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How can building your network pay off in your career? In this episode of Career Relaunch, Aaron Fung, a former change management consultant turned Talent Brand Strategist for LinkedIn shares his thoughts on how your professional network can be an incredible resource for you in your career and why your job should be an extension of your authentic self.  I also share some thoughts on how my professional network has unlocked some great opportunities for me in my own career.

Key Career Insights

1. You can get feedback from people who are close to you, people in your peer group, and someone further along in their career who can provide more experienced perspectives on your situation. Tap into your strengths, but be aware of your vulnerabilities.
2. Even weak connections can be incredibly fruitful and open up new opportunities. Take the time to expand your network because you never know who can open up the next door for you.
3. To expand and maintain your professional network, you have to invest the time to keep your contacts “warm,” so try to build in some sort of a ritual to make reconnecting a habit.

Tweetables to Share

Relevant Resources

• Aaron mentioned the Hogan Assessment as a way of identifying your strengths & weaknesses.
• Aaron also mentioned that you can boost your LinkedIn profile by publishing posts. Here’s an overview on how you can do that. He also mentioned that you can let recruiters know you’re open to hearing about new opportunities and letting recruiters know about your career interests.
• If you would like to receive LinkedIn’s email notifications with updates from your network, you can control those settings in your LinkedIn email preferences.
• One way to build your network is through informational interviewing. Read more about how you can secure and run informational interviews.

Listener Challenge

During this episode’s Mental Fuel segment, I talked about the importance of creating a regular habit of keeping your network warm. Commit to one ritual you can easily manage that forces you to stay in regular contact with your network contacts so they don’t go cold! If you have a good tactic, I’d love to hear about it below in the comments.

Also, I always love connecting with listeners, so I’d welcome you following or connecting with me on LinkedIn.

About Aaron Fung, Talent Brand Strategist at LinkedIn

Aaron Fung spent thirteen years trying to figure out what he wanted to do. That journey took him from financial services to non-profit to consulting jobs and an MBA in Human and Organizational Performance from Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of management. He finally discovered his dream job at LinkedIn this year, where he helps companies develop and enhance their talent brand to recruit the best candidates in the world. In his spare time, he runs a blog called “Go See the World” which is dedicated to travel. If you want to connect with Aaron, be sure to check out his profile on LinkedIn.

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Comments, Suggestions, or Questions?

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