Career or Employability – How Networking Competences Determine Them1

The article is an analysis of employee networking competence as a determinant of employability and future career prospects. A body of literature has been researched, the research concept as well as the operationalization of variables have been formulated and the results of empirical tests have been presented. Survey research has been conducted among employed people and people in training or receiving education (N=131). Stated hypotheses that there are a strong and positive correlation between networking competence and employability (rs=0.305, p=0.01) as well as networking competence and career development (rs=0.283, p=0.01) were both confirmed. However, the strongest correlation between employability and career development has been observed within the sub-category of networking competence, namely the ability to establish personal contacts (with employability rs=0.403, p=0.01 and career success rs=0.461, p=0.01). The subcompetences: of establishing contacts remotely is not correlated with employability and career success, maintaining contacts remotely is significantly (p=0.05), though not very strongly, correlated to employability (rs=0.220) Maintaining personal contacts is correlated to employability rs=0.212, p=0.05, and career success rs=0.251, p=0.01, however not as strongly as establishing new contacts in person. Personal activities undertaken as a networking competence explain a larger degree of variability in the employability and career development of employees, especially if they are proactive and take initiative, i.e. establish contacts in person. The impact of networking competence with regard to remote contacts is unclear and requires further study.