The Coronavirus situation brought many challenges to the workforce and business life of Finland as well as the rest of Europe and the world. Talent Coastline planned a series of online events called Talent Café. The Talent Café is meant for the internationals living in the Ostrobothnia and Central Ostrobothnia regions, who are searching for a job, or have recently been laid off, or who are employed but will start searching for a new position in the close future. The second Talent Café was about networking, and it took place on Teams on Thursday, July 2nd.
Jobseekers can find a new position often through their network. Moving to a new country means leaving behind a network of people and stepping into a blank sheet of new potential relationships and networks. We all know networking is very important when searching for a job. But how to do that?
We had the pleasure to have three speakers who gave useful tips and advice on how to boost your networking skills: Shaima Abdelmageed, Business Solutions Manager, Kamilla Sultanova, Project Manager at Hanken and Johanna Kauppinen, Managing Counsel at Wärtsilä.
The first presentation covered the basics of networking, by Shaima Abdelmageed. The presentation covered all the fundamentals: where to go, how to prepare yourself before a networking event, how to approach the people that interest you and what to do after, how to maintain and keep building a relationship. A great tip that Shaima shared was to be prepared and know already the person you want to introduce yourself to, in order to find a common ground and spark a meaningful conversation when meeting face to face.
The second speech, given by Kamilla Sultanova, focused on boosting your networking skills during the coronavirus time. She shared tips on where to connect, specifically online, for example through webinars, networking events (the Talent Café being a great example!), LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram live. She also gave advice on how to boost one’s professional presence online, as well as what can be done to be noticed by potential employers. The keyword: be creative. When it feels like the opportunity does not reach you, make your own opportunity and, using your creativity, make your own luck.
The third and last presentation was provided by Johanna Kauppinen, and she provided a very useful point of view about networking specifically with Finns. Meeting Finns can sometimes seem challenging, but there are a few tips and tricks that can get you to network efficiently with them: be curious and ask the second question, say your name clearly and repeat it, do what interests you to find like-minded people, which will make it easier to start a conversation, take your hobbies as an opportunity to socialize with Finns.
These tips are only a few examples: you can find many more insights and ideas to become better at networking in the video recording of the event, which you can find here on our YouTube channel.
Welcome to our next Talent Café #3 – Entrepreneurship, which will take place on Thursday, August 20th, at 16.00-17.30.
Register here to the next event: https://lnkd.in/dbC3ene
Find the event on Facebook and share it: https://bit.ly/3agcE7I
– Eleonora Matrella, Talent Coastline Expert, ELY-Centre Ostrobothnia
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