Managing personal networks for career advantage

In today's dynamic professional landscape, individual success extends beyond mere knowledge. It is profoundly shaped by the connections you cultivate. This course, "Managing personal networks for career advantage," delves into the powerful relationship between personal and professional networks and tangible career advantages, such as innovative problem-solving, enhanced recognition, increased compensation, and accelerated promotions.

Moving beyond the adage "It's not what you know, it's who you know," this course provides you with the analytical concepts and practical, hands-on tools to map, describe, and strategically manage your personal network. You will learn how to intentionally build a robust and reliable network that serves as a sustainable foundation for long-term career advantage. Prepare to transform your approach to professional relationships and unlock new pathways to success.

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

1. Strategically leverage networks: Understand and articulate the critical role of personal and professional networks in advancing their career trajectory.
2. Cultivate effective networks: Develop and apply strategic frameworks for consciously constructing, nurturing, and managing their personal networks.
3. Unlock relational capital: Identify how diverse relational resources translate into tangible strategic advantages for career growth and professional success.

In presence

This course adopts a highly practical approach, with a significant focus on hands-on computer sessions. Participants will analyze real-life network data, directly applying and illustrating the theoretical and analytical concepts covered in lectures. A unique aspect of the course involves participants reconstructing and analyzing their own personal networks.

Active engagement in class discussions and all planned session activities is paramount. The depth of learning and benefit gained from this course is directly proportional to your personal commitment to individual and team-based tasks. Crucially, in-class activities are structured to incrementally build towards the final assessment component of this course. Therefore, consistent attendance is strongly recommended and will be formally recorded.

To get a general sense of the topics discussed in the course, perspective participants are invited to read the following article:

• Leonardi, P. and Contractor, N., 2018. Better people analytics. Harvard Business Review, 96(6), pp.70-81 

The following freely available online textbook introduces many analytical topics relevant to our practical exercises and serves as a comprehensive guide to the software used throughout the course:

• Hanneman, R.A. and Riddle, M. 2005 (H&R) Introduction to social network methods. Riverside, CA: University of California, Riverside (published in digital form at: http://faculty.ucr.edu/~hanneman/nettext)

The overall course grade is determined by three assessment components:

• Midterm Test (30%): A 45-minute test featuring 15 multiple-choice questions, covering all lecture content and assigned materials up to the test date.
• Final Exam (60%): A comprehensive 90-minute exam. This will include a combination of multiple-choice questions and a practical analysis based on each participant's personal network. The exam will draw upon all readings and material covered throughout the entire course. Significantly, part of this exam will utilize individual material that participants develop during in-class sessions, with the course leader providing ongoing guidance and support for this development.
• Class Engagement (10%): Assessed through consistent and meaningful participation in class discussions and activities.

Due to the integrated nature of the learning process and the direct link between in-class activities and the assessment components, it is imperative that participants attend classes regularly. Prospective participants who are unable to commit to consistent attendance are strongly advised against enrolling in this course.

Resit exams, or exams that are - for any reason - sustained outside the Fall 25-26 exam session (January-February 2026), will account for 100% of the course grade.