BCAS Vice President CA Chirag Doshi’s Message for the Month of October 2022

LET YOUR NETWORK WORK

Here is a question I asked myself – How important is a network in the life of a Professional? When I became a CA and joined a big four and subsequently a corporate, I never realised the need for a strong network.

Active professional networking is vital to the growth of career and knowledge. Building networks involves getting to know more and more people by meeting them in person or over social networking sites. Fostering a long-term relationship and establishing a good professional reputation over time is the key to successful networking.

Networking can provide the right opportunity to build mutually beneficial relationships with other professionals in your industry. Whether you are looking for a job or for a candidate to fill in your vacancy at your organisation, Networking does help a lot.

Having the right contact in your network is the key to success. Here are a few examples of the sources of the network:

1.  Current and former work colleagues
2. Schoolmates or study groups
3. Your Professors/teachers
4. Friends/family
5. Members in your industry
6. Members of relevant industry associations

Networking can include everything from a chat at a café, to attending a networking dinner to attending an industry networking event. One may explore the following:

1. Become a member of Professional associations
2. Attend networking events, expos, conferences or similar events
3. Connect with relevant professionals on social media.
4. Volunteer and participate in community events

A research report states that 79% of professionals believed that their network has played a key role in their career success. Approx. 25% of users of social media networking sites said such sites helped build new business partnerships for them.

Benefits of Networking in your professional life:

1. Helps strengthen your professional contact: Networking is about sharing, not taking. It is about helping one another toward achieving goals.
2. Helps built new ideas: Network could be an excellent source of new ideas or solutions to your problems. Vice versa offering good ideas also helps you build your network bigger
3. Job Opportunities: social media groups and sites help you get better access to job opportunities. Reference is the best source of getting hired faster.
4. Career Advice: network supports getting advice from experienced peers or seniors
5. Confidence building: stepping out of your comfort zone and talking to people at networking events helps boost confidence in your communications skills.

Start building your network and here are some tips for networking:

1. Start networking before you need it – Network requires built-in trust and long-term relationships so start as early as possible
2. Have a plan – before you visit any event identify what you can bring to the table, and what are your strength and weakness and prepare yourself accordingly
3. Forgo your personal agendas – be open, friendly and honest
4. Connect the dots – identify the common connections and build your network
5. Follow up – once you conveyed someone to connect after the meeting, please follow up and do connect.

Your Network is your true Net Worth – Porter Gale

With the above thoughts of letting your network work, I would like to wish everyone a very Happy Deepawali and safe holidays.