My first role in the insurance industry was a short-term, temporary assignment on an IT help-desk. I wasn’t working on anything related directly to insurance, just resetting passwords and correcting access levels for employees and clients. There was not even the possibility of my help-desk role changing to something permanent, because I was being brought in as cover while existing teams were undergoing training in a large project.
I’d been without permanent full-time employment for 5 years, despite continuously applying and interviewing for roles. I was starting to think I’d be a representative of the gig economy for the rest of my life. Those 3 months at DXC changed my entire career trajectory.
Networking, and building connections for career opportunities, is something I find particularly challenging. Networking was also a crucial part of how I transformed my career. I hope I can offer some advice to help others looking for work.
My IT helpdesk role didn’t offer me the opportunity to directly demonstrate skills in anything related to insurance. But it did give me the opportunity to demonstrate my work ethic, my ability to learn, and my interest in being a part of the company. I made sure to offer extra help where I could, and when work needed to be done that was above my level but we were short on hands, I offered to learn, receive training, and provide cover. In a helpdesk role, break times are strictly controlled to ensure sufficient call coverage. I learned the drink preferences of my colleagues and made a habit, when getting coffee on my own break, to pick up for them, too. A habit shared by most of the long-term team members, which meant they quickly began to see me as part of that same team. When the company was running charity drives, I offered my skills to bake cakes to sell.
If I wasn’t able to cook, I’d have offered my skills or time in other ways – making flyers, pushing the donations cart, or whatever needed to be done. The point was just to get involved in any way I could.
None of these were done to manipulate people into liking me. I was used, by this point, to jumping from one job to the next and, finding myself working somewhere that had a really positive team outlook, I wanted to enjoy the time I had with them as much as I could – who knew what my next job might look like. I had no reason to expect my Hot Chocolate Piggy Cake or hand-raised pork pies to get me a permanent contract, and I highly doubt they were the cause of anyone's primary interest in me, I just wanted to come home at the end of the day smiling because the work day had been enjoyable.
By the time my contract was close to ending, my line manager and colleagues knew me well, thought positively about me, and knew how precarious my employment situation was. I made it clear I loved the company and would take any role that let me stay longer. Outside my team, people from multiple departments had become familiar with my name popping up in emails, mostly when they needed yet another password reset! So when an opportunity came up in for an insurance technician, the manager recruiting for the role had several people from different levels of the company willing to offer positive feedback about my work ethic and skills. A similar situation occurred a couple of years later While I progressed well at the technical aspects of my role, I also looked for opportunities to get involved with extra activities. Again, this was a genuine pursuit; I was happy to have a permanent role for a good employer, and tried to make the most of it. I didn’t get involved with every activity – I turned down the fantasy football, the clubbing, the pantomime events. But when something was going on that I could show interest in – mental health charity days, blood drives, Halloween dress-up contests – I offered to do so.
My workplace skills gave me the reputation for being a “fixer” - someone who could take complex projects, failing contracts or badly worded policies – and both figure out and action a solution. My extra-curricular activities gave me a reputation for being kind, helpful and genuinely invested in the company beyond the work itself.
When situations at that office were changing and I needed to look for a new role, I had support. The insurance industry is an incestuous one – it’s not at all uncommon for people to bounce from a broker to an underwriter to another broker throughout their career. In this case, the next role I applied for was in a department staffed with several people who were ex-colleagues of the people I knew. When feedback and insight into my fitness for the role was sought, I could offer references that were people with known, positive reputations and were therefore seen as reliable. Networking can feel daunting for us, and can feel artificial and grates up against the autistic distaste for what we perceive as dishonesty. The trick, then, is to be honest with it. We are communal creatures by nature, even those of us who are naturally introverted.
The workplace is a community many of us will spend significant time in. It’s worth it to build a home within the community in whatever small ways you can. Not only will it make the workplace an easier space to deal with, it could just open up doors you never knew existed.
Now, I realise what I described above isn't what most people think of when they talk about networking. But think about what networking is, not in terms of the standard behaviours, but in terms of the purpose. Networking is activities that involve an exchange of information and ideas among people with common professional interests. The purpose, from a personal career perspective, is to develop a positive reputation, become a recognised name and face, and meet people outside of your immediate surrounding team who might become valuable connections later in your career. Any activity that strengthens your relationships with others can count, so long as you make use of the opportunity to demonstrate good traits you have that you want people to remember you for.
In fact, sometimes the best "networking" you can do is to be a place others can come to for help, advice or insight. In other words, just being a good friend and colleague.
Vic Mazonas is an autistic queer person with C-PTSD who occasionally experience non-verbal episodes. They are also a regularly-exhibiting artist, a sought-after public speaker and general manager of GAIN.
Vic is fortunate to have a life filled with neurodivergent, queer community and has seen first-hand how transformative it can be to have a space filled with understanding and acceptance.
After the insurance industry gave them their first opportunity to thrive in the workplace, Vic now seeks to help make the financial services industries a haven for others who haven’t yet received the same good fortune.
