Why the word puts people off

Most people dislike networking because they are imagining the wrong activity: collecting contacts, working a room, asking strangers for things. That version is unpleasant and it also does not work particularly well.

What actually produces opportunities is a group of people who know what you do and think well of you. That is it. Most jobs, clients and introductions in Pakistan come through somebody who already knew the person, and that is not a defect of the market, it is how trust travels everywhere.

So the activity is not meeting more people. It is being useful to the people you already know, and staying in occasional contact with them.

The reframe that makes it bearable: you are not asking for things, you are making yourself findable and helpful. The asking, when it comes, is a small part and it comes much later.

Your existing network is larger than you think. Classmates, former colleagues, teachers, family connections, people from a course, people you worked with once. Most people have a few hundred and are in touch with six.

Weak ties matter more than close ones for opportunities. Your close friends know the same things you know. Somebody you met twice two years ago moves in different circles and hears about different things, which is why the loose edges of a network produce most of the introductions.

And it takes years, which is the argument for starting before you need it.