This article is about networking. Actual in-person, human-to-human communication. You know, in meatspace. For the those of you that don’t know what meatspace is, I’ll define it for you: It’s real life. The term is derived from the Terry Bisson’s famous 1990 science fiction short story, They’re Made Out of Meat.

As technology professionals, we live digital lives in cyberspace. Meatspace can be a special challenge. Let’s face it, we went into the technology profession because we like talking to computers more than we like talking to people. This isn’t really fun, but it’s an important skill to develop, because failing to do so will significantly hamper your career.

Before we dig in, I’d like to expose one specific irony. I spent a portion of my career as a network engineer. Network engineers design and build communications infrastructure. We are responsible for delivering and supporting the backbone of the global communications capability. It’s a bit ironic that we aren’t so good at human communication, isn’t it? Therefore, I’m going to dig into this all-important topic in terms that the average network engineer can understand.

Be a Switch

The VLAN is typically the smallest unit of isolation in a network. Nodes within a VLAN typically have open and unsegmented access to each other to communicate freely. This is where anyone working on meatspace networking should focus first, within their own team. You will find yourself most at-home with the co-workers on your own team, so spend some intentional time networking with them, person-to-person whenever possible.

One way to do that is never eat alone. When it’s lunch time, be social. Grab a co-worker and head to the cafeteria. Also, be intentional about collaborative problem-solving. Some of us tend to go “heads-down” when troubleshooting a problem. We can get stuck in a rut based on our own preconceived ideas or experiences. Involving others can speed along the troubleshooting process and bring to bear a variety of ideas in an open exchange. This is a quick and tangible benefit from networking that anyone and everyone should pursue.

Be a Core Router

For communication to traverse from one VLAN to another VLAN, a Core Router is typically involved. Core Routers have routing tables and routing protocols. Applying this concept to human networking, be the person in your team that connects your team to other teams. To be successful, you have to understand the routing protocols. Get to know the people and technologies in adjacent teams. For instance, if you are a network engineer, this would be server, storage, telecom, and security teams. Once you establish relationships there, expand another ring out to include development, database, and desktop teams.

Knowing who to talk to in what group is like your routing table. Knowing how to navigate an organization successfully is like a routing protocol. If you are savvy, you’ll be able to figure out when to use a hierarchy to communicate, and when you can engage horizontally. Each group is different and each manager has their own preferences for how you engage their team members. Get to know all of this and you will be effectively networking like a Core Router.

Be an Edge Router

For communications to leave an organization network and make it out on the internet, an Edge Router is typically involved. This is where Network Address Translation converts the addressing from private to public. This is also where the routing protocols are bridged from proprietary to internet standard. Applying this concept to meatspace networking is to communicate with the business. Everyone in technology works with end users when fulfilling requests or fixing an issue, but we don’t often communicate outside of those transactional discussions.

Get to know some business people outside of the context of a particular event. By doing that, we can get greater context for when we are building communications technologies in the first place and how critical they are to the success of the business. Context is king. This is what separates an enterprise technology team from an outside service provider. We get to be close to the business and customize our technology solutions to meet their needs. We also get to be the technologist that brings to bear the disruptive technologies that they didn’t even know existed. We have to earn that seat at the table, and it all starts with networking. This is an area where I personally have plenty of room to grow.

Be a Firewall

Most people think firewalls are the network devices that keep the bad guys out. While that is true, it also enables secure communication between trusted but disparate organizations out on the internet. To be an effective technology professional you have to network with your peers in the industry. If you spend all of your time inside your enterprise, over time, you start to run out of new ideas and you get disconnected from industry best practices, because they constantly change.

Like a firewall, form trusted peer groups to exchange ideas. This usually takes the form of conferences and user groups. Go to them. Don’t just go for the information, actually socialize with other humans during the event. Once you master that, start speaking at events. Like a firewall, also make sure the information you share is acceptable for public consumption per your corporate policies.

Don’t Broadcast Storm

In computer networks, a broadcast storm happens when a chatty or malfunctioning device takes out a whole network by flooding it with communication. While most introverted technology professionals don’t have the problem of talking too much, we can be bad listeners. Don’t use networking opportunities just to share, but actively listen, encouraging other quiet individuals to share their ideas so the maximum benefit is achieved for all.

Don’t Create a Spanning Tree Loop

Spanning Tree Loops happen when networks have redundant paths, but those paths create a loop, taking down the entire network. Well-designed networks shouldn’t have this problem, as there are several networking technologies that prevent this. In this same way, design your meatspace networking strategy to be comprehensive. Don’t think to yourself, “I’m on LinkedIn and I follow several tech companies on Twitter, so I’m good.”

That’s a fine cyberspace start, but it’s not enough. Add to that user groups, conferences, lunches, meetings with the business, field trips, and social gatherings. Also make sure you stay connected with people you used to work with at your previous jobs. A poorly designed networking strategy is just as a bad as a poorly designed computer network. It’ll collapse when you need it. As I wrote about in my Rules for Advancement series, sometimes you need to leave your job to advance. And sometimes, you may find yourself in the job market for any variety of reasons.

While most of us don’t need to worry about finding a tech job in this economy, the best jobs aren’t on monster.com. They are through people you know. That’s just something that you have to build and maintain over time. You can’t make a robust network materialize when you find yourself in the market. Design it and build it before you need it.

That’s how to network like a Network Engineer. I hope you found the tips to be fun and helpful. The most important lesson here is to be intentional. Follow any of the tips I’ve listed here, and you will start moving in the right direction. In that way, as the ones responsible for building the greatest communications network the world has ever known, we too can learn become good networkers and communicators with the humans out there in meatspace. Like my blog? Please remember to share it with your colleagues!