Coffee Lunch Coffee

No matter what industry we work in, networking is an essential skill to possess. In fact, in our fast-paced, rapidly changing work environment, we don’t have the luxury of avoiding it!

Far from merely an opportunity to collect business cards, networking is about establishing relationships and helping people.

For example, author and columnist Arianna Huffington once attended an event at a woman’s home in New York City to talk and discuss the challenges women face in the workplace. After her talk, she gave her private email address to everyone in the room. Doing so enabled her to continue the conversation she had started with all the attendees far beyond the meeting.

To be effective networkers, we must be interested in the people we are talking to, not just in seeing what the other person can do for us. In the long term, helping others offers benefits to both our professional and personal lives.

Networking is not about the quantity of contacts, but the quality of our relations. It is a skill we need to succeed in life. It acts as a safety net in our evolving work environments and helps us move forward in our jobs.

We may not all be natural-born professional networkers, but there are tips and tricks that anyone can learn in order to hone these beneficial skills.

These tips include: making sure you have a 30-second elevator speech where you can quickly and easily introduce who you are and what you do; knowing what resources you can use to network (sites such as linkedin.com and job-hunt.org); how to tell your story to really connect with others and how to build your portfolio.

Getting a good grasp of these techniques can make your career satisfying and challenging.