How to Build Network in Product Design Field - 6 Steps for Students & Design Professionals.

Networking has been a very important trait in any field, irrespective of creative field, design field, engineering, testing, but people have not taken it very seriously. I'll tell you why it is very important. I'll tell you how to do exactly steps to steps, how to network with people, how to be a very professional person in order to get the leverage of the community and the network around us with real time statistics and data. Guys. Okay, if you are a student, if you are a design professional, professional, no problem. I'm going to give you two important informations for these two category of people. Okay? So jump into this podcast, we'll see a lot more things. Welcome to this podcast. Thank you for staying tuning in with me. Guys. Subscribe me for further episodes. And we've been discussing about networking in the creative design field. But this is exclusively on how you can take it forward if you are in the industry or if you're just starting up as a designer. Okay, first let me address for the designers who are already in the industry. Okay, Let me tell you guys, A survey by LinkedIn says 85% of the jobs are filled through networking. Industry reports show that professionals with a very strong network are more likely to be aware of the upcoming trends and innovations and job opportunities. If you are a designer, you should be definitely getting this point because it's all about networking and how you can really grow into your next level of a creative designer and promotions and projects by this. Okay, the second important thing is building a very strong online presence. See if you want to really go into a field of networking and if you want to get to a networking with lot of people, first create a good profile. Like let's say it's a LinkedIn profile or it's a Facebook profile or it's Instagram. That's okay, not a problem. But tailor your profile accordingly with a very professional photo which is showcasing your comprehensive design work and a very good summary. Okay. Particularly LinkedIn talks about summary because LinkedIn algorithm is working in a way. It searches your keywords according to your summary and then it finds relevant connections and links for you. Okay? Regularly update it, showcase your portfolio online, provide some tangible representation of your skills and put your project uploads and links so that people can able to know who you are. Let's say if you want to connect with a different person, just make sure you put all these things. Okay? So he will not accept your request until unless he's able to view some of your works and then he'll find a like minded person. Okay, so second important Thing third important thing is attend industry events and conferences. See, attend local events, international. That's not a problem. Meet different, different peers and industry leaders and potential collaborators. Handshake with them. Don't feel shy or bad about it guys. Okay? So even if they are nose cutting you or even if they are not respecting you, that's okay. See guys, you have to be really prepared for that. Because if you are, if you're talking to 10 or 20 people, not all people will really get a network with you. Right? Only two or three people will get. But you'll have to do a lot of things for that. An annual AIGA Design conference is a great platform for designers to network and gain insights into latest industry trends. Okay, you can search about it. So the fourth important thing is engage in online communities. So you can participate in Behance, Pinterest, Dribble, specialized slack channels and LinkedIn profiles where there are a lot of design communities in Facebook, Instagram. You can talk with different, different people guys. You can just get to know what's happening in the industry. You can talk, you can form a group, you can get here, help each other, you can help lot many people. Whenever it comes to networking, I always tell one thing, give a lot rather than expecting. That's the formula. It works. Okay, so platforms like LinkedIn not only show your work, guys, but it also allows you to connect with different designers and potential collaborators. Right? So the fifth important thing is mentorship. See, you need to follow all the steps. Okay? So connecting with a mentor always helps you with the proper guidance and insights. It helps you years of time and efforts. Particularly you know what guys, people who are not guided properly, they'll be like randomly drifting in one direction. They'll be randomly drifting in another direction after two months. They don't know what exactly is their goal. They don't know how to exactly reach there. They'll take their own trial and errors and they'll find some online. You will get lost in online, guys. There is a huge amount of data and information available. It takes three to five years for you to get in track to understand what is product design, what is UI UX design. Okay, you'll be driven with some lot of good flashy videos and all, but you will not get the core understanding and the crystal clear clarity of the basics in design and how you can start up with your thought process and skills and build your process and projects and portfolio and get a good job. So people don't get this understanding. Okay, so if you wanted, if you wanted to really grow A lot. You need to find a good mentor and a collaborator. In my program you will get an opportunity. If you are interested, you can send that email which I've given in the description. Okay, Me or my team will help you out to enroll in this program. The sixth important thing is soft skill development. See, network is not about exchanging some business cards or talking to different people. It's about really finding a right appropriate place, right proper moment and rocking to right people. Understanding what they really want and help them genuinely with their intention of helping them. Okay, See, soft skill is very important. Money lies in soft skill. My mentor always says so if you are a designer, you need to develop that good soft skills. I've recorded a podcast previously on 10 different soft skills as a designer you can develop. It helps you build lot more collaborators, guys. Okay, so let me recap you. The first important thing is you need to know the importance of networking. So LinkedIn says 85% of the jobs are filled through networking. So second is building your online presence. Third is attending lot more industry events and conferences. Fourth is engage in online communities. Fifth is choosing a right mentor and collaborator. And sixth is develop your soft skills. Okay, so now let's go to the second half of this podcast which is networking tip for design students. The very first step is leverage your university support guys. Okay, so use their resources. Start joining in your alumni network. Start joining in their career services. Utilize your university's career services. Opportunity for more networking. Participate in event workshop mentorship program. Definitely your