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Networking refers to building and maintaining relationships so that you can connect to career opportunities. By building professional connections and cultivating mutually beneficial relationships, you can exchange valuable advice, information, referrals, and support.
Networking is as simple as having a conversation; it can be formal or informal. Chatting with a neighbour, classmate, or co-worker is informal, while attending a career-related or professional event, such as a career fair or conference, is a more formal type of networking.
Here’s an example of what networking might look like:
James will graduate next year with a degree in business. He is interested in a marketing career in the travel and hospitality industry. He knows that building connections now could help him later.
James writes down a list of names of people in his family, friends, fellow students, instructors, neighbours, and former co-workers. He chooses 5 people to connect with to discuss his future career intentions.
A former professor offers to introduce James by email to an associate who works for a major hotel chain. James introduces himself to Helene, his instructor’s contact. Helene agrees to a 5-minute phone call with James to discuss her work and workplace.
Having made a good impression during the call, James is encouraged to apply for a summer job with Helene’s employer. James applies and is offered the position. James continues to make connections at his summer job to increase future opportunities in his chosen career
When is the best time to start networking?
The best time to start building your network is before you need one, so start early! Developing a network takes time and ongoing effort. Make connections now: Plant seeds that may grow into opportunities later.
Start with your family, friends, neighbours, bosses, colleagues, professors. Then network with community members in your field, alumni, or people at career events. Start developing your own broad list of contacts, especially people you meet through business, educational, and social functions. The goal of this module is to learn practical methods for achieving this.
Who is in your network? Who could be?
In networking, we speak of strong and weak ties. Your “strong ties” include your family and friends, while your “weak ties” are people you see less frequently but with whom conversation flows when you bump into them. Based on research by Mark Granovetter, people who rely on weaker ties in their job searches have better results than those who rely on close ties.[2] This suggests you may need to stretch beyond your usual circles to help develop your career.
As you engage in networking activities, keep in mind that networking is a two-way street. Help others! Do you know someone who is looking for information? And someone else who could help? Offer to introduce them. Think of information you have that might be useful to someone and share it. Have some of your former strong ties become weak ties over time? T