Coursera Week 4

Unit 4 – Networking

This unit will teach job-seekers language for meeting new people, making small talk, and describing.

1.) What is Networking?

A network is a connection between many things or people. In career development, networking means connecting with other people to talk about your job search and career goals. You can talk to other people formally at a professional conference or informally at lunch with friends. When you are networking you are meeting new people and learning more about different jobs and companies. Networking is about building professional relationships, which take time to grow. When you meet new people you learn about common interests, or things you both know about. For example, two co-workers meet while working for a large financial company in New York. They quickly learn that they both went to the same university. This common background is the beginning of their professional relationship. And may help them learn about some other things that they have in common. Such as, major or subject areas, work experiences, or other people they both know. These are called mutual friends, or acquaintances.

2.) Making Small Talk

Small Talk is when you make polite conversation with someone. Often the conversation is with someone you don't know very well, so you may have to speak with this person for the very first time. A conversation may begin as small talk and then continue into speaking about something more important.

But usually, Small Talk is the first stage before you can get to that more important place. For example, let's say you are in a business meeting with your co-workers. You might begin the conversation with one of your colleague by asking her about her family. You might say, hey, Maria, how are you? How's your family doing? Did your youngest start school yet? In this situation, the speaker asks a question about his co-worker's family.

Usually, small talk sticks to topics that we consider safe. In the United States, chatting about someone's family is generally a safe topic. Chatting about the weather is a safe topic. Chatting about food, or travel, or movies, are safe topics. Safe topics are ones where you can be pretty sure where you can be pretty sure that you will not upset, or offend the person, by talking about these topics. In the US, we usually stay clear of certain topics, topics that we consider taboo or controversial, topics that could upset someone. Some examples of taboos in the US are religion, politics and salary. It's best to avoid discussing these topics in a conversation, especially with someone you're trying to make a good impression with.

3.) Networking Elevator speech- What to Say When Networking

This short description is known as an elevator speech. Because the average amount of time in an elevator is about 45 seconds. Even though the elevator speech is short, each should give enough information to make the listener know who you are, and what you can do.

Let's start with the basic information that you should include in your elevator speech.

Tell them your full name and current job title, department, or employer.
Tell the other person what you are looking for. Information or a kind of job in an industry, field, or location.
Tell them something about a past job or experience that could be important to them. Fourth, tell them about a job skill that you have and are very good at. After you've described a little bit about yourself, then you can ask the other person a general question. A general question is one that is easy to answer. For example, do you know if the company is hiring anyone right now?

Asking questions helps to keep the conversation going, and allows you to find out more about them. In summary, job seekers should have a short, prepared description or an elevator speech that they can use to introduce themselves when networking. A good elevator speech includes your name and current job, what you are looking for, something from a past experience, and a short description of your best job skill. Even though it is short, it can give other people a lot of information about you.