Meeting in person is one of the best ways to make important connections that can help take your career to the next level. There are so many benefits, even if you work remotely. Once you see all the great things about meeting with colleagues and others in your career field, you won’t want to miss out!
But first, what is networking?
Networking is all about connections — it’s the process of building personal and professional relationships that can help you in your career. Networking usually involves meeting new people in your industry and getting together with those in your network to discuss your ideas and your professional goals.
Why is networking in person important?
In many professions, it’s not just about what you know — it’s about who you know. Networking is important to your career for several reasons.
If you can network in person, you get added points. This is because you get to meet people face to face and in person meetings are more memorable!
Strengthens business connections
It isn’t just about meeting someone once and hoping a job opportunity will come of it.
Instead, it’s all about building relationships. And the more time you invest in those relationships, the stronger they’ll become.
Networking is a long game — you’re building relationships that may help your career for years or decades.
Access to job opportunities
Meeting people in person is a great way to advance your career and access amazing job opportunities. Some companies may hire internally or rely on referrals. By networking, you’re opening yourself up to those jobs that aren’t public information.
Mentoring and support
It isn’t just about the job opportunities available to you. When you’re meeting with people who have been in your career field longer than you have, you can also learn a lot.
Networking is a great way to find a career mentor. That person can help show you the ropes in the industry and support you through career transitions and difficult situations.
Builds confidence
Believe it or not, meeting people in person can help you become more confident. When you’re just starting out in your career, pretty much everyone is above you on the totem pole. As a result, you might lack confidence when it comes to sharing ideas and connecting with your coworkers.
But networking helps take some of the pressure off. You can get to know people in your field outside of the workplace.
And when you get positive feedback from those in your network, you’ll feel even more confident bringing your ideas to the office. And consider trying out these confidence building exercises!
5 Benefits of meeting in person
Alright, so we’ve established that networking and meeting people is important to your career. But how else can it help you?
Here are 5 great benefits.
1. Career growth and development reasons
Networking in person will do wonders for your career.
First, it makes you more memorable when job opportunities come up. Look at it this way. Who are you more likely to think of for a job opening:
- The person who you emailed back and forth with a few times and who is qualified for the job? Or,
- The person you connected with at a bunch of networking events, who has a great sense of humor and a welcoming smile, and who is also qualified for the job?
Simply put, in-person networking makes you stand out from the crowd in a way that email and text simply can’t.
Another career benefit of networking in person is the honest and immediate feedback you can get. Imagine asking your mentor for feedback on a new idea you have. When you’re meeting in person, you can see their facial reaction, and they’re forced to respond quickly.
But what if you had sent the same idea via email? You’d have no idea what their first reaction was, and it might take days for them to get around to emailing you back.
2. Social benefits
Networking in person also has plenty of social benefits. There’s just something more reassuring about in-person conversations.
First, you can pick up physical cues and body language that aren’t present in an email conversation. A statistic from Fit Small Business, according to Review 42, explains that 55% of communication comes from your posture and the expressions on your face.
Being part of networking events also gives you time to meet new people. Not only will you increase your chances of talking with someone who can help you with your career, but you can make a lot of friends!
Additionally, one of the benefits of meeting in person is it reduces the risk of misunderstanding. When speaking face-to-face, you can pick up someone’s tone and facial expressions and understand if they’re telling a joke or using a hint of sarcasm. But with digital communication, one of you might take things the wrong way, damaging the relationship.
3. Relationship building
In-person networking is the most effective for building long-term connections. You really can’t tell how well you get along with someone when you’re talking via email.
And as much as we all love to hate small talk, it helps to build the rapport necessary for a deeper relationship.
Face-to-face meetings also allow you to show off more of your personality. Many traits just don’t translate over written communication.
Maybe one of your best traits is your sense of humor — but chances are you aren’t adding jokes to your emails. But when someone meets you in person, they have a chance to see that side of you.
4. Easier to discuss complex topics for work
An in person meeting can make it easier to discuss complex ideas for work, such as a new system or concept. Explaining something like this over email is possible, but it might be more difficult to understand.Â
If you choose to have a meeting or a virtual meeting about new ideas instead, you can save some confusion, answer questions promptly, and help team members understand what you mean. I have found that having a quick meeting is usually best to avoid confusion when working on a big project or explaining a new idea.
5. Less distracting
Virtual meetings or meeting in person have fewer distractions than sending messages or communicating online.
If you’re in a meeting room, you will be engaged and focused on what the meeting participants are saying. But if you aren’t face to face, you may be caught up with spending time on your phone or other work projects, and it’s easy to lose focus.
Expert tip: Create a schedule for in-person meetings
Meeting in person may seem difficult if you haven’t focused on it before. I find that if I want to make anything a habit, I have to add it to my schedule, instead of just hoping I’ll find time for it eventually.
