1. Active Listening

The act involves paying uttermost attention to what the speaker is saying, following up with clarifying questions where relevant and necessary, and making sure you got the essence of the conversation. Here’s why the skill of active listening is essential for networking:  Imagine, for example, you’re at a networking event having a conversation with a job recruiter.  If you keep scanning the room, looking down at your phone, and just giving the recruiter the occasional nod to make them

2.Building relationships

The key to business, and a successful job hunt, is building strong interpersonal relationships over time with people. Before you ask for help it is very important to offer something first. You want to be someone who is perceived to offer value, and a positive and useful connection to have. To build a network of professional friends, you need to be open, honest, and genuinely engaged in their causes.

3. Communication Skills

You can be funny, insightful, skillful, and intelligent, and it would all be in vain if you can’t effectively communicate with people. For this reason, when you’re networking, be mindful of the ways you convey, interact with others, and even tackle issues and discussions that may come up during the conversation. This includes your tone of voice, the language you use, and even your urgency to speak over others. Those are all elements that can make or break your networking.

4. Keeping in contact

With the prevalence of social media, people are used to ‘collecting’ social friends as a form of ‘networking’ that people are becoming increasingly disconnected. Good networking skills are not gaining new contacts on LinkedIn; networking is developing relationships over time that is mutually beneficial but may be able to aid you in a job hunt or business venture either initially or in the future.

5. Interpersonal Skills

Interpersonal skills and communication skills are often used interchangeably, but there are subtle differences between the two. In a nutshell, interpersonal skills encompass your ability to get along and understand other people. This may oftentimes mean being open to subtle hints, or “reading” the situation in a certain social setting. Say, for example, that you’re at a party and an interesting-looking someone is smiling directly at you.

6. Staying positive

Most people don’t see returns straight away and then give up, but if you want to see results, you need to invest time into business networking over an extended period of time. Developing your business networking skills is a long term investment and not a short term fix. By remaining positive, you will ensure that when you do finally meet someone that can help you, you will still be able to give both a great first impression, and also a strong reason why they should help you in your job hunt.

7. Humour

Research shows that humor is the key to success at work, because it makes people enjoy interacting with you, puts them at ease, and helps them build trust, among other things. In addition to referring to the quality of being amusing, humor is also a mood and state of mind. This means that humor is much more than just making people laugh—it is, in large part, about being positive and transmitting that to those around you. As such, humor is an inseparable part of networking skills.

8. Go in with no expectations

The perfect networking event or connection is merely the one which provides the desired result. By placing huge importance to single meetings or people, you are limiting your control over the situation. This can leave you more vulnerable to negative feelings or depression and is best to avoid. No matter how promising a job opportunity sounds, always keep the job search going to avoid disappointment.

9. Respect

Did it ever happen when you were younger to get scolded for talking over someone or chewing your food with your mouth open? Well, it’s even worse if you’re a disrespectful adult at a networking event. Imagine, for example, getting lucky enough to talk to a recruiter from one of your target law firms and you make a bad expression by constantly interrupting them or asking them to repeat themselves because you weren’t paying attention.

10. Focus your efforts

The counter point to ensuring that you are always adding value to others in your network, is to expect the same in return. Networking should be mutually beneficial, so if you have some connections that always seem to be asking for that little extra help without offering any value themselves, it could be time to de-prioritise them.

11. Confidence

If you’re going to go to a place full of strangers or acquaintances with the goal of creating professional and social ties, then you definitely need confidence!  As a skill, confidence defines how sure you are about what you say, what you do (or plan on doing), and your decisions.

12. Hone an impressive elevator pitch

The 30-second elevator pitch remains a constant in the world of business networking. People pass judgements on others very quickly, so the elevator pitch is useful, and extremely important for summarising what value we offer in as few words as possible.

13. Friendliness

 Friendliness is another essential networking skill on our list. The quality involves being kind, helpful, or affectionate—without necessarily being close to the other person. Gestures such as smiling, waving, or introducing yourself to people are typical shows of friendliness and will bring people around you like moths to a flame.

14.Understand that position doesn’t always indicate influence

Within any organisation there is a unique blend of politics and influence which can be difficult to penetrate from the outside. For some companies, CEOs and managers may be reluctant to respond to you due to the open position being too entry level, or they may simply trust other colleague’s opinions over their own on hiring decisions.

15. Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to understand, use, and manage both your and other people’s emotions. When it comes to networking, having emotional intelligence greatly matters because (just like anything else that involves people), the process is also emotional. Imagine, for example, having a 10-minute conversation with a recruiter.