Networking is a Critical Component of a Successful Job Search

“Networking is not about collecting as many cards as you can - it's about starting relationships,” said Melitta Campbell, a business coach for female entrepreneurs.

Source: Google image

This is especially true after I attended a series of insightful marketing seminars organized by Prof. Wendy Greenwood at George Brown College. More than 10 marketing experts from different fields, like paid media marketing, content marketing, marketing strategy, marketing consulting, and so on, shared with us passionately their experience in the industry, valuable insights, and tips for students. All of the presentations were excellent, and I greatly appreciated their time and effort.

Key Learnings

Personally, I found three speakers’ sharing very inspiring to me:

1. Sam Leung from The Aber Group encouraged us to learn more about AI and its applications in the marketing field to gain a competitive advantage.

2. Stephanie Stahl from the Content Marketing Institute highlighted that content marketing is taking on a more notable role in driving sales.

3. Jennifer Stoll of Valtech’s extensive experience in delivering strategic solutions across different industries is appealing and eye-opening.

Throughout the marketing seminar series, I paid attention and made contributions. For example, I always took on the role of presenting the group case study results. I truly enjoyed the case study session in every class because we got a chance to share ideas with our classmates about scenarios faced in the real world. One of the most interesting case studies involved looking for patterns based on data sets from a car insurance company and suggesting content suitable for different types of web visitors. My group worked efficiently and put together a summary table listing out the suggested content under different topics and the respective targeted states. We received positive feedback from the speaker, Blair Roebuck from Valtech, and I found it fun to analyze data and present the results in a nice, neat format.

A glimpse of my group’s findings

Network and Resources

I think LinkedIn is really a powerful platform to build my personal brand and connect with potential employers. Below, I would like to share a few personal tips on how to leverage LinkedIn for job search success.

1. Personalize Connection Requests

Besides gaining useful knowledge and advice from the speakers, I made connections with some of them outside the classroom to expand my professional network. I connected with them on LinkedIn with a customized LinkedIn connection request message and mentioned how I knew or found them. I also let them know my intention to connect, e.g., to learn more about their work or look for employment opportunities. After attending the Career & Co-op Job Fair held by the Centre for Business at George Brown College in November, I connected with around 10 recruiters on LinkedIn and received four interview opportunities and one job offer afterwards. The results were pretty amazing!

Instagram photo by George Brown College Centre for Business

2. LinkedIn Premium Free Trial

To optimize my job search, I took the one-month free trial of LinkedIn Premium and enjoyed benefits like 15 InMail credits per month, profile view analytics, etc. I used the InMail function to contact a third-degree connection working at a company in my target industry and inquire about co-op opportunities. Even though he responded by saying that they are not hiring co-op roles at the moment, I am glad that I have connected with him so that I can keep myself posted on the latest news of that company.

3. Stay Active on LinkedIn

Posting updates regularly on LinkedIn is a good way to build one’s professional profile. I have been posting updates about my study, certificates earned, and achievements with the use of mentions and hashtags to reach a wider audience. However, I think I should make more posts or other content on LinkedIn in the future to keep myself active on the platform.

My update on earning Hootsuite certification on LinkedIn

All in all, I really appreciate everyone who has put effort into organizing and participating in the marketing seminar series. I have gained not only industry knowledge and insights but also hands-on experience from practising networking, which has actually benefited my job-hunting process. I wish all the best to my cohort for their future careers!