Professional Networking
Reaching outside of your immediate workplace can bring you in touch with a world of other people who share the same work interests. Connecting with your professional community is a great way to expand the possibilities for your career (and maybe even learn a few new tricks of the trade).
Expand All Guide SectionsProfessional Networking Resources
Find a few resources below to help you connect with your professional community both online and in person.
Dulcinea's Insight
- Unions and professional organizations can help you keep up with the latest industry developments, find out how to further your career, meet others in your field, and even fight for better pay or working conditions if you are being treated unfairly.
- If online networking isn't for you, many unions or professional organizations have real-life get-togethers that might help you network with others in your profession in a more personal way.
Dulcinea's Picks
To find a union or professional association ...
The Internet Public Library has an "Associations on the Net" section that provides a list of associations and their Web sites, organized by discipline.
The AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations) provides a list of affiliated unions in a wide variety of professions. Gather contact information about a union of interest or connect directly to its Web site.
For networking ...
LinkedIn takes a lot of the legwork out of professional networking by alerting you when your contacts make new contacts and helping you connect with them. Set up a profile, then connect with colleagues (past and present), old classmates, or search for other people in your industry. You'll be able to get and give recommendations of those you've worked with, and post or view available jobs. Visit the Q&A section to post questions for those in your industry and answer questions that others have posted to demonstrate your expertise (you can also choose to have your answers show on your profile).
iKarma is a site for businesspeople to make comments about and give recommendations to each other. Develop a very thorough profile with all of your contact information, or a very basic profile. You can skip almost any step in the registration process (like importing your e-mail contacts) by clicking the "skip" link in the upper right corner.
Ziggs lets you create a profile and add links to sites with information about you or examples of your work. You can have a cup of coffee delivered to your friends or business associates through Ziggs, or click an icon to pay clients or vendors using PayPal.
Ryze (pronounced "rise") can help you create networks with others in your field, search for jobs using its "Classifieds" section, or check out what career-related events are going on in your area.
WhoToTalkTo is a place to post job leads and to get job leads from others. The site works on a point system so that you have to post your own leads before requesting one from someone else.
Jobster
is a job-posting site and networking site in one. You can create a profile, add "tags" (keywords) to your profile, and network with other users. If you already have a profile on Facebook or LinkedIn, you can simply import that information into Jobster. Or if you just want to search for jobs, you can do so without creating a profile.
MyWorkster is aimed at recent college graduates and helps them make the transition from university networking to professional networking. Although not as well established as some of the other networking sites, this site has some special features such as allowing you to upload a video résumé in addition to your traditional résumé.
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