Networking can make you feel dirty. It can feel unnatural, forced, and almost cringe to reach out to people for networking.

You know it’s important. You value what a good professional network can do to one’s career. Eighty-five percent of jobs are still secured through networking, according to a 2022 LinkedIn survey. Even LinkedIn is built on the premise that professional networks can make you successful. But even the time you got past the initial awkwardness and reached out, it did not fetch you any response.

Then, are there any ways to do it in an authentic way? What kind of people should you attract to your network? On today’s show, host Akshaya Chandrasekaran invades a startup mixer to find out if people actually mix in these mixers.

Santhosh Babu, celebrated executive coach, shares a unique and important framework for creating a healthy network of people who can sail you through. Samyak Daga, Vice-President of The Carlyle Group, shares what kind of requests he approves and which ones he denies help to. Towards the end, we also touch upon less-awkward, and effective networking strategies that actually work.

Tell us what you think? You can write to Akshaya, the host, at [email protected]. Have a career question you want us to cover? Tell us.

The First Two Years is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform.