The Networked Professional

I have always thought of the word “Networking” as a business term used to excuse spending lots of money in a bar or restaurant entertaining people who might be able to throw you a bone at some point in your career. I also used to think of it as a practice that I wasn’t interested in and I didn’t really see how it could help me in my career, however during this course I have really opened my mind as to what networking actually is.

We all have networks, whether they are professional or private, and we use them every day without really considering what we are doing. Personally, I see my most valuable network as my professional network of Actors or dancers or singers that I have worked with in the past. Someone once told me that the hardest thing about getting into musical theatre is getting your foot in the door and once you are in, you’re more likely to work. I think there is a lot of truth in this to the extent that you work with people and they provide feedback to others about your skills and professionalism and in turn you build up a reputation that dictates how others look at you in auditions and castings and therefore determines whether or not you get the job. The more contacts you have in the industry, the more likely you are to have built up a reputation (be it a good or a bad one) and I think this is where networking comes into practice.

I think one of the biggest revolutions in Networking in recent years has been the development of social networking sites such as facebook, twitter, myspace etc. I also think that this is where most of my networking takes place, purely because it is an easy and non-intrusive way of contacting other professionals and it’s a great way to keep your ear to the ground and find out exactly what is going on in the industry. If, for example, I wanted some free tickets to a show for a colleague, I could simply find a friend that is in that show and send them a message on facebook with the mutual understanding that if they ever wanted free tickets for the show that I’m in, they are welcome to get in touch. This is where I found the article on “game theory” in the reader to ring true.

In Axelrod’s article he talks about Cooperation in a mathematical language that may not seem applicable in the musical theatre industry. Axelrod used a game called “the prisoner’s dilemma” to put to the test methods of cooperation where players were rewarded for cooperation but where one player could also take advantage of the other player for personal gain. To me the most interesting observation was that TIT for TAT is almost always mathematically the best strategy. TIT for TAT was the simplest strategy and it was the best, whatever the player does to you, you do back, meaning if they want to cooperate, you cooperate back, if they take advantage of you, you take advantage back.

To me this applies in the real world almost universally, I get free tickets for their show, they can have free tickets for mine; I submit their name for a job, they keep me in mind if anything comes up. I think it is also just good practice to treat others as you wish to be treated and hopefully, this will come back to you. All of this comes down to your reputation which as I said earlier, I believe to be just as important in the casting process as your talent, if people have heard that you are good to work with, they are far more likely to employ you than if your reputation is not a good one. I think the best way to keep a good reputation is to maintain your networks, and make sure that you help and work with the people who may one day be able to help you.