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Strategic Networking: Relationships and Social Capital
475 students
Strategic Networking: Relationships and Social Capital
strategic networking | professional networking | linkedin networking | personal brand | social capital | mentorship
Last updated 9/2026
English
English [Auto],
What you'll learn
- Find a specific person you need when you do not know their name
- Use Boolean and X-ray search across platforms rather than one search box
- Reach people where they actually spend time instead of where you already are
- Write a first message that gets answered
- Describe yourself so a contact makes sense to both sides
- Build the relationship competencies: listening, empathy, influence, negotiating
- Run a mentoring relationship properly, including how it ends
- Work out what you actually want, so networking stops being contact collecting
- Learn alongside Mike's 1.6 million students from 185 countries
- Get the author's experience from Preply, Wargaming, iDeals and Alfa-Bank
Explore related topics
Course content
16 sections • 44 lectures • 21h 35m total length
Requirements
- A professional goal that depends on people you do not yet know
- No sales or recruiting background required. Search technique starts from zero
- A profile on at least one professional platform, however neglected
- English at intermediate level or above, since all lessons are in English
- Willingness to reach out first, which is the part most people skip
Description
This course contains the use of artificial intelligence.
Networking is usually taught as the skill of meeting people. That is why it does not work. Meeting someone is the first thirty seconds of a relationship that has to last years to be worth anything.
What the standard advice misses
Go to events. Collect contacts. Follow up. All of it treats the network as a list, and a list is exactly what it is not. The people who get opportunities through their network are not the ones with the most connections — they are the ones a specific person thought of at a specific moment, because they knew what that person was working towards. I spent years with an impressive number of contacts and almost no relationships, and the difference only became obvious when I needed something.
What this course actually covers
Six blocks, following the whole length of a relationship rather than its opening. First, finding a specific person when you do not know their name: Boolean operators, X-ray search, searching by group, certification and career move. Second, going beyond one platform — where people in different professions actually spend their time, from code repositories to portfolio sites to messaging communities. Third, positioning: why the same message gets answered by some people and ignored by others, and how to describe yourself so a connection makes sense to both sides. Fourth, the relationship competencies themselves — listening, empathy, influence, negotiating, openness, reputation and admitting a mistake without losing authority. Fifth, mentoring, which is the strongest form a long professional relationship takes: matching, first meeting, boundaries and ending it properly. Sixth, ten lessons on knowing what you are actually networking for, because without that it becomes contact collecting.
A note on the search blocks
Twenty of the forty-two lessons were recorded from the perspective of someone who finds people professionally. That works directly in your favour. The technique for finding a person is identical whether you are looking for a candidate, a mentor, a client or the one colleague who understands the system you need to change. And the competency models give something generic advice never does: an actual list of what relationship-building is made of.
Who is teaching this
I am Mike. I built the people system at Preply as it became a unicorn, and I have worked at Wargaming, iDeals and Alfa-Bank. More than 1.6 million students have enrolled in my courses across 185 countries, and over 150,000 specialists have gone through my programmes. I hold PHRi and SHRM-CP certifications and represent HRCI in more than ten countries.
What is included
Lifetime access to all 42 lessons
Active instructor support in the Q&A section
A Udemy Certificate of Completion
Working material: search operators and X-ray queries, cross-platform search, the positioning formula, the messaging matrix, the competency inventory, the mentoring cycle
Practical work aimed at people you actually need to reach
Where to start
Write down one person you would benefit from knowing and do not. Not a category — a name, or a role at a named company. Everything in this course is easier with a target than with a goal to "network more". Enrol now and start today.
Who this course is for:
- Specialists whose network is entirely made of people they already worked with
- Professionals who dislike networking events and need another route
- Consultants and freelancers whose work arrives only through referrals
- People moving to a new country, industry or function with no contacts in it
- Managers who need to reach someone senior with no introduction available
- Anyone looking for a mentor and unsure how to ask
- Recruiters and researchers who want the relationship half, not only the search half