Networking Tips and Tricks

[currantloaf]

Anyone have any input?

Seems there are a few recent graduates such as myself and while i used the opportunity within university to establish some links the position i am in now seems much less flexible. As someone who has finished the university experience everything seems far more formal.

Similarly while we have a lot of older form members who have transitioned between jobs does anyone have any suggestions on the Dos and don'ts

Any quick tips for platforms such as LinkedIn ( I.e do people regularly post their own articles?)
Or anyone attended any functions that they saw as a good experience?
Anyone had any any experiences that didnt work out so well that they wouldnt mind sharing to lean from ?

If possible please include your sphere of work

 

[Maccy]

LinkedIn is a very powerful tool to find jobs, network and get noticed.

I would suggest connecting with recruiters who specialise in the field that you are looking to get into, in particular in-house recruiters for places that may offer graduate placements (Accenture, Capgemini for example). It's also been suggested that liking/sharing/posting articles can help increase your rankings in search results - I don't know how true this is but can't hurt to give it a go.

I specialise in IT testing, so I'm connected with a lot of recruiters in that field and am currently getting daily calls/emails from them which has become a bit annoying now!

 

[dowie]

meetup.com can be useful for networking, especially for anything tech related, some events will have recruiters others will not want them present - either way you'll often be able to mingle with people working in particular sectors or working with particular technologies, some of them may be hiring, some of them may be able to give your CV directly to a hiring manager/their boss. But regardless of whether you're even looking for a new role it can often be useful to chat with people in other companies or even people from completely different industries who have some overlap with what you do. Likewise if you're launching a start up then there are often meetup.com events aimed at that which can connect you with angel investors/VCs etc..

Similarly you'll find other talks, events in most big cities - maybe via relevant internet forums or just established societies.

Professional societies will also have various events - If you're a [blah] professional then why not join the Royal Society for [blah], or the Chartered Institute of [blah] - they'll have networking events, mentorship schemes etc.. If you're in London then maybe there is a City Guild related to [blah] - you can network with people in your field and take your wife/girlfriend to black tie events at various guildhalls.

If you're a recent grad or still a student then could be worth getting in contact with lecturers/professors from university who do research work with industry - target your project towards your future career, use their connections to get a project/dissertation that can be done in conjunction with an external company in the field you want to work in - it isn't going to cost the company anything more than a bit of time from one of their staff members and in return they might get some useful work out of it and an extended interview process with a promising potential hire that they'll not have to pay a recruiters fee for.

Linkedin can be useful, visibility for recruiters for a start (though as Maccy has pointed out above you can also get spammed). You'll tend to find that recruiters already connected to your connections working in your field will add you automatically, you don't even need to seek them out, as you add more connections then more recruiters will pop up wanting to connect with you. It can be worth going to interviews even if you're not too fussed about taking a new job just to see what you're worth/what you could be offered... you never know you might even decide it is worth a move/the money is worth it. Either way you get a good idea of what you're worth in the market and how quickly you could move if necessary.

Second aspect of linkedin is the groups - bit hit and miss but you may find some useful people to talk/connect with.

my areas of work has been finance/technology