Did I network Well?

What a pandemic life! What a Year! What a semester! And what an absolutely amazing experience of meeting industry experts every week. Can a course be better than Seminar Series? I doubt.

For the readers who don’t know what am I talking about: the Marketing Seminar Series is one of my Digital Media Marketing courses in which we meet the experts from the Marketing Industry and get to know about their real-life experiential learnings. What could be better than knowing the depth of the ocean before jumping into it? Not only that, every session has brainstorming team-building activities where the entire class is divided into smaller peer groups to solve a strategic case study.

Doesn’t it sound cool? 14 weeks, more than 14 speakers from all across the globe, sounds like one of the dreams come true, the Dream- I lived.

It was not easy to come to a different country and build connections starting from scratch. As an over-friendly & extremely extroverted individual, I consistently made sure to connect with these knowledge banks (at least on LinkedIn) well in advance once the speaker bio was released. With the wealth of knowledge, every individual/ speaker had many advice and suggestions to offer. To be honest, every speaker was an inspiration in itself and it would not be fair naming just one or two. All the speakers had diverse topics to discuss and impart insightful knowledge. Be it Social Media or B2B Sales, be it Content Marketing or Customer Loyalty, it seems like there was no Marketing topic left uncovered.

But let me tell you the most interesting part? My love for Content Creation & Social Media Marketing has grown over the period of this course. It is now the certainty and not a doubt anymore that what I am going to pursue my career in. I wish I were able to explain one most important thing I learned in these six months as there were so many, however, what I have accomplished is: Multi-Tasking, the skill I have learned over time and continuing to master.

From 454 to 929 LinkedIn connections in the last six months, (and an increase of 1K followers on Instagram: just flexing)I have not only gained. I have not only connected with all the speakers but with any and every individual who I think can be a part of my professional network and can be of mutual help to each other.

Being the Social Media Community Manager in this course, further gave me visibility and an add-on reason to be active on LinkedIn which helped me connect with all the speakers personally. Apart from individual connections, I further joined many industry groups like Mobile Marketing & Advertising, Social Media Marketing, and many more which helps me keeping myself updated with what’s happening around me or what is trending.

Did I mention Volunteering? Yes, I began as Graphic Design & Social Media Coordinator for GBC Sustainability Squad in January which I am loving so far and how did I get to know about this? Networking!

But what about my Coop?

I have given ‘n’ number of interviews via LinkedIn & if you are still reading this, YES! LINKEDIN JOBS DO WORK. You just need to have the right filters, alerts & an appealing profile (the concept is not quite different from Tinder). Not to sound desperate but I have sent personalized messages to let everyone (not EVERYone) know about me, my ambitions, dreams & aspirations, and my job search process.

Having said that, my search for a coop is not over yet. I am continuing to search, research, apply, network & build connections for my coop or a full-time permanent role beginning May.

I have learned a lot of networking tips and some of the best practices to follow to connect with people. For my readers, the following are the top three handy tips for networking right from my experience:

Apart from these, there are few additional suggestions for all my readers regarding the importance of career networking:

• Include the right people. Your career network should include anyone who can assist you with a job search or career move such as past and present co-workers, bosses, friends with similar interests, colleagues from business associations, alumni from your university, etc.

• Know what your career network can do for you. Over 80% of job seekers say that their network has helped them find work. Networking contacts can help with more than job leads.

• Keep in touch and work your network. Don't just contact those who can help when you have just been laid off from your job or decide you want to look for a new position. Keep in touch with your network regularly

• Keep track of your network. Keep track of your personal career network somewhere. Whether it's electronically or on paper, make sure you know who is who, where they work, and how to get in touch.

• Give something back to your career network. Networking shouldn't be a one-way street. If you come across an interesting article or a relevant job listing, like, comment & share it with your network.
  

If you found this article helpful, do not forget to Like & Comment on the article and share it with your friends/ connections to help them with these tips & tricks.

And do not forget to let me know- Did I network well ?

Let’s connect

LinkedIn & Facebook: Aadhar Mehta

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