Universal Networking Tips

Keeping an open mind about where you and your family will ultimately “live” is often driven by unique considerations or a combination of factors such as work opportunity, family, schooling, or environment, circumstance or other reasons. Of course, transferability of your experience is also an important consideration.

For me, returning to live in the UK (where I was born and educated and have family that I regularly visited), it was not as difficult a decision as if we had relocated to a totally unknown country. But for one reason or another, it was still a big “change”.

For me, the biggest change was not so much the weather and food (which of course may be important considerations for some!), but more from the networking perspective as I had to expand my network here. Networking convenience is also an important factor because due to remote working and distance for many people, it is not as easy to catch up with them in the city as say in Central, Hong Kong (but this is where public transport is key, hence the transport photos!).

With the advent of whatsapp/social media, it is of course much easier to keep in touch with your friends/connections but we all know that nothing beats face to face catch ups! As the majority of my career was built in Hong Kong, I have a solid network there and in Asia and am looking forward to catching up with my friends again soon. Upon relocating back to the UK, I had to maintain that network as well as to build my network in London.

For some, the word "networking" inadvertently falls in to the business development bucket for which some lawyers typically shy away from, however, I am impressed by young lawyers who get themselves "out" there. I can see that they will be the future rainmakers! Also, networking isn't just about building networks, it's also about building your market intelligence and knowledge and is a resource from a personal, business and career perspective.

Here are some ideas on building networks in a new country which have helped me throughout my career in Hong Kong and now in the UK:

• Stay curious: be open minded and keep learning by joining events such as seminars or conferences to raise your profile and to build your network
• Join networks: connect with like-minded professionals to continue building your network. I am very happy to have joined various legal and business networks in London and Hong Kong
• Reconnect with your friends/connections/alumni: some of whom may have moved to the same country as you and ask your friends/contacts for referrals/introductions
• Learn with social media: read LinkedIn posts and listen to podcasts to get more intel about the local and international market conditions
• Volunteer: contribute your time for a cause you are passionate about and meet like-minded people
• Social groups: join exercise groups or other meet-ups of your interest to widen your circle
• Professional interest groups: Create a group of like-minded professionals which will operate like a support group
• Personal branding: raise your profile on LinkedIn, podcast, seminar or panel discussion to share your knowledge and experience

The key would be to keep building your friendship circles via networking! Don't be shy, be flexible and have fun as there are so many ways to increase your network!

Happy networking and if you have other ideas, please do let me know.

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This blog was first published on LinkedIn — click here to read this article on LinkedIn.