How to Maximize the Effectiveness of Your Networking Experience

Posted on Jun 17, 2015 | 7 comments

How to Maximize the Effectiveness of Your Networking Experience

While networking is generally considered to be a western concept, the term is now a global trend. Networking can be loosely defined as meeting new people in your field with whom you make business connections. Most countries and cultures have their own standards and strategies for networking, but the benefits are universal.

 

The following are some tips to maximize your networking experience:

  1. Do not start any initial meeting or connection with the request that they help you find a job or ask them to tell you if they know of any jobs.
  2. Start most conversations by getting to know the other person a bit. Once you get a sense of their background, share some information about yourself, such as the country you came from, why you’re in your current country, and what you two may have in common, such as regions of the world where you’ve lived or shared business connections. Bring brochures or small booklets about your experience in either your previous country of residence or your native country to share. Many people are often interested in others’ international experience.
  3. If you’re meeting with a person in your career field, share some of the latest research in your field that you may have found either in print or online through professional/trade journals, or publications such as the NY Times, Herald Tribune, Harvard Business Review, and any of the numerous sources available to you (Note: you can do this either in the meeting or offer to send it after the meeting).
  4. Spend some time asking them about how they got into their job. You can learn a lot through listening to others’ experiences. Also ask a few questions about the job market, the organizations that employ people in your career field, and what their perception is of the opportunities in the community. Ask what their best advice is on how to break into the market.
  5. Always end a meeting by asking if they can recommend anyone else to speak with in your career field. Also ask them if you can stay in touch with them to touch base on your job search and to, perhaps, tap their expertise if you get “stuck” along the way and to keep them informed about your search. This is often very effective to keep the door open with a professional contact.

 

WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT NETWORKING AROUND THE GLOBE?

Passport Career provides detailed career and cultural information and extensive resources for finding a job, internship, or alternative career opportunity in over 80 countries.  If you organization, company, embassy, university/college, library or other institution would like access to our country portfolios (15,000+ pages of expert content for 80+ countries and 250+ cities) to share with your employees, their spouses/partners, students and others managing a national or international career transition, please contact us regarding a free, live, online demo and details on how to obtain a license to access Passport Career.

 

GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR TRANSITION!

 

Katelyn Bellus, Research and Private Website Content Manager

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