Feb17200912:11 pm

Talking careers at the NCIV conference, ctd.

Lauren Jacobs reminds me of another great part of last Friday’s discussion that I forgot to include in my round-up:

To add, if I may… there was a good discussion about everyone’s favorite sport: networking. Networking doesn’t have to be an occasion where you put on your finest suit, defy your shyness, and dole out business cards. One suggestion was to network within the group of people you already know and work with. You can rely on the fact that people usually like to talk about their work experiences to keep conversation flowing. Ask current colleagues to lunch and find out their backgrounds/career trajectories. Or, keep an eye out for opportunities with friends – you’d be surprised how many people you know have positions like “recruitment associate.” As Sherry suggested, a group of people can look at many more job opportunities than one person alone.

This also reminds me of a comment during this networking discussion offered by Ayesha Quirke, now the Program Director at the Miami Council for International Visitors in Miami, FL. Ayesha and I met at the NCIV conference two years when I was still on staff at NCIV. To be quite honest, I don’t remember exactly how we met or why we got to talking, but we did and when I found out she was from Miami and looking for international job opportunities there, I thought MCIV would be a great resource. So Ayesha followed up with me and I put her in touch with Annette Alvarez, MCIV’s fantastic executive director. And from there, funny and fortuitous things happened.

Not that it always works out that cleanly but: 1) for god’s sake, follow up on random networking encounters when they happen (just a simple email) because 2) you never know who you’re going to meet where and what it might lead to.

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One Response to “Talking careers at the NCIV conference, ctd.”

  1. Ryan Scheper says:

    Mark Overmann – telling it like it is and getting people jobs. … now if only he could invent something…

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