Skills to Pay the Bills (feat. Cisco Executives)

There are so many skills that a person needs to know when in the workforce. In order to get jobs, maintain relationships, and climb company ladders, certain skills are necessary. What skills should you spend your time focusing on? Here are 3 great skills to start with: networking, presentation skills, and LinkedIn. Now, as we were sitting around brainstorming for this blog, we decided that as a couple of interns, our words may not carry enough weight for you readers. So, we decided to get some absolute all-stars to speak about these topics.

Andrea Whalen, Senior Director of Global Partner Marketing and Digital Experience at Cisco

Michelle Chiantera, Vice President of Global Partner Marketing at Cisco

Michelle and Andrea have both worked extremely hard in their careers to sculpt Cisco into the trusted brand they are today.

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Networking

Networking is one of the most important skills in business. Being able to connect and grow your network will open up a lot of doors that would otherwise be closed. Knowing how important networking is, a lot of people struggle with it and get nervous when the time comes. So what are the biggest challenges with networking and how do you get over them?

Whalen expressed a lack of focus on the people in your network could be an issue. Before networking with people, you should have a purpose so that your network can fulfill a goal.

“Build your network with a purpose”

Michelle noted that waiting for those networking events to network maybe isn’t the best strategy. Expanding on this, she said “If people wait for those sorts of opportunities, they’re not going to be very good networkers”. Networking is something that occurs with each conversation you have, which Michelle hit on, saying “it’s about what you do everyday to get ingrained in society”.

Michelle and Andrea also shared some great tips about how to nail networking. First, it’s important to know whether you want to make a business connection or a personal connection. “Both are effective,” said Chiantera, but “people can connect better if you start out a conversation at a personal level and make personal connections.”

Another important tip is to network to the people that fall along your desired career path. First, “Ask yourself ‘What is your vision?’” said Whalen. Then plan out your career goals for the future and then learn the successes and failures of people who have walked a similar path or ended up where you’d like to be.

Presentation Skills

Presenting well is a lot easier said than done. After talking with our Fabulous execs, there was only way to summarize their advice. ~Practice Practice Practice~ I’m sure you all already knew you needed to practice so that isn’t much help (that’s what I thought too when I heard their response) but practice with these goals:

1. Making your presentation become second nature

We have all sat through a presentation that was incredibly awkward. This could be due to a lack of personal connection with the materials or not preparing the material and delivery beforehand. Making sure that the content is something your familiar with is the first step. The more you see it, the more you’ll be able to present it with confidence. Another great tip is to rehearse it in different ways so that you don’t get frazzled if the presentation deviates. Lastly, don’t practice too much. If you rehearse it too many times, it will come off robotic and rehearsed; find that happy medium.

2. Learning how to breathe

This is one that a lot of people don’t think about. No matter how many times you’ve presented, those butterflies will still be in your stomach. A great way to calm those nerves is to adopt some breathing and meditation routines to relax your mind and body. One type, recommended by Andrea, would be the box breathing technique. While you’re taking these breaths, you can try and visualize yourself giving the presentation, helping you plan out certain movements and cues.

3. Knowing how to own your mistakes

You may prepare well for a presentation, but sometimes you make a mistake in your delivery or just aren't doing as well as you’d hoped. What do you do? How do you rebound? Our experts say to own the mistakes. Mistakes happen, and if you let them consume you and your presentation, you won’t succeed. There’s nothing wrong with stopping, telling your audience that you’d like to take a step back, and then restarting at your own pace. Once the presentation is over, you can look back and discover what created the mistake. Then, just learn and adjust for next time.

"Owning your mistake will make the presentation run a lot smoother and it'll flow better than trying to act like the mistake didn’t happen and overcompensating."

4. Ask why you’re scared of what you’re scared of

Identify your fears! Do a soul search and figure out what is the root of your fear when it comes to presenting. By doing this and identifying why you are scared, you’ll be able to work on the root cause. Ask ~why why why~.

For example: If you are scared of misspeaking, ask yourself why you’re so scared. When you find out that you’re scared because you don’t know the material well enough, then study up before the big day or alter the presentation! Getting a hold of the “why” will save you from making that big mistake you're so scared of making.

LinkedIn

Ah LinkedIn, what an interesting tool. There are some advocates of LinkedIn that think it is the end all be all when it comes to networking. Then there are some people who don’t even have a profile picture. When used wrong, LinkedIn and all other social platforms are a waste of time.

We learned from our execs is that there can be a happy medium. It is wise to have an up-to-date profile. That means having a good profile picture, your current role and relevant connections. It is not necessary to connect with everyone you meet and you definitely shouldn’t think of LinkedIn as a substitute for networking.

Just in case anyone is curious, here’s an example of a good and bad LinkedIn profile picture. We’ll let you decide which one is which:

What we did learn is that your profile will be one of the first things recruiters check and if a position opens up at work, someone may search for a replacement on LinkedIn.

It is also important to use blogging as an expressive tool to show what you’re learning and what conversations you want to start. Blogging also helps improve your writing and communication skills, which will never go out of style.

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These topics are so important that we decided to talk about it twice, so tune in next week for two more Cisco Executive opinions on these topics! You won’t want to miss it!

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