Networking is a process of creating and developing useful acquaintances and connections. It is a kind of investment in your future: just make new acquaintances, which may be useful in business or career. More contacts – more opportunities.

For example, at a QA conference, you meet the head of a large company. You discuss with him some speakers’ performances, the IT industry, and exchange contacts. It takes just 1-2 weeks and this person offers you a position in his company because he liked your approach to problem-solving and found you to be a pleasant and interesting conversationalist. That’s what networking is all about.

But for everything to work as it should, you should follow several useful rules which help you not only ease communication but also set it in the right direction.

The Pac-Man rule

When you are in a group of people, make sure that there is room for another staff member to join you. As you are about to engage in conversation, try to find groups that will follow this rule.

Don’t forget that it’s perfectly acceptable (on the social side) to just walk up to people and introduce yourself to them.

Find common topics for conversation

When we meet with coworkers, we want to establish contact with them. The most popular way to do this is to find common topics for conversation.

To find these topics, you need to ask questions – only in this way can you get to know the other person better. Don’t focus solely on a monologue about yourself.

To look interested, get interested

If you find someone interesting and you want to connect with them, you should take an interest in what they will say. You can start asking them questions, and once you hear what you want to know more about, go deeper into the conversation.

Watch how much space you take up

There are those group conversations in which there are extroverts who trivially “absorb” all the “volume” given to them, not giving other colleagues a chance to say a word.

If you find yourself in a continuous monologue, decide wisely how to properly spend your time. You can stay and listen, or you can politely apologize and leave.

The world shouldn’t spin around you

Take an interest in what others say. You overheard that one of your colleagues solved some work issues in one month? And you resolved a difficult problem in just one week. You don’t need to speak about it every time and to everyone!

Try to involve everyone in the conversation

To understand what exactly this principle is about, let’s take a look at a simple example:

• Imagine that earlier you worked with John at Company A;
• Now you have a dialogue with John and Anna (Anna didn’t work at A);
• Even the simplest conversation about A automatically excludes Anna from it – of course, you can spend a couple of minutes talking about A but do not go into details, because it will be incorrect to Anna.

No one should remain uninvolved in communication

Here you need to decide solely on the circumstances that arise. There is a big difference between employees who simply “recharge their batteries” alone and colleagues who feel superfluous there because they don’t know anyone.

Do not get a person who just wants to take a breath in the pause that has arisen. Involve him in dialogues only on the condition that he does not know anyone or anything.

If you see a loner, try to involve him in corporate communication. Introduce yourself to him and ask the following:

1. Hi, how do you like the conference (meeting)?
2. What reports did you like or what are you looking forward to?
3. What do you do?

Only you decide how to spend your time

Sometimes you want to chat with a lot of people, and sometimes you can be content with a dialogue with one or two interlocutors.

Just be yourself!