see a difference, I consider it important. No one else has to.

I'm with you mate. Surprised how many jimmies were rustled by this.

All you're describing here is a professional network with 2 group of people in it - those you have beers with, and those you don't.

If it were that shallow I don't think I would have worried about making the distinction.