Different Concepts of Networking

Social relationships, friendship and networking seem to be very different in the United States than it is in any of the countries I am familiar with. South and Central American countries are very small and its social and economic classes are very divided. Therefore, societies tend to be small and everybody usually knows each other. Sometimes not directly, but everyone is the friend of the friend, the cousin of the wife, they went to high school with the sister or somehow they end up being distant relatives. The societies I know of only have one or two degrees of separation, it only takes one or two people to reach the person you are looking for.

When coming to college, I found out that networking not only worked like this for my country, but also for several other Latin American countries. I quickly became friends with other people from Latin America, who knew some of my friends and I had heard of some of the names of their friends. Knowing everybody wasn’t only something that happened in my country but in the neighboring ones. I could quickly relate to somebody in Panama or Nicaragua because my friends were usually friends with their friends, and so on.

Networking was something I never thought about. I used to take it for granted. I have always been able to reach people easily and I never thought of how beneficial this could turn out to be. Now that I read about it I find out how complex and useful networking is. Now I understand why for us things seem to be simpler than they are in the States. You can easily find the friend of the friend to fix things, to help you find a job, to give you a contact’s number or to provide you with essential information that will make a difference in your job or business.

Networking in bigger countries and societies is a very different concept than what it is for me and I guess most of the people in my society. I learn now that it is studied and extremely valued. Where I come from, you are born into a network whether you like it or not so you don't really pay attention to it. It is something helpful but undervalued. I guess that if we took our time to realize what we have in front of us, our countries would be far more efficient than what they are now.