How I got started in a new career

By Lorraine Margherita

When I heard that Wind & Waves wanted stories from around the world about networking, I knew I had to answer the call!  Having moved and changed jobs several times, I kept hearing that networking is of the essence for professionals willing to create or expand a business, or for executives open to a change in their career.  That was before I found myself in a position to find a new occupation in my hometown, Paris: then I really got the point.  I’d like to share my experience and allow other professionals to benefit from it.

Building up my circle
At the beginning of 2012, I felt that I had a range of experiences, both in France and abroad, to offer to potential employers or clients.  I worked with other professionals in the same position as mine on issues such as what I liked or disliked in my previous positions, what my strengths were, and how I managed my tasks or relationships.  The small group that I worked with disbanded after eight months but we still meet informally to share advice, concerns and successes – a network in itself.  I started contacting professionals. I used the phone rather than sending a cold e-mail. I had a couple of short sentences ready on who I was and why I was calling. I had conversations like this over the phone or in person. I realized that people were happy to have a chance to talk about their activities.  I kept in touch with some of them and connected with others referred to me by my interviewees.  By the end of 2012, I had identified the kind of projects I wanted to work on – transformation projects – and the small consulting firms where I could do it, had been hired by one of them - and had left it.  It was only the beginning of my journey and networking became my map.

Digging deeper
In early 2013, I was again asking myself that same question: how could I take my experience and my personality to firms and help them adjust to their changing environment?  What I had known all along was that I needed to be passionate about my work if I wanted to keep being interested in it and I had to be good at it.  By that time, I felt that corporate agility could give me a reason to be passionate. I worked on identifying people mentioned in articles, and sometimes bloggers or twittos.  And I started calling them.  I now have a file with their names, positions and contact details. My favourite part of the file is the place where I write about my conversation with them and what it had taught me about the market.  After a few weeks, researching and networking about agility and transformation allowed me to identify key actors: fa-ci-li-ta-tors.  In France, the very word “facilitation” has hardly ever been heard: imagine the breakthrough!

The tipping point
Those I contacted then not only embodied the tipping point in my journey, they also remained my key correspondents. One in particular, Lan Levy, my ToP trainer, is a major reference figure in my network and in her field, and also my friend. I took the ICA’s ToP Training program and later the Imaginal Education training.  I received a call to host my first World Cafes as a freelancer and met the graphic facilitator who worked with me on these assignments.  I joined IAF (International Association of Facilitators) an organization for facilitators established by the ICA.  I established contacts with facilitators in countries where facilitation is a well-established profession –Canada, the USA, Australia, and Singapore, among others.  I met facilitators from other countries in enrichment meetings - it is exciting to finally meet the people with whom I had been in touch on social networks or in virtual meetings!

Networking was the key to the launch of my small business as a facilitator in Paris. It led me to join another professional association which focuses on systems thinking and organizational learning.  It will also pave the way for me joining a team of facilitators/consultants with whom I have developed great projects over the last few months. 

I’m grateful that the people I contacted were more than willing to talk to me about their professional path and their wish to make an impact on the people around them and the world. I am happy to play that same role when I receive an e-mail or phone call from someone who wants to hear more about facilitation, the ICA or ToP training.

Networking brought me much more than just information or appreciation of a professional field or techniques: it gave me the fulfilment of finding a professional field where I can make my experience and my personality useful.  All this has made me understand why and how networking is essential: it is the best way to find my place and it remains the best way to improve myself and be useful.

Lorraine Margherita (LM@rgherita.com) is a bilingual facilitator based in Paris.