Networking: A Key Skill For Developing Your Career

20th March, 2011 - Posted by bethcurl - No Comments

Networking: A Key Skill for Developing Your Career

Networking is proven to be the most effective way of finding your next career move, so we spend some time on the Career Management Workshop (see blog entry Why Have a Career Management Workshop? 20.3.11), exploring how to network. The participants this week came up with a great set of tips which they agreed to share on the Skills2Grow blog.

Why Network? What Are The Benefits?

Share learning, knowledge and information
Knowing how and where others fit into a company
Broadens your horizons and your people base
It can be an eye opener to what else is going on outside your world
Source of ideas, inspiration, choice and diversity
Source of help and collaboration
A tool for faster career progression / promotion.
Lets people know who you are and your skills
Working partnerships, business and joint ventures
Help support and recommendations
Find customers / clients / funds / grant holders / investors
Mentoring
Job opportunities
Expand connections, both work and play
New friends / partners
Connect others through your connections
Greater job satisfaction – rewarding to help others
Travel

The Skills of Networking

Be approachable, sociable and easy to talk to
Use good people skills
Smile!
Have the confidence to approach people and make new connections
Use questions to open up conversations
Take an interest in the person by asking them about their work /role
Be interested and interesting
Listen attentively
Ask how they got into their current role
Be willing to exchange information
Have a positive attitude combined with realism
Make a positive first impression – be physically presentable
Gauge and assess opportunities and situations
Follow-up, after meeting people, and complete actions
Say thank you for their time etc.
Find people to network with across disciplines
Remember facts about other people – make people feel valued
Select targets out of a large crowd
Work the room – people expect you to move on at a networking event
Planning and preparation, research people and their background
Need a broad cultural knowledge
Good IT skills – eg LinkedIn, Facebook
Organisational skills to keep track of your network
Different people will like to network in different ways

Methods of Networking

Use all methods: face to face, phone and virtual
Coffee, lunch meetings
Conferences and lectures
Social events
Through sports e.g. golf
Weddings!
Via an intermediate
Target preparation – identify your targets versus open discussions
Advertising your own skills
Immediate family and friends
Open up a conversation in any setting such as in a queue. Any sort of crisis or delay make strangers willing to talk!
List out your past and current acquaintances and keep links open
Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Friends Re-united, Blogs
Find different surroundings – have coffee breaks in different locations
Exchange business cards – have your own personal card if not a company card
If you want to meet certain types of people go to places where those people gather. For example Cafe Scientific in Reading

Thanks to everyone on the Career Management Workshop who contributed to these tips.

At Skills2Grow we meet lots of people who would like to power-up their networking, to feel more confident in themselves to make the most of their networking opportunities and to enjoy networking more. If you are one of those people, give us a call, to enquire about our Networking Skills Course and our one to one coaching for networking skills.

Definitions

“Network v. -to communicate with other people as a member of a group to exchange information, contacts and experience for professional or social purposes, establish new links.” The Concise Oxford Dictionary

“Networks are people talking to each other, sharing ideas, information, and resources. The point is often made that networking is a verb, not a noun. The important part is not the network, the finished product, but the process of getting together – the communication that creates linkages between people and clusters of people.” John Naisbitt – exerpt from Megatrends

Networking is to give and get information. If you use networking properly, nobody feels pressurised or used or on the spot. You are not selling, you are telling. You are not asking for favours, you are giving valuable information. Antony Putman – Marketing Your Services