Maintaining Strategic Professional Relationships

Overview

You did it! You have started building your professional network! Career conversations are a great way to start networking and learning about the opportunities that are out there for you. There are a couple of things to do after you conduct your career conversations to make sure that they have the most positive impact on your career journey.

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Send a Thank You Note!

After your career conversation, always follow up with a thank you note via LinkedIn or email—a handwritten note is always appreciated—if delivered quickly! Try to send your thank you message within 24 hours of your conversation and include specifics from your conversation. Your note can look something like this:

Dear Jan,

Thank you so much for meeting with me this afternoon! I really appreciated hearing about your firm and the work you are doing designing the new company branding for the NFL. Based on our conversation, I started to research several of the companies that you mentioned. Thank you for these suggestions! If you think of any other professionals who I should connect with, please let me know.

Thanks again,

Zaria

Check-In with Connections Regularly

After your career conversations, it is good to follow up with those connections regularly to keep your network active. "Regularly" can look different for everyone, but once or twice a year can be enough! A check-in can be a short email or LinkedIn message about relevant topics, career updates, or congratulatory notes. It is great to use LinkedIn to congratulate connections on new jobs, promotions, or career accomplishments. You can also send short messages to connections if you did something they recommended – read a book or completed a training. No time frame is “too long” as long as you left your last conversation on good terms!

Tip: Update Your Tracking Document

Be sure to update your tracking document with all of your new networking connections. See an example of tracking documents in Module 1.