Networking — Employment

Social connections are an important factor in career and personal success.

The more useful acquaintances you have, the higher your social capital and the more opportunities you have. A wide circle of friends and acquaintances can help you achieve your goal; they'll help you find a new job, establish new professional contacts, gain credibility, strengthen cooperation, build a reputation, or launch a startup.

You can achieve incredible results if you build a network of useful connections and acquaintances – this is called networking. They must meet your values and help you develop.

Where and how to meet new people

Truly strong bonds are formed not in small talk or events, but in work situations. So one of the most effective ways to network is to get involved in collaborative projects with other people, and implement large and long-term collaborative projects.

It's also helpful to attend educational programs and team activities. For example, at hackathons, participants have a unique opportunity to work in a free format with experts from fields that they've never crossed paths with before.

Professional forums, conferences, training sessions and online intensive courses will help you find like-minded people, share best practices you've encountered, and share your own experience with your peers.

You can also make presentations; the chances of developing a professional network will increase many times over. The main thing is to not forget to put your contact details on the last slide. It used to be that business cards were exchanged at offline events, but now it's social media links. Advanced conferences even have special chatbots that help you find people with common interests and goals to chat with over a coffee break.

Where else do people willingly meet

• Travel⁣ — it's easy to make a new acquaintance when you rescue a lost hiker or team up to climb a mountain
• A shared activity or hobby⁣ — always make new acquaintances or strengthen relationships at parties and sporting events
• Social projects — volunteering brings people together and makes the world a better place
• Online-events, meetups and social media communities — you can find a mentor or share your own experience and knowledge

How and why to develop a relationship

Good networking requires more than just finding and establishing useful connections, they must also be maintained. This is difficult for most people; we often don't want to waste time on it, and it's awkward to distract other people from their business.

But this barrier must be overcome. For social capital to benefit, it's important to remind others of yourself and to do something good and valuable for others:

• Send them messages and greetings on birthdays and holidays
• Share useful links, recommend interesting tools and services
• Discuss new articles, books, TV series, if the relationship is close enough
• Invite them for a coffee or to an event with an interesting theme, even go and visit them at home!

Remember that networking is not about meeting lots of people, but also about building relationships. They give you the right to ask, evoke positive emotions, and help you want help. Rome wasn't built in a day, building relations takes time. The ability to maintain relationships is more important here than the ability to make them.

Conclusions

• People will always move and change jobs, but the value of human connection will remain the same
• Actively develop business and friendly contacts. This is your social capital, and it can sometimes lead to an unexpected breakthrough in your career or business development
• Tell people what you can do for them and share your experiences.
• Go to events, forums, conferences, educational programs, and hackathons because it's in collaborative activities that the strongest bonds are formed
• Keeping in touch is just as important as making connections: holiday greetings, sharing interesting links, or discussing new articles are the first steps in that direction

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