Forming new relationships and developing connections can be scary. By now, it’s no secret how difficult it is to meet new people in Canada. That's also true in the professional world, where finding people who share our interests and goals can be difficult.
As young professionals interested in developing our careers, we may have heard before that one of the most important things to do in Canada is networking. Just creating and maintaining relationships with people can help us achieve our personal and professional goals. But how can we network like a boss and not waste our time? Well, don’t worry, we got you covered with the following tips and strategies for networking effectively.
Push Away Shyness: Start Putting Yourself Out There
Networking events are the obvious starting point. There are many options to find meetups and professional gatherings. Some common apps include Eventbrite, Meetup, Linkedin and Facebook. These apps allow us to find events specific to our industries or niches where we can meet people with relevant experience and interests. Whatever method you use to find professional events, what's important it’s to have a clear and effective strategy on what to do once you get there.
There are 5 things to remember when you go to an event:
Have a clear goal in mind. This can include finding a potential employer, partner, client, or mentor. Mentors are great at helping advance our careers since they can offer guidance, feedback and support. They can also introduce us to other people in their network who can aid us in accessing more opportunities.
Decide who you want to meet. We need to decide beforehand who we want to meet and why, as this will help focus our efforts and make the most of our time.
Have a conversation starter ready. This is especially useful if we have a shy personality. Having an “elevator pitch” that summarizes who we are, what we do and what we are looking for, can help introduce ourselves to new people and leave a good impression.
Ask questions. People love to talk about themselves, so asking questions and practicing active listening can show interest, build rapport and create a meaningful professional connection. We can even make notes after every meeting, with information such as names, contact information and key points in conversations, this will help us remember the details for the next important step: Following up.
Follow up. We should aim to stay on people’s radars. We can try to follow up within 24 hours, preferably by email or phone. It’s as easy as thanking people for their time, expressing our interest in staying in touch and suggesting a next step, like a future meeting, exchanging resources or even collaborating on a project.
Have A Strong Online Presence: Become An Influencer
Ok, that last part was a joke, we don’t have to become influencers, but having a strong online presence can do wonders for our career advancement endeavors. As an anecdote, one of Microsoft’s product designers in Vancouver, once said in a talk that he had never attended a networking event in person, his advice was to build a strong online presence and portfolio to network from the comfort of your office chair. Some people agree that LinkedIn is the best job-search website, and it’s the same for networking since it’s the largest professional platform in the world.
We shouldn’t sleep on optimizing our profile, it’s as important as having a good portfolio and resume. To get started:
Start by adding a professional photo
Create a catchy headline
Write a summary of your skills and achievements, relevant work experience and education (and use keywords related to your field).
Starting a LinkedIn profile can be overwhelming, but we can start by adding the people we already know, like our family, friends, colleagues, classmates, teachers and past clients. We can ask these people, who already know us and trust us, to recommend us and endorse our skills.
The next step would be adding people that we don’t know but share similar interests or fields. For this purpose, the search function is useful since we can find people based on name, location, company or even industry. We can include a personalized message with each connection request that explains who we are and why we want to connect.
Creating valuable content in our socials is also a good way to showcase our expertise, knowledge and opinions. We can write articles or posts on topics that are relevant to our fields or audience, and also share content from sources that we find useful or interesting. Content creation is a helpful way to establish our credibility, attract attention and engage with our connections.
Remember that following up is as important as it is on networking events, after all, meaningful connections are not created in a day, they take work, so we should always remember to touch base with our connections by liking, commenting and sharing their content, as well as congratulating them for their achievements or milestones.
Always Be Ready To Network
We know that networking can feel like a full-time job, and taking breaks from it it’s important, but we should still take advantage of each opportunity to make connections. There are multiple stories about people getting jobs because they met their future boss or colleague on the train, on a comedy show, or even during a smoke break. Every conversation is an opportunity and a step closer to the job of our dreams.
It’s easy to make friends in school. As international students, it’s a thrilling experience to get to know people from all around the world. Don’t disregard those connections since it’s one of the most valuable things about attending a classroom. Some schools like to hire some of their ex-students since they already know how prepared they are to fill the position.
Participating in civic organizations, charities and volunteer work is also a good way to get to know people who share an interest in the same issues or causes as us. We can join organizations that advocate for our values or beliefs, which is a great way to meet like-minded individuals.
It Gets Easier With Time
We are aware that the process of building and maintaining connections can feel overwhelming at times. However, meeting professionals who share common goals or interests can help us a great deal by building a reputation as reliable and knowledgeable persons in our fields. It can make us more noticeable to potential clients, employers or partners and it can strengthen our support network of people who can offer us advice, honest feedback, referrals and opportunities.
So we shouldn’t be shy and start putting ourselves out there, even if it’s overwhelming at the start, we promise it becomes easier over time. We just need to stay focused on our goals and trust the process, eventually, we will be able to get the job of our dreams.
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