Ways to Grow Your Professional Network
I’m always on the lookout for articles about networking. Here are a few snippets:
Whether you love meeting new people or the thought of a room full of strangers makes you shudder, networking is an essential element of career success.
Finding new and exciting ways to expand your professional network can help you create connections with people who can help you along your professional journey. Here are tips for growing your professional network.
Ways to Grow Your Professional Network
1. Talk to Family and Friends
While you may not want to work with your friends and family, don’t overlook them as a networking resource. There may be people in their network that, under other circumstances, you might not be able to connect with. So, don’t be shy, and take advantage of this unique opportunity.
2. Attend Networking Events
Online or in-person networking events help get you in front of industry leaders and let you meet key players to make a lasting connection. You may very well meet a potential hiring manager—or even find your next mentor—at one of these events as well.
3. Get Social
Social media may not be your thing, but it can be one of the easiest ways to grow your professional network. And of course, the best professional social media platform is LinkedIn.
Having a fully optimised LinkedIn profile is important for many reasons, but it’s only one part of your networking efforts. Join some LinkedIn groups and thoughtfully engage in discussions. Providing helpful advice demonstrates that you’re someone other group members want as part of their network. Over time, that connection could benefit both of you.
4. Connect With Former Coworkers
If you left your previous position on good terms, consider connecting with your former coworkers, or even your boss. If nothing else, you can catch up on old times and find out what’s new and exciting with your old company. If they’ve moved on, you never know who or what they know, so it could be worth it to reconnect.
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5. Join Professional Organisations
In addition to joining groups on LinkedIn, also join professional organisations or associations in your field online and offline. This makes it easier to connect with people who know the ins and outs of what you do.
6. Think Outside Your Industry
Networking in your industry is, of course, a good start. But to really grow your professional network, make connections outside of it!
Expanding your networking efforts beyond your career field helps you flourish professionally. It’s a novel way to meet others that may not do what you do but can share useful information about navigating the office, helping you expand your knowledge beyond your profession and learn more about other fields, which could even spark a career change!
7. Volunteer
Volunteering lets you give back to causes you believe in. It’s also another unique way to grow your professional network.
In addition to meeting people outside of your profession, working side-by-side with people who support the same cause as you can foster a connection you might not be able to forge via the typical networking situations.
8. Connect With Your Alumni Association
Your alumni association is a fantastic and often underutilised career resource. For starters, alumni associations often host networking events for members. These might be for specific career fields or more general networking. However, even outside of networking-specific events, connecting with others who graduated from the same institution is an instant conversation starter that could lead to some solid and long-term network connections.
Plant the Seeds
Growing your professional network is not an overnight process. With slow and steady efforts, you’ll soon have a job search contact list that is sure to help you get your foot into the door of a company that you’d like to work for!
Want to know more? Head on over to the full article here for more ideas and perspectives. Afterwards, why not drop me an email to share your thoughts at [email protected] ; or call me on 0467 749 378.
Thanks,
Robert