How Networking Can Change your Career and Your Life

We get it – “spend more time networking” doesn’t always make it to the top of people’s New Year’s resolution list. It can feel like a time sink, hard to quantify, real awkward at times and even dreadful if you’re an introvert who finds being around people draining. With a calendar already full with meetings and personal commitments, the last thing you want to do is hand out business cards to strangers!

Career Networking Research 

But maybe you should rethink it. Plenty of research supports that building a professional network can lead to:

  • More job and business opportunities 

  • Expansion of knowledge

  • Exposure to new ways of thinking

  • Cultivation of greater status and authority

There is also a long list of unexpected benefits such as:

  • Happiness

  • Health

  • And a bigger brain!

Networking – One of the Most Important Career and Life Skills

Over the years, We’ve come to realize that building relationships through networking is one the most important career and life skills you can learn. You just never know who you will meet and how that might change the direction of your life.

As a business owner, networking has had a huge positive impact in every part of my professional and personal life. Networking has resulted in new clients, new friends, mentors, business partners, employees and more. I have the security of knowing that no matter what the challenge I can always count on my network to help me find a solution.

How to Network Effectively

Of course, there’s a right way and a wrong way to network and it starts with the right mindset. People can tell where you’re coming from. There is a generous way and a self-serving way.

A giving mindset is the right approach. Connecting with others, working hard to give more than you get and providing value is what real networking is about. In each networking encounter ask, “How can I help here?” not  “What’s in it for me?”

It’s about enjoying the experience of meeting new people and learning new things. And it comes down to treating people like human beings. If in that process, others can help you too, that’s the bonus. And it’s a natural byproduct, you reap what you sow.

Make a Commitment to Networking

Make 2020 the year you step out and make networking part of your weekly schedule. Your career, and life, will thank you for it.

Networking makes connections. That’s what we do here at Poly Tech Talent as well, make connections between employers and the top talent they need to grow their winning teams. We want to do that for you too. Our FlatFee IT recruitment process makes partnering with a recruiter even easier and your new team member’s success rate even higher. Connect with us to learn more. It’s networking!