Networking: an important job-search technique
It is always good to listen to the people who are working in the sector you want to work in. Their experiences can light the way that we want to walk. In this context, each week I had an opportunity to listen to a variety of people from the marketing sector during the marketing seminars in GBC. All of them have unique backgrounds and shared insightful information and experiences with us. Some of them were quite inspiring so that I wanted to stay in touch in the future. You never know what can happen. I have sent a connection request to some speakers like Paul Michel and Ashley Walsh to see what they share on LinkedIn and to add them to my LinkedIn network.
If I had to choose a person among other speakers, I can go for Caroline Berryman. Her job was quite different from other speakers’ jobs since she is working for the public sector and her job is not about selling a product. She is trying to increase awareness to protect wildlife like Jefferson Salamanders. In her words, her job is about selling ideas and Influencing people for positive behavioral changes.
I found it quite appealing! It is something that I would like to work on rather than trying to increase a sale of a company that I have zero interest in or does not create any feeling on me. This is something that I found more meaningful.
Her presentation helped me to understand how they are creating and sharing posts to increase public awareness and what kind of difficulties they have related to digital marketing. I know that getting more citizen involvement on social media is harder than promoting a product. However, I believe that working in the public sector provides a very unique and useful perspective that I can also use for different jobs in the future.
It is hard to choose one significant thing from these seminars. All the speakers were sharing insightful thoughts and experiences with us. One common thing that I can mention from these seminars and other industry experts is that following trends and keeping yourself up-to-date is critical for success in the digital marketing world. What you do today might not work tomorrow. Thus, as I understand from their presentations moving with trends is an effective tactic to stay in the game.
These days having a network is quite hard since humans are not evolved to have digital life connections. It is so hard to meet with people and create “strong relations”. By sharing videos and posts I try to connect with the people that I meet on LinkedIn. The organization that I’m working in helped me a lot to create connections with other people since I had an opportunity to work with them in person.
Other than that, I was creating connections and attending events via Eventbrite.com and acadium.com. I had the opportunity to meet with new people by joining events on these websites.
During the semester I have bought some digital media courses and joined their FB groups to meet with new people and understand how they approach digital media solutions and find customers. Those groups help me to understand the common problems that the clients are facing and how they are addressing those issues.
At the moment I’m working as a volunteer for a digital media blog that works with restaurants mainly. It helps me to create networks with video producers, influencers, and business owners in Toronto. Thus, I got some freelance jobs in this way. As I mentioned it is hard to create connections on the internet and differentiate yourself from other job candidates. However, my volunteer job helps me to have better connections since I’m meeting people in person. Also, they see how I’m doing my job in daily life.
At the moment I’m still actively searching for coop opportunities and trying to find a full-time job at the same time. Networking with people online did not really help me to find coop opportunities but make me closer to the digital marketing world for sure and perhaps in the future, my networks can help me to land a full-time job. However, at the moment my in-person communications help me more to find job opportunities.
Sharing engaging content posts like how businesses do on my social media accounts helps me to keep my network relations. Especially LinkedIn is the best place for it! It is important to continually share new content there to inspire people and engage them. It definitely helps to have a solid social presence.
Additionally, working as a volunteer just does not help to get valuable experience but also helped me to have lasting connections with other volunteers and people. After meeting with someone it is good to send a LinkedIn connection request to stay in touch. Otherwise, the person will not remember you most probably and the connection will get weaker.
Networking is one of the most significant job-search techniques that everyone must do either in person or online since connections will ensure you get the job and increase your chance as well.













