How to network in IT careers when the office doesn’t exist

Leaving the office behind has its advantages—but working remotely can also come with major trade-offs where career development is concerned.

Social analytics firm Buffer’s 2023 State of Remote Work report found that remote workers are generally highly satisfied with their jobs, while 36% of respondents reported it had been beneficial for their career growth. However, nearly as many (28%) reported remote work had been detrimental to career advancement. A separate report by WFH Research concluded that in-person workers had significantly more mentorship and mentoring opportunities, as well as spent more time in formal training and professional development.

“Bottom line, personal interactions among colleagues diminish by a significant amount when someone works from home,” Nicholas Bloom and Jose Maria Barrero, the authors of the WFH Research report, told Fortune.

These problems might be particularly acute for tech workers, as jobs in computing and enterprise and information technology tend to lead other professions in ditching in-person requirements. Options abound, however, when it comes to compensating for the loss of face-to-face time with their colleagues and professional networks, experts told IT Brew.

Online communities. As remote work surged in recent years, so too have opportunities for online career development and networking. There’s LinkedIn, which has long pivoted to being a sort of work-oriented Facebook. The Wall Street Journal also reported on the surge of career-oriented Slack groups.

While Slack groups dedicated to various career paths can be easily found on Google, WSJ reported they often vary dramatically in quality and usefulness. Juan Young, a Los Angeles-based entrepreneur, told the paper that he remains active in only a handful of Slack networking groups after noticing many of them were flooded with self-promotion; he recommended focusing on finding smaller channels where it might be easier to engage meaningfully.

Another option to meet fellow IT pros is actively attending digital events, which increasingly have networking components.

Weiting Liu, the founder and CEO of remote developer career platform Arc.dev, told IT Brew, “The actual bonding that two people could create [when] meeting face to face is definitely still stronger than meeting remotely.” However, he added, the inherent trade-off is that remote networking enables workers to “meet people all over the world that we would not have gotten the chance to do so in the very first place.”

Liu is also the founder of Codementor, an online platform that facilitates virtual events for developers. He said similar trade-offs apply to virtual events—while they might not present the exact same networking opportunities as in-person ones, there’s also less friction involved in attending, translating to a larger and more varied pool of people to meet with.

“Over the past year or so, we’ve hosted more than 200-plus events; thousands of developers have shown up from 200 countries,” Liu told IT Brew. “Usually, the networking section is one of our most popular.”

Writing in the Harvard Business Review, executive coach Alisa Cohn and Duke University executive education professor Dorie Clark recommended attempting to identify industry colleagues unable to attend in-person events and organize smaller online meetups instead. They also advised attendees to try and get senior leaders from their workplaces to attend.

Being proactive also avoids the impression that someone only reaches out when they need something. Following up on the tail end is important too.

“Once you land a new job, circle back to those connections you tapped earlier,” Kelly Doyle, managing director at tech recruiting firm Heller Search Associates, told the Enterprisers Project. “Let them know how your search worked out, and offer to reciprocate the favor.”

Employer support. It also shouldn’t fall entirely to workers to ensure they have adequate access to professional networks—employers should play a role, too. Prithwiraj Choudhury, a Harvard Business School associate professor, told the New York Times he had noticed several attributes of organizations that handled remote work well. Those include pairing workers with mentors outside their departments, as well as creating “virtual water coolers” to ensure they can meet colleagues.

“When people talk about office hallway conversations and office water cooler conversations, the reality is that those are really limited,” Choudhury told the paper, saying that remote networking requires intentionality in interaction that can lead to more productive conversations.

Arc.dev, for example, is entirely remote. Liu said he makes an effort to ensure that he has regular one-on-one virtual meetings with all staff and organize in-person meetups at least annually.

“We do have dozens of team members all over the world whom I have not met in person,” Liu told IT Brew. “I still feel [I have] a pretty strong relationship with them.”