As you establish your network, remember to make time for it in your schedule. Scheduling meetings can be as easy as setting aside 20 minutes on Wednesdays to send out emails and see when others are free to meet up.
Or you may choose to go to networking events once a month or have dinner with people that work in your field. No matter what, setting aside a little time each week or month can make a difference for your career aspirations.
Can’t meet in person? Leverage technology!
Networking through in-person meetings might be more difficult if you do remote work but there are still ways to stay in touch and options for getting that face-to-face networking experience.
Check in often via email, phone, text message or video call
If you don’t have a way of meeting someone in person, checking in regularly is even more important. It’ll keep you on top of your career and help grow your relationships.
Sending an email or a text or making phone or video calls are simple and easy ways to check in.
Attend virtual and in-person conferences when you can
Conferences are a great way to get connected and meet new people. You can learn new things, improve your high income skills, and get a chance to interact with people in the same profession as you.
If you can’t make it to an in person conference, virtual conferences are also popular and still give you a chance to network.
Set up video meetups
Just because you can’t physically meet someone in person doesn’t mean you can’t meet face to face. Video platforms such as Zoom and Google allow you to chat with someone as if you’re sitting across the table at a coffee shop.Â
Platforms like Zoom allow you to add virtual backgrounds to make the feeling even more real!
Remote meetings are here to stay, so it’s important to know how they work, how to host a meeting, and how to send invites to attendees.
Beware of video conferencing fatigue
Though virtual meetings are great, try not to schedule all your internet meetings for one day, or at least take frequent breaks. Videoconferencing fatigue, happens when you get tired or stressed from being on screen for too much time, depleting your resources, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information.
To avoid becoming exhausted from this, try not to do any meetings back to back, and ideally, not more than a couple in one day. I always like to schedule at least a five-minute break between meetings whenever I can.
Harvard’s Academic Resource Center also suggests taking notes on paper and using “speaker view” to help you feel less exhausted by screens.
How to have a successful in person meeting
As you work on greater collaboration, engagement, and team-building through networking, there are some etiquette rules to remember. These will help you succeed when meeting people in your line of work.
Take an interest in others
While meetings are often used to help people achieve their career goals, it’s best when everyone wins. Instead of making it all about what you want, such as finding a new job or a promotion, find out what you can do for others.
Consider what will help people succeed and discover how you can aid them professionally, and they may return the favor. Even if networking doesn’t help you get a higher salary or the job of your dreams, it does earn you a good reputation when you think of others.
Remember people’s names
When you use people’s names, it shows that you care. Make it a point to use names often. You never know, doing so may have a positive affect on your career!
Some tips to remember someone’s name include, repeating the name often especially after you first hear and writing it down!
Maintain your connections over time
Whether it’s with an in person meeting or an email, maintaining your connections matters. In the future, you may be able to help someone in their career or vice versa.
Staying in touch with people you meet on the job or in your line of work can be easily done. Reaching out, even just a few times a year, to say hello, wish someone a happy birthday, or pass along a great article you read can help maintain your working relationships.
Be mindful of first impressions
It’s important to remember impressions when you meet others for the first time. Be sure that you dress in a professional manner and offer a firm handshake when meeting people.
Always remember that you have great ideas and insights to share, and so do others. So be kind and confident, and make sure to listen as well as offer your own thoughts to a conversation.
Why is meeting in-person better than online?
Meeting someone in person rather than online help with engagement and leaves less room for error regarding communication. You will more easily understand body language, gestures, sarcasm, and humor when meeting someone in person instead of on a Zoom call or over email.
It also gives you the advantage of keeping things clear. Plus, it can be helpful if you have a meeting that requires you to explain many ideas in detail. Or if you need to understand your colleague’s perspective on something at work.
What are the benefits of face to face meetings?
The benefits of face to face meetings, whether online or in an office, are that they allow you to talk with others in real time, stay engaged with each other and get better explanations for ideas. When relying on email or messages, it can take too long to receive a response. Additionally, there can be communication errors with employees.
You’ll also be able to talk quickly, solve work issues faster, and use good time management by scheduling quick meetings.
Do people still interact better when in-person?
Yes, people certainly interact better when meeting in person. You can make actual eye contact, manage interruptions better, read body language better and keep each other better engaged.
That said, while some may interact better in-person, and others may prefer the convenience and flexibility of email or messaging and like to respond to questions in their own time. You may have co-workers who prefer to have Zoom calls or meet up for coffee to discuss ideas.
Both ways have their advantages, and the best idea is to be familiar with several ways of communicating, as this will make you a more versatile part of your work team and can help you communicate easily.
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Meeting in person is one of the best things you can do for long-term career growth and creating a life you love. Some circumstances may make it difficult to get together with your professional network in person. Thanks to technology, there are now plenty of ways to stay in touch without being able to grab a cup of coffee with your mentor or attend a local networking event.
Utilize these ideas and remember the benefits of networking. It could help you get a new job or advance in your career.
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