Having always been a fairly shy person, I’ve struggled to create a lot of professional and social connections. Some of you would know I’ve put a lot of effort into improving my social/dating life recently, which has been quite successful. The problem is my career has sort of taken a back seat because I’ve been so focused on creating a better social/dating life.
Since graduating from university, I’ve applied for a lot of jobs advertised online but as I keep hearing, it’s all about who you know, especially where I live. Around 80% of jobs are never advertised. The problem is I just don’t know enough people. Until recently, I’ve never gone out of my way to meet new people and get to know people. Generally I’ve tried to avoid it. If people make an effort to get to know me I’ll always open up to them but I’m rarely the one to initiate it. I was always the guy who would keep to himself at school, work, events..etc.
In the past six months on my quest to improve my social/dating life, I’ve actively put myself out there and met a lot of new people. This has definitely given me a lot more confidence and improved my conversational skills. But my focus has been mostly on a small demographic (young, attractive girls) and that’s probably not going to help with my career much.
My goal over the following six months is to build a much larger network of both social and professional contacts. This will help me focus more on my career, while simultaneously building up my people skills and that will take me closer towards the goals I have in my social/dating life. I’m planning on doing some work as a personal trainer (not as a career, just on the side) soon, so hopefully this networking will also help me find more clients for that.
I plan on attending professional networking events, meetup.com events, career fairs etc...Anywhere I can meet new people. I’m also going make more of an effort to get to know people at other events I attend, particularly social events. A few weeks ago I was at a friend’s birthday, I should’ve taken the opportunity to introduce myself to all the people I didn’t know but instead I only spoke to the few people I already knew. The same thing happens at most social gatherings I attend. From my experience, most people (especially around my age) don’t often venture beyond their own social circles either. So I’m not alone. But that’s no excuse not to take the initiative myself.
It’s not like I don’t have the confidence to strike up a conversation with someone I haven’t met before. I would have approached over 100 random girls just this year. It’s just not a habit, because it’s never come naturally to me. There’s always a little voice in the back of my head telling me it would be easier to stick to myself than talking to someone I’ve never met before.
If anyone has some experience in networking, what advice do you have? Any books or videos you would recommend on the subject?
Since graduating from university, I’ve applied for a lot of jobs advertised online but as I keep hearing, it’s all about who you know, especially where I live. Around 80% of jobs are never advertised. The problem is I just don’t know enough people. Until recently, I’ve never gone out of my way to meet new people and get to know people. Generally I’ve tried to avoid it. If people make an effort to get to know me I’ll always open up to them but I’m rarely the one to initiate it. I was always the guy who would keep to himself at school, work, events..etc.
In the past six months on my quest to improve my social/dating life, I’ve actively put myself out there and met a lot of new people. This has definitely given me a lot more confidence and improved my conversational skills. But my focus has been mostly on a small demographic (young, attractive girls) and that’s probably not going to help with my career much.
My goal over the following six months is to build a much larger network of both social and professional contacts. This will help me focus more on my career, while simultaneously building up my people skills and that will take me closer towards the goals I have in my social/dating life. I’m planning on doing some work as a personal trainer (not as a career, just on the side) soon, so hopefully this networking will also help me find more clients for that.
I plan on attending professional networking events, meetup.com events, career fairs etc...Anywhere I can meet new people. I’m also going make more of an effort to get to know people at other events I attend, particularly social events. A few weeks ago I was at a friend’s birthday, I should’ve taken the opportunity to introduce myself to all the people I didn’t know but instead I only spoke to the few people I already knew. The same thing happens at most social gatherings I attend. From my experience, most people (especially around my age) don’t often venture beyond their own social circles either. So I’m not alone. But that’s no excuse not to take the initiative myself.
It’s not like I don’t have the confidence to strike up a conversation with someone I haven’t met before. I would have approached over 100 random girls just this year. It’s just not a habit, because it’s never come naturally to me. There’s always a little voice in the back of my head telling me it would be easier to stick to myself than talking to someone I’ve never met before.
If anyone has some experience in networking, what advice do you have? Any books or videos you would recommend on the subject?
