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Upon embarking on your future career, a key area of discussion will always be the importance of networking. Although this may sound just as daunting at first as starting a new school, it’s an extremely beneficial skill to have from the start to the end of your professional career. 

Now you may be compelled to ask, why are we never taught how to network if it's so important? Which to me seems like a valid question, until you begin to think about it. 

Everyone is different with their own individual styles of writing, presenting, listening, reading and debating which play into our strengths. Making it easier for you to utilise your natural skills to network in a professional environment. 

Check out LawCareers.Net’s in-depth guide to networking.

The skill is to notice and evaluate your own behaviour to find your weaknesses and then focus on developing in this area. These flaws will be different for everyone no matter what job title or legal ranking you possess. As someone who has recently begun to network, I believe that the hardest part of networking is figuring out where to network. 

I found the easiest way to do this, although extremely simple, is to google legal networking near me. Following this, asking colleagues at work where they’re attending networking events can also be a useful tool. 

I have also joined societies such as the Law Society, Women in Law UK, Manchester Young Professionals, Merseyside Junior Lawyers… the list goes on. These societies send out not only useful and current information on developments in the law currently but networking events they hold within local cities. Platforms such as LawCareers.Net also offer a whole host of events and networking opportunities, with applications for LawCareersNetLIVE, LCN’s legal careers conference, opening last week!

These are all great opportunities to get to know people in the legal profession and to learn more about the profession itself. Take every opportunity available, you never know if you could meet a friend for life or a future boss.