The importance of networking within the creative industries

In this blog post I plan to educate you on networking as a concept, how to go about doing it efficiently and why it is such an important aspect of employability in the creative industries. I’m going to tackle this from the bottom up, so first I must define a variety of terms, explaining why they are important as I go along.

What’s networking?

Although a broadly used term, in this context it equates to how chatting and being friendly with the right people can catapult you and your career opportunities. It’s the act of making yourself known to others in and around your field of work or study and giving them an insight into what you can offer or gain for a mutual advantage. This makes networking a very important aspect of employability, especially within the creative industries.

Why is networking important?

To embellish on some of the above made points, it’s important because it can get you in a position you desire to be in with minimal effort compared to if you tried to work your way up the ladder solo. It gets your name out there and lets employers know you’re looking for work and ideally will put your attitude across in a professional and ethical manner. If you’re planning on being freelance, the importance of networking becomes huge as it is really the face of your business and will most likely be your main method of gaining work. If you never did any networking you’d be missing out in advice, recommendations and most importantly, job opportunities.

How should I begin networking?

There are numerous methods to networking, but I believe being able to meet people in person is the greatest as you can quickly gain information about topics you are passionate about, as well as show others how you present yourself. It gives people a face to remember rather than a name, and can go a long way for employability and job opportunities. Another method you can utilise is online networking, with one of the best sites to do so being LinkedIn, which strives to be the “social networking site for professionals”. On LinkedIn you can easily engage with others related to your field of work or study, as well as get recommendations directly from LinkedIn based on your profile statistics. There are even groups where you can interact with a huge audience about topics you’re passionate about, hopefully gaining meaningful connections along the way.

Best practices for networking

When you’re networking there are ethics and a level of professionalism that are expected of you. As briefly touched on above, you need to be interested and engaging with others whether in person or online. Below, I’ve given a list of advice from what I’ve garnered so far while I’ve been networking.

In person

• Go to networking events — They should definitely be utilised as they are an easy and more often than not, free, way to gain some meaningful contacts and connections that can mutually benefit both parties. There are also usually recruiters for various larger companies/businesses at networking events, who if impressed could put a good word in for you and get your foot in the door.
• Be polite — People are more likely to want to talk with you if you seem polite and well mannered.
• Be presentable — Now this doesn’t mean go out and hire a tuxedo, but maybe wear what you would wear on a night out or date for example, it should be seen as an important occasion so dressing as such will be beneficial when trying to talk with others that may be higher up the corporate ladder. In addition to this, try to have good body language, hold yourself high and look warm and welcoming.
• Listen — If you listen to others you can think of questions to ask and what you could learn or offer to people employment wise.
• Ask questions — This shows you have a genuine interest in what’s being said and were listening.
• Bring business cards — Even if they are simplistic in nature, having a business card to hand to people is very handy as you are basically giving them a much easier way to remember you after the fact.
• Be yourself — When asked to ‘present yourself’, many peoples first course of action is to put on a fake persona, but this will do a lot more harm than good. There’s nothing more dishonorable than lying, and when discovered as lying about something as simple as your own personal being, you’d be labelled as dishonorable and probably unreliable as well. Be honest with who you speak with and relax, they are just a human being like you after all.

Online (through LinkedIn)

• Professional picture(s) — Your profile picture, and any pictures you upload should be profesional, no selfies or meme pictures as this is certainly not the place for that.
• Interesting bio and headline — Take your time to write an interesting and personalized bio and headline, this will be the first piece of information people will see besides your picture so it really does say a lot for you.
• Try to avoid ‘buzzwords’ — Words like creative, effective, analytical, strategic, patient, expert, organizational, driven, and innovative are used to death on other peoples bios and headlines, you want to stand out from the crowd, try to be creative.
• Personality — You should try to inject some personality into your profile wherever you can, it shouldn’t be seen as a resume or CV where you just list off accomplishments and grades. You want people to want to know you.

Your profile is not a resume or CV. Write as if you are having a conversation with someone. Inject your personality. Let people know your values and passions. In your summary, discuss what you do outside of work. You want people to want to know you.

— William Arruda

• Have a personalized URL — Take the time to personalize your profile URL, this is not a lot of effort to do and can go a long way, especially when linking your profile to potential employers. They don’t want to see an amalgamation of your name and a serial number, that will mean nothing to them, but a name alone will likely be remembered.

Who should I be trying to connect with?

Connecting with your friends and family is all well in done, but you need to ask yourself “what do I gain from this?”. You need to grow your LinkedIn profile with professional contacts where mutual benefit is key, people you don't necessarily know, but are in the same or a similar line of work. Connecting with people you already know is for other social media sites like Facebook or Twitter.

My profile

My LinkedIn profile was started only a month or so ago after being strongly suggested to create one by my university lecturers, though I have already seen and experienced benefits from it. I’ve connected with a handful of fellow Unity developers that have motivated me and taught me some new techniques to apply myself in my own projects. In addition to this, with the help from my University, I’ve been able to connect with numerous public speakers from various companies within my field of work and study. I plan to further expand my profile with new projects, goals and ambitions, as well as update my current connections with any progress updates I can.