Learning how to ‘Network’ the right way

3 min read • Jul 30, 2019

Last month we hosted our second event for our friends over at the Success Accelerator project, in our auditorium at our Huckletree office, Shoreditch.

Auditorium at Huckletree

Success Accelerator was set up by Nithin Bopanna along with sponsors from the University of Kent, to tackle the difficulties that students face when trying to obtain opportunities to work in the City and their gap in exposure to professionals.

A short introduction from Paul, our COO
 
First year students travelled to London in the sweltering heat to come and meet a broad variety of City professionals, specifically to learn how to Professionally Network.

 
Mentors were represented by a number of the City’s professionals, notably Allen and Overy, London Stock Exchange, Intercontinental Exchange, Bridges Fund Management, HSBC, Cater Allen Private Bank and Leyton Consultants. The events aim was to give the students some invaluable prep ahead of their real-life experiences. Together they uncovered the importance of being prepared, making a connection, sharing their purpose and being authentic to build long-term relationships. Networking comes naturally to some people, but for a first-year student, it can be a very daunting thought. So what a great idea to offer students practical lessons from their mentors and then put them into practice within a friendly environment as a sort of practice run. Some of the activities included were; understanding networking fears, guidance around interesting topics to talk about, and putting the interesting topics into practice with mixed groups of students & mentors. The students were able to move from group to group, putting their newfound skills into practice and building connections.

 
 
 


Here are our tips on how to network like you really mean it
  1. Do your research and figure out who matters most…
  2. Think about what you want to say about yourself beforehand, plan something interesting to say…
  3. Pay attention, listen and make sure your body language is listening too (try a head tilt)…
  4. Be intriguing…
  5. Think people, not positions…
  6. Build a human connection, ask insightful questions, get better answers…
  7. Be yourself.
At Radical we are proud to be involved in such an important, passion-driven project. We are excited to see what will be achieved by Success Accelerator Graduates in the future.

Would you or your business be interested in taking on the role of a mentor? Contact Nithin on nithin.c.bopanna@gmail.com