Tips for Networking in Stockholm

29Nov08

The old guy was parking his car when he was about to hit me. With all my anger I shouted “@!*?” to him and he was kind enough to stop, get out of his car and apologize for that.

Then I met him again inside, five minutes later, he smiled, came to me and apologized again. That was the time I learned that he was the CEO of one of the major companies in the event.

Lesson 1 : Never underestimate who and where you will meet during the events. The guy who is right next to you in the rest room could be a very important contact for you. So be professional, kind and aware everywhere.

With all my shame I continued to meet people around then the hiring manager I met three weeks ago came and said hi to me. We talked about an employment opportunity that I would get and set up a meeting next week to talk about it.

Lesson 2 : You can’t know when you will benefit mutually from the contact that you have made. Even if you don’t get an immediate benefit from the contact that you have just made, time will come and you will be valuable for each other. So take it easy and meet as many people as you can without thinking about immediate benefits.

Shame, excitement and what comes next ? I was thinking to myself, what one can experience in a single networking event and then I saw him. This was the guy I have been observing for a long time. He was calm and giving. He told me once that he is doing people a lot of favours before asking them anything and that helps a lot. Drinking his red wine with his new buddy from the corporate world, he taught me that just by helping this guy find his way to the city center, now they became close friends.

Lesson 3 : Be a giving person instead of asking favours all the time. “Karma” will help you one day or another.

Practical Issues:

Here is my favourite question to open up conversations.

• What keeps you busy nowadays ?

Remember to focus on open-end questions like “how” and “in your opinion” instead of “what” “where” and “who”. Questions will give you the power to guide the conversation and will make your contact feel better as you will be listening to him/her.

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