The Importance of Building Your Network as a Young Professional

Ashleigh Lloyd is a consultant in the Business Tax team at Deloitte in Birmingham, and also the co-chair of Aspire, which is one part of the BPS Birmingham organisation. BPS Birmingham is a membership organisation which represents, promotes and connects it's members, their firms and the professional services sector within the city and surrounding regions. 

"The richest people in the world look for and build networks; everyone else looks for work" - Robert Kiyoski. 

To me, this quote says everything that you need to know about networking. It amazes me that, working in a professional services organisations, where we rely on our networks of colleagues to help deliver an exceptional service to our network of clients, how often I hear that people 'don't have time for networking'. Building a network of people you can rely on, and that can rely on you is undoubtedly one of the ways to ensure your success in the professional services sector. 

This is of course, easier said than done.  

To build an effective network, you have to be smart about how you invest your time. As 9-5 is ever more often being stretched to 8-6 (or even further than this) our time is valuable, and there's nothing more frustrating than wasting it. That means picking the networking events you attend wisely is vital. To help "networking newbies" navigate the vast number of available events, I have jotted down a few things that I have learned from my networking experiences so far;

1. Always have your business cards ready:

No matter how memorable you are, or fantastic the conversations, the connections made at a networking event won’t last if you can’t reconnect afterwards.

2. Be open minded 

While you may have an idea of the types of people you want to surround yourself with, you need to think long term. You never know where you, and all the people you are meeting, will be in 10 years.

3. Step out of your comfort zone:

Don’t fall into the trap of only attending events with friends/ colleagues, all that will happen is you spend the evening talking to people you already know. Challenge yourself to attend an event alone, speak to as many people as you can in the room- it feels uncomfortable at first, but that is ok. Mistakes are far better made with strangers than at events with key clients for your firm, so upskill independently before you are thrown in at the deep end at work.

As a young professional, it is so important to start building your network of trusted colleagues and clients; even if some of those relationships seem trivial now, in the long run the better connected you are the more likely you are to succeed. The above may help you with meeting new people at networking events, however my last piece of advice is simple...

4. Don't neglect existing relationships

Building networks isn't always about meeting new people; it can also mean reconnecting with people you met at University or School, or even colleagues from previous jobs. Effective networking should lead to a network; as obvious as this sounds it is important to remember to build long-lasting relationships, think quality not quantity.

Knowing where to start building your network is tricky, but that is where organisations like BPS Birmingham Aspire come in, we organise a combination of networking events, skills sessions, sporting events and many other things to help the young professionals of Birmingham build their networks. In order to keep those relationships in place as you get more senior, we have a sister organisation called BPS Birmingham Future that offers a similar platform for more senior professionals in Birmingham. The Future Mentoring Academy also provides the opportunity for the Aspire and Future communities to connect by way of mentoring relationships. 

The fantastic thing about networking within a community like BPS is the consistency of faces that attend. It is a great feeling to walk into a room of 50 people and spot a few faces that you have met before, and take the chance to build on the relationships you have already started to create. 

Since joining BPS, the number of young professionals I know in Birmingham has grown exponentially; and I have improved the skills I need to build relationships with my clients which allows me to add value doing my day job. I am now co-Chair of BPS Birmingham Aspire, and along with my committees which are made up of other volunteers, we are really enjoying the challenge of getting Birmingham's young professionals networking.