From my new article on networking 2.0, published today in TheGlassHammer:
“I haven’t got time for networking”, one senior woman from a major City of London investment bank told me recently.
“All that standing around in rooms full of complete strangers, drinking either bad wine at the end of a long day, or bad coffee and stale croissants at the start of another day – no thanks. It’s so unstructured and unfocused, and such a bad use of my time. I’m sure there probably ARE useful and interesting people at some of these events – but how on earth do you find them in a packed room, and what use might we be to each other?”
Other women told a similar tale, with one commenting that she had now stopped going along to organised “group meet ups”, as she found that she either knew no-one, or would see a familiar face in the crowd and then “cling to that person for the whole evening, thus negating the idea of meeting new people!”
In response to this changing mindset – and independently of each other – two London based women have begun to evolve a more nuanced, “networking 2.0” framework, which delivers the benefits of what we might perhaps call “old school” networking – expanding your contacts, sharing connections and skills – but which also uses technology and social media interfaces.
Tags: Articles, Networking, technology, Twitter, women
I commented on the Glass Hammer but I wanted to add my thanks here -it’s a relief to know that other women not only struggle w/ networking but are working to ‘fix it’ — Just wish some of these opportunities were here in the U.S. suburbs!
Thanks, Shayna. I guess one key benefit of this type of networking is that you can at least sign up to Alpha Female on line, irrespective of geography?