PERSONAL REFLECTION

Growing Up Without Professional Networks

I've often reflected on how differently people experience education, careers, and professional life depending on what they are exposed to while growing up.

When I was younger, I didn't have the language to describe it. I simply assumed that everyone was navigating the same challenges and working with the same information. It wasn't until much later that I began to realise that some people arrive at certain stages of life with access to knowledge, guidance, and networks that others have never had the opportunity to encounter.

I grew up in an immigrant family from a socially disadvantaged background, and whilst there was always a strong emphasis on education, there wasn't necessarily a roadmap for navigating professional careers.

The message I received was simple and well-intentioned: work hard, get a good education, and opportunities will follow.

In many ways, that advice was absolutely correct. Hard work and education opened doors that may otherwise have remained closed to me. However, what nobody really talked about were all the things that sit alongside qualifications and academic achievement.

Nobody explained how professional networks are built.

Nobody explained the value of finding mentors.

Nobody explained how important it can be to ask questions, seek advice, or learn from people who have already travelled a path you are considering yourself.

For a long time, I assumed that everyone else was simply more confident, more capable, or somehow better prepared than I was. Looking back, I can see that what I was often noticing was not necessarily confidence or ability, but familiarity.

Some people had grown up around professionals. They had parents, relatives, family friends, or community connections who could explain how certain industries worked, what different career paths looked like, or how to navigate opportunities when they arose.

Those conversations often happen around dinner tables, at family gatherings, or through informal introductions. If you've grown up with access to them, they can feel completely normal.

If you haven't, it can sometimes feel as though everyone else has been handed an instruction manual that you somehow missed.

I remember reaching certain points in my education and career and realising that there were questions I didn't even know I should be asking.

What opportunities should I be looking for?
Who should I be speaking to?
How do people build professional relationships?
How do you approach someone whose career you admire?
What does networking actually mean?

These weren't things that were openly discussed in my world growing up, and because of that, I often found myself learning through trial and error.

At the time, I interpreted this as a personal failing, assuming that if I worked harder, became more knowledgeable, or achieved more academically, I would eventually feel as though I belonged.

What I've come to understand since is that many young people from similar backgrounds carry exactly the same feelings. It is rarely a lack of ambition, intelligence, or potential that holds them back; more often, they are navigating environments where the unwritten rules simply haven't been explained to them yet.

One of the reasons I feel so strongly about mentorship today is because I know how powerful it can be to have someone demystify those unwritten rules. A single conversation can provide clarity that might otherwise take years to discover independently, while hearing somebody say, "I felt that way too," can completely change how a young person sees themselves. Sometimes, simply knowing that there is another path available is enough to open up possibilities that were previously invisible.

As I've progressed through different stages of my own career, I've also come to realise that professional networks are not fixed.

When you're younger, it can be easy to look at people who seem well connected and assume they have something you will never have.

What I have learned is that networks are built gradually, one relationship at a time. They grow through conversations, curiosity, generosity, and a genuine willingness to maintain relationships and learn from others. Most importantly, they are built by showing up consistently, being yourself, and investing in meaningful connections over time.

The network I have today bears very little resemblance to the one I had when I was eighteen. At that age, I could not have imagined many of the people I would eventually meet, work alongside, learn from, and build relationships with over the years.

None of those connections appeared overnight.

They developed through small interactions that accumulated over time.

Looking back, I think one of the most damaging assumptions I carried was the belief that successful people had reached where they were entirely on their own.

The older I get, the less I believe that to be true.

Behind almost every successful person are people who encouraged them, supported them, challenged them, opened doors for them, or helped them see possibilities they could not yet see themselves.

That support may come from family, teachers, mentors, managers, colleagues, friends, or communities.

Very few people navigate life entirely alone.

If I could say one thing to a young person who feels as though they don't have the right connections, the right background, or the right network, it would be this:

Where you start matters, but it does not determine where you finish. The opportunities available to you today are not necessarily the opportunities that will be available to you tomorrow, and the fact that you may not yet have access to certain people, experiences, or pathways does not mean they will always remain beyond your reach.

It is easy to look around and feel as though everyone else is further ahead, particularly when there are things you have not yet been exposed to or opportunities you have not yet encountered. However, not knowing everything at this stage does not mean you are behind. It simply means you are still learning, just as everyone else is, whether they admit it or not.

The same is true of professional networks. Even if you feel as though you are starting from scratch, that does not mean you cannot build meaningful connections over time. Most networks are not created overnight; they develop gradually through conversations, shared experiences, curiosity, and a willingness to engage with others.

In many ways, it all begins with a single conversation. A conversation can introduce you to an idea you had never previously considered, offer a perspective that changes how you see yourself, or provide the encouragement needed to take a step you might otherwise have avoided. Sometimes it simply helps you feel less alone in your uncertainty.

And every so often, a single conversation has the power to alter the direction of an entire life.

Looking back, I wish I had understood that sooner. It would have saved me a great deal of self-doubt and reminded me that there is nothing wrong with asking for guidance along the way.

In fact, some of the strongest and most successful people I know have built their journeys by doing exactly that.