One of the easiest ways for me to meet new people has been at my new job. I’ve only been there a month, and there are plenty of new faces around.
There are RTE and Agile Communities of Practice (CoP) at my office. The RTE community is still fairly small, so I have gotten a lot of face time with the other RTEs at the company. The Agile CoP has a much wider audience, and by attending their bi-weekly sessions I have met most of the other agile practitioners near me.
My office also has a Women with Drive group. I went to their session about Negotiation, and there was a fantastic networking game at the end. They also have a book club element to the group which is exciting. I liked it so much I signed up to volunteer with them.
I’m also a member of my local Project Management Institute (PMI) chapter and have attended a few of their breakfast meetings. They don’t have high attendance at breakfast, but that allows me ample opportunity to interact with the speakers and network. The agile manager at my office and I will also be attending an agile professionals meetup in a couple of weeks. I’m excited to bring someone else along with me on my networking adventures.
Joining these groups have allowed me to meet a lot of new people. There is also great content shared in these meetings. There are so many intangible benefits to getting out of your comfort zone so I’m excited to keep my momentum going and to find new groups in my city.
What is your favorite way to improve your professional network? Please share your experiences in the comments!
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