college one or the other way will have it. Okay, either if you're joining in a design institute or you're joining in a mentorship program. Definitely there'll be some opportunities already available. Definitely there'll be alumini network also available. Unless until you are the first batch of it, you won't get this advantage. But I would say you can join in a very good, well established program. Okay, so connect those alumni's. That is the very first step. You can make a good networking guys because they will be very happy to help you because you are their juniors. Right? Think about it. Because most important easy step you can do as a student is this. If you are a professional. Okay, that's a different thing which I've recorded in the first half of the podcast. The second important thing is virtual networking opportunities. Engage in virtual events, webinar online design communities. You know what? A study by national association of College employers found that 80% of the jobs are landed through networking. Same like what LinkedIn says, right? So it is very vital. Guys, you need to get that virtual opportunities in webinars, in online events communities. It's lot of things are free of cost guys. You don't need to spend huge amount there. Okay? You can invest in quality materials, but this is a very very useful inform, very very useful investment which you can make for your career, right? The third important thing is informational interviews. See request for informational interviews with professionals in your desired field. See if you're not able to do it, it's fine. You can follow the first two tips. But I would say gain insights into the industry. Guys, this is very important. Particularly if you are finding a potential career path. Establish a very valuable connection. Reach out to people who can give you proper information. Just make sure you break your shy and talk to them so that you will get a desired proper relevant information. So even if I'm finding a job, even if I'm going for an industry, I'll first go and talk to the people who are relevant to that industry. Okay? Reaching out to requesting informational interviews so that people will get to give you. What is this company about? What is this design studio about? What people are doing here? Then only I'll get a real information of that industry, right? See, just because I'm teaching design, it doesn't mean I'm a God. I have to know in each and every industry the aspects are different. That's why it's very vital. The fourth important thing is social media engagement. See Twitter chats, LinkedIn chat, Facebook chat, Instagram chat. Everything is really good guys. Okay, so participate in design related Twitter chats. Connect with professionals and follow them. Okay, so connect with designers, Companies group on LinkedIn. Expand your presence. That's a very easy thing. As a fresher I can say the fifth important thing is build a personal brand. See always have a logo. I told always have a very good profile photo, very professional creative picture. Always have a good summary. Create a good personal personal branded website. You can do it in wix. I would normally suggest that create a good portfolio in Behance. At least if you are not able to do a website, showcase your best work. Because it's very important for a student to showcase and participate in projects and gain visibility. The sixth important thing is attend design competition and events. See participate always in design competition and get exposed. So that's a good opportunity for you to network and attend some industry specific events. Even I would say AI GS students design conference is very vital for you. Okay, so think about it guys. Because it's not about telling that I'll network. I'll get opportunities other side of the world in design can be only explored while talking to different designers, guys. Because nobody is going to have a textbook in design colleges to teach you all the design concepts. No industry will give you all the design concepts fully. You study Baba and then will take you to our industry and then you'll do the project. No, guys. Half of things you will do in experimentation, half of the things you will you will learn it in the process. Half of the things you will learn from a peers, half of the things you will learn from networking with different industry people, different creative people, different parallel industry people then and only your collective knowledge will grow. Okay, See, we humans evolved as a very successful human beings compared to all the species. It's only because of the networking what we had with different, different people joining as a good foragers and good, good hunters and good people in forest and different people in the sea, different people in the mountains, different people in the different regions have collaborated and killed all our what you call our enemies and predators and successfully evolved as a human beings and Homo sapiens because of the effective networking we had. You know what? I teach a very special program in my program, in my mentorship program about why networking is damn important. I take two hours of extensive networking and I give them an Excel sheet to fill that. Okay, so in this particular podcast, if you're replying about what do you think in your honest comments, maybe if you are a selected winner, I'll share my secret networking sheet for you guys that's having almost all the design studios in India's good contact details, their details about the mission, vision value, the job description, their vacancies, the start of the year of the industry and whether that industry will be suitable in salary requirement, training requirement growth. Because I used to tell my students networking is very important and building that Excel sheet with all the network what they have because it's a community help which everybody can help each other in order to get a job. Okay, so subscribe to that particular email if you want my mentorship program. If you want a special gift of this Excel sheet, you can write about this podcast. Honestly, what do you think that's, that's a feedback. It's for me also. And if you find this podcast useful, I think you can subscribe to me and give me best already in Apple and Spotify to make it okay. So thank you so much guys and before wrapping up, let me recap you for the student what you can do as a networking opportunity. Leveraging a good university resources by networking in your career service alumni network, joining in virtual networking events like webinars, online forums and design communities and reaching out to information interviews with different people, having a good social media engagement, chat in LinkedIn, Twitter and building your personal branded website or behance profile and attending lot of design competitions. If you're able to do it guys, definitely you will see lot more design different design things which you can't learn in online. YouTube does that and all. Okay, so thank you so much guys. We'll see you in another episode. Take care. Bye Bye. All the best.