Blog: How to engage young professionals with networking
In this blog, Izzy Hebb explores what meaningful networking means for young professionals. Using her own experiences of joining a new industry and those around her, she looks at how businesses can help early-career professionals build confidence, make genuine connections and get more from networking.
When a young professional joins a firm, particularly in a new industry, one of the best ways to familiarise them with the sector and the business’s client base is to get them involved in networking.
But simply sending a young professional to a networking event doesn’t mean they’ll get value from it, through little fault of their own. When you’re new, networking can be intimidating and seem like a closed-door club. Understanding the value of networking often starts with having positive experiences of it.
The benefits of networking include growing a circle of like-minded individuals, opening doors for both personal and career growth and benefiting your organisation’s reach and visibility. Building these relationships early can create career-long connections with current and future decision-makers.
Here are three ways to engage your young professionals with networking:
Offer support, don’t just send them
Often, young professionals have had little to no experience at networking events. For someone with little experience of networking events, they can feel unfamiliar and intimidating, leading to a sense of imposter syndrome: “I don’t know what I’m doing here.”
Helping them understand why they’re there goes a long way towards making them feel comfortable. Having faith in them to represent the company and explaining what they can gain from the event gives them a clearer sense of purpose.
Offering networking tips and sessions will boost confidence, but nothing beats practical learning. Pairing them with an experienced networker provides informal mentoring, while having a familiar face there can make the experience less daunting.
Young professional groups
Young professional networking groups, such as FFT, allow for peer-to-peer networking with others in similar positions. These groups are less about the hard sell often found elsewhere and more about developing relationships and connections.
Established general networking groups can seem daunting to early-career professionals, as differences in experience, age, and seniority can be a source of discomfort.
These groups can help young professionals feel part of a community while providing valuable industry connections. Building these skills among peers can give early-career professionals the confidence to step into wider industry events.
Activity-based networking
Activity-based networking offers an alternative to the traditional drinks-and-introductions format. Whether it’s sport, a creative workshop or another shared activity, having something to do can make conversation feel far more natural.
Rather than focusing on sheer exposure and rapid-fire introductions, these events give people more time to form genuine connections. Enjoying an activity together takes away the pressure and awkwardness of cold introductions.
For early-career professionals, spending quality time like this with a smaller group can help them feel comfortable asking questions, speaking freely and learning from those around them, all of which are crucial for forming meaningful connections.
In summary
Networking doesn’t just have to be 50 people in a loud room jostling for attention. Embracing more accessible forms of networking can encourage young professionals to keep getting involved. Nothing will turn an early-career professional off networking faster than feeling forced into it without understanding why.
The aim shouldn’t simply be to get young professionals through the door. Give them the right support, environment and reason to be there, and networking can become something they actively want to do: building relationships that benefit both their career and the business for years to come.