Networking was a big unknown for me until two years ago. It all started when I moved to Canada for my master’s degree and joined a student club at my university. This club organizes conferences and industrial visits related to the energy sector. It was at this precise moment, I realized the effectiveness and usefulness of networking. With our participation in networking events and seminars, I was able to invite several executives and technical experts from the energy industry to come give conferences at our university, free of charge. Furthermore, I have been able to invite the most famous businessman of the city to give a talk. We kept the student club alive and our calendar full of activities, thanks to networking.
Networking can provide you a lot of opportunities, for example, we did an exploratory mission of the energy sector in Iceland, thanks to Icelandic panellists we met at a major economic forum in Canada a year before. Nowadays, most of our communications are done through electronic devices, doing networking in person gives you real advantages. Since the person you have talked with will remember you more easily, you will also have the opportunity to properly explain your approach and exchange business cards to keep in touch afterwards. Those connections you create while networking can become opportunities for future employment.