3 Fall Networking Tips

If you’re wondering if there’s a perfect season for networking, the answer is yes and you’re currently in it.

So consider this the kick, the fire, the pumpkin to motivate you to get it rolling.

The six-ish weeks of October into mid-November falls after the busy-ness of summer and back to school and before the drama/trauma of the holiday season. Plus, the weather is close to ideal in many parts of the country right now – so meeting outdoors for a coffee – or one of my Career Walk and Talks feels like a treat.

For those of you who writhe at the thought of networking, I see you. I have all of you in mind as I’m writing.

And for the rest of you who actually enjoy it, but don’t know how to get it started, I’m happy to offer up some ideas beyond – set up a zoom with a former colleague. I know you’ve already had that zoom and you’re way zoomed out to do it for fun. I’m with you!

Here are 3 ways to get your networking in during this season:

Explore Eventbrite:

You may have noticed I’ve been adding my events lately to Eventbrite and I’m loving how it’s going! I’m meeting interesting, cool people who I wouldn’t have been able to reach otherwise. For my first Career Walk and Talk, we had a health tech professional considering moving to Brooklyn so she came for a walk and loaded her days with Eventbrite events to network and meet people. With some strategic search terms, you can find many events per week that would meet your needs. I’m impressed with how it’s grown and how useful it can be.

Volunteer:

We have a pretty important election coming up and many of my clients are currently in job searches are also: volunteering for local and national campaigns, attending and hosting postcarding parties, going out with groups to canvas for candidates – and in all of these efforts you’re both – doing something that’s important to you AND meeting people who may have similar interests and values. Of course your volunteering doesn’t need to be political – your helping of organizations allows you to give back to meaningful causes while at the same time – meeting people you wouldn’t have come across in your day to day or on LinkedIn. Remember to have a casual version of your pitch ready to go. You never know who you’ll be volunteering with!

Gather people plus ones:

If you’re a gathering type (you know who you are and we appreciate you!), ask a group of friends or colleagues to join you for a potluck, at a bar – wherever – and ask each of them to bring an interesting plus one friend (not date). This way, you get to expand your group beyond your typical crew and you know these people have been vetted by your people. Oftentimes the first step in networking is to expand beyond your go-to folks. As strange as it sounds, your inner circle people are not always the most helpful in your career and job search. It’s typically your looser connections that add most of the value – whether it’s because they are naturally connector types or they want to pay it forward after having been helped in a search.

I’m curious to hear how your fall connecting goes. If you have additional winner ideas – send them my way so I can share more broadly.