Networking with others is good for your career. You should do it. Don’t stop there. Keep going.

Networking builds contacts and associates you can reach out to with respect to your technical discipline. You need these to grow effectively in your career.

However, networking typically stops at the technical side. You want to go beyond and change your networks to friends. Life is about more than a career (or at least, it should be). These connections make life better. They help you weather storms. Let me give you a recent example.

I was diagnosed with a chronic medical condition last May. I reached out to a couple of folks I know who have the same condition. One of the individuals is in our SQL technical community. He provided encouragement, advice, and where to look next. He has also has checked in from time to time to see how I’ve been doing.

My friend’s care and concern eased a lot of my fears. His encouragement helped me as I faced having to make critical life changes to help with that medical condition. As a result, I’ve mostly adjusted and am better for it.

I’d like to think that I’ve done the same for others. Hopefully I have. That’s part of what makes life work.

Go beyond networking. Move to building friendships. You won’t regret it.