Networking Skills to Find and Keep a Job
Networking is a lifelong skill that needs to be honed and utilized throughout one’s career.
Once you land a job, it is essential to keep networking and building a portfolio of diverse contacts through your job. Most people don’t do this; they stop networking once they’ve been hired. To ensure your career continues to move forward, getting to know people, connect with people, remember people, and network both in-person and via technology will help you build a solid foundation in your field and a portfolio that can lead you to wonderful places and opportunities in life you never before imagined.
Networking is relationship building. It’s knowledge building. You are connecting with people and learning from them.
It is important to know the people you work with and what their roles are in the corporation. Information you obtain through networking will help you not only understand the corporate culture and the political infrastructure at your company, but also identify your key points of contact. You won’t waste time tracking down the wrong person for a project; you’ll know just who does what and how they connect to your role.
Networking doesn’t mean knowing (or sharing) everyone’s personal business outside of the work environment. It means learning about each person’s position at work, understanding how each person’s role connects with yours, and how your skills and role may be able to help another person do their job better.
Networking is successful if you maintain a “being of service to others” perspective. Rather than thinking “How can this person help me in my career ?” It needs to be, “What skills and knowledge do I have that can help this person?”
While people remember those who have wronged them and used them, people respect and refer people who have helped them. Which would you rather be in your network of contacts – in your portfolio of people who have come upon your life’s path?
Remembered for being a user?
Or respected and referred as being a kind, helpful, and skilled team player?
Tags: networking, networking skills, team players
