New Year's Eve Networking

Christmas is over and now it’s almost time to party it up with great friends, family and more during New Year’s Eve parties. Are you ready to have fun and network? My friends, it comes down to making connections and building relationships – which are pretty much the main objectives when it comes to a New Year’s Eve bash. Confused? Let me explain with a real life example.

Last New Year’s Eve, my fiancé and I celebrated at one of his co-worker’s house. I was able to meet some great people and learn about their goals and careers during the evening. One of the gals, who I will refer to as Dee, was fun and a delight to be around. We’ve connected on Facebook and text messaged one another throughout this past year.

During this past year, I had a teacher at Davenport University who is one of the top Human Resources people at a nursing facility in the Lansing area. Dee went through Nursing Assistant training and was applying at this exact same facility. Dee asked me if she could use me as a reference when she applied there with my previous instructor. To make a long story short, she is now a happily employed CNA at that very same facility.

Networking can happen anywhere. For Dee, she was able to connect with me and build a professional relationship that lead her to one of my contacts, a job prospect and an actual job offer. All she had to do was reach out to me to see if I might be able to help her out in her job search.

People intrinsically want to help the greater good, it’s basic human nature to want to help out our fellow citizens. Whether you are going to be partying it up at Rum Runners, like yours truly, or hanging out with some great close friends for New Year’s Eve, think about and actually expand your network.

I’m not suggesting that you carry around a stack of resumes, but your business cards or at least a pad of post-its and a pen to scratch down your contact info may come in handy. Remember that New Year’s Eve is all about having fun, but it can also be the beginning of building great new professional relationships with some great people that you add to your contacts.

Cheers!