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Career / New to Work / The Ultimate Career Guide

Professional Networking: How Experts Build and Nurture their Network (Career Resource No. 6)

December 13, 2021
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It’s that time of the year again. It’s December, the holidays are approaching, and companies throw their yearly Christmas parties. While company Christmas parties are often synonymous with celebrating the past year and letting loose (aka free alcohol), they are also the ULTIMATE professional networking events. After all, how often do you find yourself at work surrounded by that many people from various teams and different departments?

Now, networking can be a tricky one. While we can all name that one really sociable person who knows everyone in the office and who has close ties to what feels the whole organization, many of us just don’t like to network that much. Maybe it is because we feel it is fake. Or maybe because we don’t quite know how to network successfully.

But regardless of your opinions on networking – one thing is very clear:

Networking is key. For everyone. And for whatever professional goal you may be trying to achieve.

Still not fully convinced? Don’t worry, here are the most important statistics on professional networking:

  • In 2016, 70% of people were hired at a company where they had a connection
  • For 35% of survey respondents a casual conversation at LinkedIn transformed into new career and business opportunities
  • 80% of professionals consider networking to be essential for career success

But despite most of us knowing the importance of building professional connections with others, 82% of people participate in networking activities less than once per month!

Don’t make the same mistake! Learn the science of networking and build beneficial connections starting tomorrow. Let’s start with Step 1: Getting an idea of how well you have networking incorporated in your work life.

How much professional networking do you already engage in?

Here are a couple of questions you can reflect on to find out how well you have already incorporated networking into you work routine:

Do you…

  • always try to be well connected in your professional field?
  • frequently build contacts with people who could be important for your career development?
  • frequently utilize these contacts in ways that advance your career?
  • focus on building new connections with people outside your direct environment?
  • focus on maintaining and strengthening connections with people within your direct environment?

If you are a student, you can reflect on these same questions and think about your aspired professional field.

How to network like a pro

1. Use two essential approaches to professional networking

When it comes to networking, there are two different approaches that you can take. In the first approach, you focus on building connections with people who are distributed across many different teams, departments, and positions. This means that these people are unlikely to have close ties with each other or the members of your main team. If you want to climb the ladder or hear about new opportunities outside your main team, this approach is great.

The second approach involves building strong, close ties with the people who you work closely with, such as your team or teams who you collaborate with frequently. So, the focus is on the people immediately around you. This strategy is great if you want to build trust, and experience support and loyalty. And this can help your career in two ways. First, support and advice from your colleagues on specific tasks can help you perform better on your job. And second, getting along with your colleagues is much easier on your mental health than dreading to see and interact with them every single day. By keeping your motivation to go to work high and your mental health safe, this will reflect on your performance and eventually your career development.

2. Come up with your personalized strategy

If professional networking does not come naturally to you, it may be difficult to know where to start. But don’t worry, we got you. Start with taking a piece of paper and writing down the names of all the people you know who might be helpful in achieving your goals. These can be people internal or external to your current organization. It can be people you currently work with or people who you know have relevant experience or a position to your career goals. It can be old classmates from university or friends of friends.

Once you have a list of names, consider how you could contact and build connections with them. Depending on the person, your strategy will likely be different. Some possibilities are to contact them vial LinkedIn, stay in touch by liking or commenting on their updates on LinkedIn or Twitter (but keep it professional!), or invite them for a coffee if you have specific questions you would like to ask.

What other strategies do you use for networking? Let us know in the comments below!

3. Attend various events

I know, I know. If you don’t enjoy networking, you probably avoid these events as best you can. But hear me out. These Christmas parties and other networking events are there for a reason. It is the best way to meet people in a more informal environment – people you may have otherwise never met. So, see these events as a great opportunity to meet new people and have potentially interesting conversations. You never know who you are going to meet and you never know what background people have. Sometimes, we get the most interesting and valuable information from where we expected in the least. So, give those events a chance and actively engage in conversations with people you don’t know well.

Another reason why you should take advantage of these events is visibility. Basically, the formula goes like this: visibility = people remember you = huge benefit for referrals and promotions. Especially during times of remote work and for people who are less extroverted, visibility can be difficult to achieve. Therefore, take advantage of opportunities to mingle, so that you meet more people, but also so that other people remember your name and know what a kick ass professional you are.

Get the support you always wanted

We know that sometimes, small actions of reflection like the ones we suggest in this article, quickly slip our mind and before we know it, we forget about them altogether. If you need an occasional reminder, follow us on our Instagram and Facebook page – we use it as an interactive way to help each other implement the advice we suggest in our blog posts. And we love to hear about your experiences and thoughts!

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This post is based on the following sources and academic articles

Photo credits: Photo by Pew Nguyen from Pexels