Networking is something that you can’t ignore anymore, if you’re really serious about better job opportunities and career growth. There are several ways to network with the right or influential people, both online and offline. If you know and understand how networking can transform your career, you’ll never underestimate the potential of career networking events.
At these events, you’ll benefit by –
- Building relationships
- Getting new perspectives or ideas
- Increasing your visibility as a professional
- Finding new career opportunities
- Gathering practical knowledge
- Collecting advice from industry experts
Whether you’ve attended networking events or not, it’s crucial that you make these visits a must for your career.
But only attending such events is not enough. In fact, there are plenty of jobseekers or employed people who go to these events, meet with different types of professionals, industry leaders and experts. But if you ask them about the results, you’ll hear sad stories. It’s because they don’t know how to act further and their approach is entirely wrong.
According to experts, the very first thing that you should do before attending career networking events is change the way you look at them. Rather than thinking about these events as a hassle, you should look at them as a storehouse of better opportunities for your career, regardless of the field you belong to. You’re certainly not wasting your time if you attend such events. In fact, you’re spending your time really well. You never know where the next networking event will take your career. Therefore, it’s crucial that you get serious and take out time to make full use of this potential networking channel.
Successfully networking requires skills. If you’ve the right set of skills, connecting with people at a career event will not feel like work. In fact, you’ll enjoy the process. Since such events take place over and over again, you should plan ahead and visit each of them to maximize benefits. If you’re ready to take action, you should start creating a list of all the upcoming career events so that you don’t miss out on potential opportunities of expanding your professional network in a meaningful way. And with each event that you attend, you should get better at the art of connecting or building relationships.
However, you should always remember to make the most of your introductions at the event. After you get home, you should not leave the business cards to collect dust. Instead, you should follow up quickly with each of the contacts, before they actually forget about who you are.
Thankfully, various popular social media channels like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are your powerful tools to take your connections with people to the next level and turn them into long-term relationships.
But there’s one more thing that you should always keep at the top of your mind – What is it that you’re exactly looking for? Before you attend career networking events, you should be quite well-informed of your professional goals. When you’re aware of what you really want, you’ll be on the right track, connect with the right people and make the most of your time.
Have you ever attended a career networking event? Please let me know about your thoughts and experiences.
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