The 85% Rule: Networking for Real Career Growth You’ve updated your resume, polished your portfolio, and scrolled through hundreds of job listings this week. But let me tell you a crucial truth about the modern job market: sending out those applications is only giving you a 15% chance of success. The uncomfortable reality is that 85% of jobs are filled through networking and networking only. If you are still relying on an ‘apply and pray’ strategy, you’re missing out on the vast majority of career opportunities. Redefining Professional Networking Many people think networking is a formal way of asking for a job, but that is a transactional approach. And frankly, it’s pushy. True networking is about mutual growth. It is building professional connections in the digital world that ultimately help both parties. Think about the human connection in your personal life. Why do you make friends? It’s so you have someone to be there when you need a shoulder to cry on. But that connection requires effort on your part, too; you have to consistently show up for them. A network works exactly the same way. If your conversation with a connection is always ‘I-based’ – always asking what they can give you: it’s not a conversation; it’s a one-way street. You must always ask yourself: What value do I bring to the table? The Career Multiplier Effect: Accessing Hidden Opportunities I am perhaps the biggest ambassador for the Career Multiplier Effect because it has defined my entire journey. Every significant career step I’ve taken, my first internship, my part-time jobs, and my first full-time offer, came directly from my network. I actually received my first offer letter when I still had about 20 days of college left, all because someone I knew was leaving their job and offered a referral. In fact, the reason I am sharing this information with you today is because of a network connection I built six years ago. Here is how the Career Multiplier Effect works to accelerate your career advancement: Hidden Opportunities are Unlocked: Many jobs are never formally advertised. Especially in fields like media, where I work, a lot of roles exist in ‘hush-hush offices.’ Companies, particularly large ones, often lack the energy to sort through 200 different job applications. If I have a trusted connection who has worked with me for five years telling me someone is perfect for a role, why would I listen to 200 unknown resumes? Word of mouth really works well. Social Capital Outpaces Skill Capital: Because you are networking online, you are present across multiple spaces, in groups, post comments, or even carousel posts where people tag you. This continuous visibility builds your social capital. Your social capital grows faster than your skill capital. It’s what proves you have a lot of people to vouch for you and gets you a seat at the tables where real opportunities are being discussed. Insider Insights into Industry Trends: A strong network offers a huge advantage: insider insights into industries and trends before they become public. For instance, by speaking to the right people, I got early information on the Indian wig market being the ‘next big thing’. This is vital for my work in the media industry. If you have a network base out of the US or UK that keeps you updated on global social media trends (like those on TikTok), you gain an immediate competitive advantage for your local marketing strategy. How to Build a Flourishing Network To build a flourishing network that serves you over the long term, you must commit to three simple, yet critical, rules. These are the pillars of all my professional development: Be Visible: You must keep showing up. Consistent presence is key. This means being seen across your chosen professional platforms. Be Valuable: You must add value to your connections’ lives. This could be as simple as the ‘two-minute favor’ like appreciating their posts, or sending them a free resource, like a link to a webinar that aligns with their professional goals. They are people too, and you need to put in effort for them. Be Memorable: You have to bring value in a way that truly matters. If your contribution matters, it will stick in their minds. Remember: your goal is to turn initial conversations into collaborations. Sustaining Your Professional Development: The Analogy This process requires a long-term mindset. I want you to look at networking through the planting seed analogy. You don’t plant a potato seed when you’re suddenly hungry for aloo paratha. You plant the seed today, and you consistently nurture it over a period of time with water and sunlight. Only then will you be able to reap what you’ve sown. You cannot go out networking when you are desperately in need of something, because that desperation will make the interaction feel transactional and not mutual. Plant the seed today, nurture it over time, and see where it takes you. For those of you who want to combine a strategic networking approach with the high-level acumen needed to be truly valuable to your professional circle, I encourage you to explore Online MBA at Manipal Academy of Higher Education. These courses provide the rigorous framework and strategic insights necessary for transforming ambiguity into clear strategy, positioning you perfectly for maximum career advancement.
