At every point in your life, you need people to point you in the right direction. This is also the same when it comes to your career. Whether or not you are satisfied professionally you need a professional network.
A professional network is a group of people who have connected with one another for career or business-related reasons. The contacts or connections you have in your professional network can share information like job leads.
They may also help one another solve work-related problems, recommend vendors and suppliers, and provide information about prospective employers, employees and clients.
Here are five tips for improving your career and building a professional network.
1. Build relationships within the company
Connect with people with whom you currently work as well as those you’ve worked with in the past. You will be surprised how far your reach stretches when you connect with just five people within your immediate work environment. Also, try talking at former school mates. You’ll be surprised who knows who and even who is who!
2. Take part in extracurricular activities
Go to conferences and introduce yourself to other attendees. Make business cards with your non-work contact information and bring them with you. Become an active member, for example by serving on a committee. It will help broaden your reach for a better career. Also, it gives your colleagues a chance to see you in action.
3. Don’t be afraid to ask for things
You have to be forthcoming with your intentions. If you need help, contacts or support, just ask nicely. Try to create a win-win situation for your contacts, with you bettering your career and profiting them at the same time. You can open so many doors for yourself by simply being open. As the Nigerian church saying goes, a closed mouth is a closed destiny.
4. Prepare to make pitches to clients
If you want to improve your career, at every point in time, you must be able and ready to sell your skills and ideas. Opportunities show up in the weirdest of situations, and you have to stay ready to secure the bag. So prepare your pitches to clients and collaborators. It will do you a world of good.
5. Maintain relationships
Building a network is not a one-time job. You have to keep those relationships alive. You can’t just call people up out of the blue when you need something. Trust and rapport have to be built for them to speak well of you in front of potential clients or employers.
You could do all this or just take the easy route and do all your professional networking via LinkedIn. Either way, be sure to stay confident and dedicated. We wish you success in your career.
