On Engagement, Networking, and Being Heard

Online visibility has become a key part of career growth

With the combination of technology and social media, every facet is changing fast.

The career landscape is, too.

I see first-hand the power of online presence and engagement.

On LinkedIn, I have about 4K followers, and one of my posts got 30 likes and a mere 2 comments.

A data analyst with 100K followers shares on the same topic, not even as informative as mine, and he gets 900 likes and 70 comments!

See the power of network, engagement, and visibility!

The wisdom imparted is not even as good, but they have established themselves as influencers, by consistent interactions.

Their voice has louder echoes!!! They have more visibility. The algorithms favor them.

Also in my Medium journey, I see engagement and networking bring more success than merely merits.

• My earlier posts, when I had fewer followers, published independently, and didn’t engage, hardly got read.
• Nowadays, my words get more readership, as I have thousands of followers, publish under top publications, and engage!

Gone are the days of acquiring sterling education qualifications and hoping that you will be noticed.

In a crowded world, it seems we need to grab attention through self-branding and self-marketing.

Not an easy path for my academic researcher self, but it's a necessity.

It’s a painful feeling to see people less versatile and less accomplished than me market themselves as successful figures.

Since, however, we lose nothing by interacting and engaging, but rather we create a network of people with similar goals, I say we embrace the interaction.

What do you think?