Networking, the right way

In this episode, Ricardo gives tips to improve the way we do networking.

Episode transcript

The transcript is generated automatically by Podscribe, Sonix, Otter and other electronic transcription services.

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the five Minutes BM podcast and not a day or a Brazilian. Frank came to me and ask him the tricky question. How do I get too, the project management market? And then of course I asked him and say, but what do you mean by that, John, to know which kind of study, which kind of credential, which kind of experience. And then he said to me know, know, I want to know the people on this market. I know exactly what I need to do, but, but people need to find me.

People need to know that I'm here to work at that. This is a career. And then I answer to him, it's all about Networking and then we can look it to me. And let me explain Networking for many people may be, we receive it as a waste of time. You know why I should just doing maybe a small talks or, or going to events or receptions. And I said, no, you were wrong. Because most of the time in this event's you can meet and find very interesting people in of course you need to do that.

Is it working in fields that you have an interest let's suppose that you have interest for food, then you should look for events related to food, to home cooking. If you are interested in star Wars, for example, you need to look or is there any group or is there any people? And then you start networking with people with some common interest and all the project management side. Of course you need to look. This people were usually in the professional associations, in their local branches, in their local chapters.

You need to find schools with programs around project management. You need to talk to your professor may be your MBA professor or your PNP exam prep professor, or you're a priest to a trainer because this people will be able to start connecting you. So one of the biggest waste of time, it's for you to attend the Congress and to stay one day in a Congress. And you enter without speaking any you leave without knowing anybody.

Of course, you got the knowledge, but do you miss? It is a huge opportunity because maybe on your site, you can find someone really valuable. So one that you can share experience in someone that can give you different perspectives about the profession. I want to take an example in, for me, one of the nicest example, it's from the BMI, some Paulo chapter in the book, Paula in Brazil, it's a quite big, quite relevant. Yeah. On the top of the door for the technical event and the technical meetings, they decided to do a happy hour one Friday or every month.

And they, someone come on, I was one day invited two to go there and talk to maybe 10 minutes, maybe 50 minutes in a very informal wage, not a paper presentation late in a very informal wait. And what do they do? It's an opportunity for people in some of this happy hours. You may find 50 people, 60 people. They did an agreement with a restaurant and then people have some like a flat rate and they have an opportunity to have a beer or to have a soda and to talk and to chat in a very informal way.

And then in this kind of place, you start building your network. You start knowing who is who, who plays, who knows what? And look, I need to be deeply honest. I attend these kind of Congress's for a very long time, very long time in one of the key things I love doing. It's exactly meeting people each to meet and greet because maybe most of my friend's in the area. He came from that time. I have business partners. I have people working with me.

I have potential clients, all of this that we're built on this Networking show. Don't miss this opportunity. Don't think in most of the time, some people are very uncomfortable to doing this Networking and I say, you need to overcome this barrier. You need to interact more. Don't waste your time an hour. So don't save money on business cards. I know made a business card that may look old fashioned, but look, it's great. If you have a business card, look, if you don't have a job, or if you are in a career transition, just make a plain white business cards with your name in your mobile in a very nice week, because this is something that you can share with people.

So people can take home and then reflect who you are. They can make notes, and then you can connect to them because this is how people interact. So it's very, very important. And I want to congratulate all the associations and institutions that promote this. If you are in school, why not promote in this? Okay. Once in a while, we'll get together to talk about anything, but then will meet the charter will have the opportunity to open our Networking cycles because a lot of opportunities we'll come from that.

I want to issue a fantastic week for those who our Brazilian it's kind of our time. So I hope you have a lot of fun in carnival and a lot of great projects. See you next week with another five minutes, be in Podcast.

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