By: Neha Bhalla 

There’s no doubt that COVID-19 drastically transformed the entire job search process — networking included. Many career seekers express their frustration with me that virtual networking is not as easy as in-person networking.  The reality is that virtual networking is not going away for a long time, if ever; however, it can actually be easier with the right mindset and methods.

Virtual Specific Benefits

Global Availability: Unlike in-person networking, virtual has no bounds. If you’re considering moving to a new location, you can start meeting people before you land a job. 

Convenience: It can be nearly impossible to get a busy person to meet you out for coffee. 15 minutes on a Zoom call, however, is a much smaller ask. Many students don’t have cars so they can skip maneuvering the bus schedule for an hour for a 20-minute meeting. Plus, while you still have to look prepared, you don’t have to put as much effort into...

 Co-authored by Neha Bhalla

Looking to enter the environmental field, but don’t have an environmental degree? Or maybe you don’t have a degree at all. Even though your path into sustainability might look different, you can still do your part to save the planet!

 There are many valid reasons why someone might want to pursue a career without getting a degree first. They may feel it’s too late in their career to go back to school, they may not be able to afford it, or they simply may not have an affinity for academia. Regardless of your reasoning, in this article, we will cover what you need to know to break into the environmental field.

If you have any degree at all — whether you studied computer science, marketing, or even film — those skills can almost definitely help our planet. A relatively seamless way to transition into the environmental field is to apply for roles that you were already applying to before, but at environmental...

Anyone who works with me knows I’m always talking about how to stand out in a crowd, especially on social media. I recently had an experience that increased my followers on Instagram by 10% in just a week. Considering my goal was first and foremost to share career advice with a group of amazing future environmental heroes and secondarily gain 4 or 5 new followers, I’d say it was a great success. The additional bonus was that it was super simple to execute.  

This experience was with Instagram Takeovers. If you don’t know what a takeover is, it basically means your hand over the keys to your profile to someone else and let them create posts, go live, and share stories with your audience.

This opportunity came about, no surprise, through networking (another topic I’m always talking about). I had given a presentation at SUNY-ESF several months prior and a career advisor there mentioned my name to the Rockland Conservation Corp. Subsequently, their...

Here’s the truth:

Most people don’t know how to network.

They either don’t do it at all — or do it with no real plan or strategy.

You already know job networking is important.

It’s ESSENTIAL to not just getting a job — but also building your career.

If you want to be effective at job networking.

And I mean truly effective…

 You have to put together a plan.

Here are 5 proven steps you can follow to put together a job networking plan to land your dream job.

Step 1: Figure out WHY you’re networking

First — you have to figure out WHY you’re networking in the first place. 

You’re probably thinking “Duhhh, to get a job.” but that’s not enough. Because if you’re trying to meet someone who’s going to give you a job — that’s probably not going to happen.

 You need to form a strategy. And the first part of that is figuring out your networking goals.

One of the biggest hurdles for people looking to break into an environmental career is skills gap. It doesn't matter if you are a recent grad or looking to change careers, skill gaps are a plague nearly everyone looking for a job faces. It's important as it always is to see challenges as opportunities. Regardless if you believe that your skill gap is because your university program didn't prepare you or if you spent too long being comfortable in the first era of your career, or if you just woke up one morning and decided it was time for a change. Having the need to fill a skill is an opportunity. Here's what I mean. 

You see the skill gap as a hindrance, and it is, for now. It will only continue to be an obstacle if you don't do anything proactive about it. It's only when you decide to do something about it that it becomes an opportunity. The opportunity can come in many forms such as: 

• An excuse to network - you'll now have a valid reason to seek persons of...

Here is a question recently received from a participant in the coaching program: LinkedIn, who should you accept as a connection and who might you not want to connect with?

Here's my response:

LinkedIn is unlike most other social media platforms that it is intended to be a place for professionals to connect and share work-related information. The typical things one might post on Facebook like the massive plate of nachos you carefully crafted at 2 am, the cute pics of your dog, and random drama are not acceptable in this space.

That said, there are still people who don’t get that and those are the people you certainly don’t want to be connected with, as their likes and personal interest can end up in your news feed.

When you’re in job search mode, you should be using LinkedIn with purpose. Taking advantage of their job search tools and networking opportunities. 

Who you connect with is ultimately your call. Just know that who you connect with has a direct...

Networking! You love it or you hate it but I would guess since you’re reading this that you lead more towards that second one.

Creative Networking is the most effective way to network and consists of 3 parts:

• Mindset
• Creative Strategy
• Connection Integrity

You can learn more about Creative Networking and how to put it to use in this webinar. In this article, we’re focusing on 5 truths about networking that once you realize them you can start improving right away.

1. Networking is the best way to get from the road you're on now and into the career lane that you want. The sooner you swallow this truth pill, the sooner you can get things moving toward your awesome networking outcome. This is a truth in any industry but even more so in the environmental world. You'll find after spending a few years building your networks that you'll have an incredible amount of overlap and 1 degree of separation connections. 

2. You need a LinkedIn Profile. 

   We...