Digital Marketing: The Data-Driven Roadmap to Growth Have you ever tried to nail down a single, perfect definition for Marketing? In my experience, it’s not about one action, but the strategic planning of every action. Here’s the simplest way I can explain the difference between the components of marketing: If the circus is coming to town and you paint a sign saying, “Circus coming to the showground Saturday,” that’s Advertising. If you put that sign on the back of an elephant and walk it through the town, that’s Promotion. If the elephant walks through the mayor’s flower bed and the local newspaper writes a story about it, that’s Publicity. If you get the mayor to laugh about it, that’s Public Relations. But if you plan the whole thing? That’s Marketing. In today’s world, though, that definition has evolved. Now, there is a critical element of performance attached to it, that’s what we call Performance Marketing. Read more: MBA in Marketing or MBA in Digital Marketing: Which Should You Pursue? The Core Strategy: Data, Creativity, and MarTech For years, I have worked at the intersection of sharp technical knowledge and a strong grasp of digital marketing channels. I believe data is the backbone of every successful strategy, helping to balance great execution with real results. When you’re making marketing decisions, they must be calculated and driven by a clear data perspective. However, I want to give you one clear byline: do not let data kill your creativity. You need both! What powers this entire high-performance approach? Marketing Tech, or MarTech Stack. This is simply a combination of tools that help you execute your performance marketing activities efficiently. It’s all about having connected systems that talk to each other to help you perform better in your campaigns and targeting initiatives. The fundamental technological pieces you must understand are: Google Tag Manager (GTM): This is a container where you can deploy all your codes (tags) from different platforms like Meta and GA4 onto your website using a single code. Meta Pixel (or Facebook Pixel): This code, found in your Meta Business Manager, allows you to track conversions and build audiences on the Meta platform. GA4 (Google Analytics 4): This is your core tool for understanding website behavior and generating valuable second-party audience segments. Read about Mastering the 7Ps of marketing mix: Comprehensive guide to get successful Decoding Your Customer: Buyer Personas One of the most important things you should keep in mind when starting your work is understanding the Buyer Persona. You need to define who you are talking to. Let me give you a personal anecdote that proves this point. When I was part of the founding e-commerce team at Godrej Nature’s Basket, the monthly online revenue was only about 20-25 thousand rupees with 10 to 15 transactions. After 18 months of work, the online revenue increased to 6 lakhs and monthly transactions hit 465! How did we achieve that huge jump? We started truly understanding the consumer profile. Here are some tips to achieve such results: Go beyond basics: When capturing customer information, you must go beyond just name, email, and phone number. You need to capture attributes like what category or specific products that person buys more. Define unknown consumers: For ad targeting, we target the unknown universe by creating fictional profiles. For example: a “25-year-old woman interested in Formula 1, watches Netflix, and is a big anime fan“. This allows you to select specific interest and behavior categories on platforms like Meta or Google to target them better. Create three personas: At any given point, I recommend you have at least three buyer persona definitions for your business to cover three different target audiences effectively. The Foundational Formula for Performance and Attribution When you are asked to prepare a campaign or run ads, there is a fundamental formula I always use for identifying the right audiences: First-party data (the low-hanging fruit): This is your own data, the phone numbers and email IDs of your existing customers (say, 5,000 consumers in the last year). Website visitor data: Audiences generated from systems like your GA4 or Meta Pixel implementation. Lookalike audiences: Audiences created on Meta or Google that are lookalikes of your first-party data or website visitors. Saved/in-market audiences: Starting from scratch on a platform to do interest and behavior targeting (Meta) or using custom data segments and in-market/affinity segments (Google). Also read: BBA in Digital Marketing: Course Guide The Attribution Mandate If you want to be a successful performance marketing professional, having the Attribution Mechanism in place is extremely critical. Attribution defined: Attribution is simply knowing which ad set, which campaign, and which platform gave you that particular inquiry, sale, or transaction. Go deep: You need to be able to go beyond the campaign level and know exactly which specific ad in that ad set gave you the transaction. Avoid disaster: Even at a CMO level, if you don’t know your attribution mechanism, you don’t know where your money is being spent. You are setting yourself up for disaster. Finally, be objectively clear about your campaign goals. You cannot run a reach and frequency awareness campaign and then expect leads from it. Fundamentally, that is wrong. The Path Ahead: Turning Knowledge into Career Growth The digital world is rewarding for those who speak the language of data, strategy, and technology. Everything we’ve discussed, from building a robust MarTech Stack to developing precise Buyer Personas and implementing rigorous Attribution, is essential for success. If you are a fresher or in middle management, you need to develop this attitude right now to succeed in senior management later. You might be interested in The future of digital marketing careers in India for 2025 The first step in transforming your career is formalizing this knowledge. By mastering these data-driven strategies, you are laying the groundwork for a successful career in the field, and a dedicated program, like Online MBA in Digital Marketing offered by Manipal University Jaipur, can provide the deep dive necessary to achieve professional excellence in Digital Marketing.
