Digging the Digital
Now that you’re in a digital era, everything from the way you get your groceries to the way you interact with your family and social life has become fast, easy, and efficient.
But what about networking for your career? It’s 2017 and there are countless avenues for job hunting and career growth over and above replying to job boards. Taking action through online networking for your career puts you in the driver’s seat.
Networking Empowers you over Responding to Job Boards, so Get Into the Career Networking Mindset
You can reach anyone anywhere and networking is still the best way to land a job. In fact, networking was responsible for filling around 85% of all jobs in 2015 and 2016. HOW you network makes the difference in building valuable relationships. The key is to unlock technology networking tools, learn a process, and build new relationships.
There is a process for online networking and if you learn the steps, you can meet incredible people–professionals that can be opportunities or refer you to them.
Getting Into Networking
Networking can help your career today and in the future. Most professionals welcome your outreach. Learn a process for connecting and relationship building.
With options such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and alumni engagement platforms, you can meet new professionals in groups, find opportunities, referrals and mentors in your field or get advice from people you wouldn’t usually approach in a face-to-face environment. With the right amount of relationship-building, online networking can become a foundation for career-specific relationships.
Think of networking as an opportunity to grow, meet new people and exchange information…Learn to Love Networking, Harvard Business Review.
Five small ways you can network online for your career:
- Be diligent about meeting professionals in your field to build your network. Include social media info on your business cards and email correspondence.
- Your online presence needs to be a professional presentation of what you do so well, how you do it and who you do it for.
- The more specific you are about who your ideal connections are, the more you’ll attract your ideal connections.
- Research companies and their leadership. Connect with those that may help you learn more about working with the company or in a specific role within.
- Meet others by joining groups and engaging with group members based on your skills, your career goals, and potential connections.
One thing is for certain – career seekers have a variety of tools at their disposal for networking and career outreach. Today, there are enough tools and tactics to turn networking into valuable connections and professional leverage. Strategic online networking allows for building a network and finding a job faster. It puts you in control and can be fun and productive if you go into it with the right mindset. Are you willing to network online (in a big way) so you can be empowered in your career search?
