I realized this especially clearly when I moved to Holland. I came there as an expat, on a contract from a company, but after a couple of years I realized that I would have to stay – and the question of integration into the local business reality arose. What should I do if I want to change jobs? What is happening on the market here? What are the business opportunities? I had to figure out how the external environment works.
I started going to conferences, seeing what was going on in my niche, what kind of people were involved in this area, and asking them how to grow in the local environment. There was only one answer – networking. From finding a job to moving to top positions, vacancies for which are simply not publicly available, from creating a business to finding clients and new opportunities.
Maybe the problem is in the conservatism of the European community, but in Russia, too, I think, they are in no hurry to take people “from the street” – they trust much more those for whom they can vouch. If you want to be on the level, you must be part of a certain circle, otherwise you simply will not have access to existing opportunities.
Business Tinder: 18 Services for Networking
Networking helped me integrate into a new environment. I have a good circle of contacts, I speak at conferences, create interesting positions for c level executive list myself in hiring, work as a mentor and business tracker, I am on the boards of directors of small and medium-sized companies – all this came through networking and is only developing.
When you build your environment wisely and know the key people in your field, and they know you and can vouch for you, you feel confident.
How to get into the community you are interested in?
The main advice is to ask questions, smile and listen carefully . If you build a discussion correctly, people are willing to talk about themselves and how society works, and give recommendations. When I asked about how to look for opportunities and manage a network of useful contacts, I was told: you need to drink a lot of coffee.
The model is generally quite familiar to a Russian the challenges modern developers face person. It’s not about what to drink, but what to talk about – the conversation should be pleasant, but useful for both of you. You carefully wedge yourself into the social circle, find out where you need to go to move towards your goals, and recommend yourself to the right people. You need to be able to arrange everything in a natural way – this is a kind of flirting with the community.
If you do everything correctly, your contacts will grow like a snowball – from one recommendation to another, regular dinners, meetings, and the list of contacts becomes larger and larger. So in the first six months of my work on the environment, I got into the government’s top list of businesswomen in Holland.
Now about the networking strategy:
2. Determine the “habitat” of the people you are interested in , find a way to meet them – a sports club, mutual friends, an event. Let a casual acquaintance be not casual. This can be done online, if there is the right introduction to the acquaintance.
Personal brand: manage it yourself or delegate it
3. Develop a personal brand. It is important marketing list that the interest is mutual. What can you give to the person you need? Define your CVP (Core Value Proposition ©), your core value, and understand how you can hook the right person.
4. Don’t rush. The first or very high-ranking contacts can warm up for a year or a year and a half before the person starts to trust you. Don’t lose patience and continue to demonstrate your value (your personal brand).
5. Maintain connections. To stay relevant, you need to remind yourself of yourself periodically. I regularly interact with contacts that are important to me, come up with “touchpoints” and reasons for meetings – this not only maintains old ones, but also creates new useful acquaintances.
I even formalized this approach as a method – first based on my personal experience, and then on the experience of those who came to me to learn this method – to achieve their goals through networking. I can confidently say that if you do this systematically, the results are visible very quickly, and grow exponentially.