Professional networking for a successful Career Transition
Professional networking: the art to be known A network of contacts is made up of all the people you know, starting from the closest relatives to the most distant acquaintances, and networking is simply the process of extending your network, in other words meeting new people.
Your network of contacts will include:
your family and relatives (parents, brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, grandparents, cousins, etc.)
friends and acquaintances (friends, friends of friends, neighbours, etc.)
work colleagues (people you have worked with or currently work with)
teachers and professors of all the schools you have been to (from nursery to university, fellow students at school or university)
members of organisations you are or were part of (like sports, cultural and voluntary work associations, etc.)
professionals you use (e.g. your doctor, dentist, hairdresser, plumber, etc.).
Networking is a natural activity that we use on a daily basis in our lives in a spontaneous and intuitive manner. The times when you got someone to introduce you to a girl you liked or you asked someone to tell you about a good restaurant or you asked about a good doctor, were more or less knowingly networking activities. It is something you use every day, perhaps not in a systematic manner, but which, thanks to the information and the precious help of others, allows us to reach our objectives.
In the specific context of a job search and search for information networking allows you to:
increase your contacts in a geometric manner
meet and get to know various people who have a job you are interested in collect information on a company or profession
tell people about your research strategy
discover hidden job opportunities or create new ones.
There’s only one thing in life worse that being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
– Oscar Wilde
You can use your network of contacts in the usual spontaneous and improvised manner or move towards a networking activity that is informed and systematic that will allow you to focus your energy and resources to reach your objectives.
