FD & CFO Networking
Networking is so important now, and the good news is that there are many great sites and networks around the world which are useful and easy to join, some of the larger events are held in one or more national conferencing arenas such as the NEC in Birmingham or the ExCel arena London. These can be great to find and build a network of contacts or potential service suppliers.
In the past, I have had some success using business discussion forums, though these tend to attract micro or SME business people rather than an investors or corporate transaction specialists.
Here are a few resources I find beneficial:-
Meetup – this is a network of event organisers what is good is that you can select a location and view a calendar of upcoming networking opportunities some are free, others have modest charges, but if you are trying to break into new locations or market niches it can be very useful.
Eventbrite – Another very respectable networking platform, often I’ve found business angels running events on here which can be a great way to socialise in with some key people.
Guild – a community of communities.
Entreprise Nation – a network of connected professionals.
Linkedin – This of course is the most valueable network that everyone can access. Everyone is on linkedin or needs to be if they are not already, and you need to carefully read the profiles of your rivals and refine your own to match or surpass them. I lost out on a few roles in 2018 only to find that my work experience was far stronger than the candidates who got the role, however their Virtual CV’s and probably their hard copy CV’s were better than mine at the time at least. So you gradually need to refine and improve your Linkedin profile to best reflect your experience, and as you build your experience make sure to regularly update Linkedin to reflect it.
A great tip I can share is as soon as you apply for a role via an agency, find the contact that the application is going to, then invite them to link with you via linkedin, then make a focussed pitch on how you are better than anyone else for the role you are applying for, a couple of interviews and one role I’ve landed were just due to that, agencies and recruiters get huge numbers of applications, so small differences in your approach like that start to seperate you in the recruiters minds. See also our partner organisation page, where we share content between partners.
Read our Linkedin blog post here.
Networking tools, if you are building a list of subscribers or a database of contacts, reaching out to them in a professional and regular way is important to ensure you keep putting your brand out there, and in front of your users and continually interacting with them. Ello is an image sharing site.
Constant Contact – this is a powerful website and tool which allows you to create attractive flyers and newsletter and send them to your contact database, there is a charge based on the number of emails per month, but it does take away the hassle factor of working with emails and dealing with blacklists and so on which is an on-going headache with any form of email campaign.
Twitter we use this social media platform increasingly to build up our own network of contacts in the Business Anglel and Private Equity space.
The FD Capital Network
FD Capital Recruitment are a network of Finance Directors and Chief Financial Officers who work together to support each other and to fulfill opportunities that come forward from businesses looking for FD’s and CFO’s, we offer a full range of senior financial service options:-
Part-Time FD Interim FD Full-Time FD Part-Time CFO Interim CFO Full Time CFO
Our team have a huge amount of experience and we also have dedicated niche specialists who can help with opportunities that require a particular skill set or discipline. Skills include:-
- E-Commerce specialists who are Digital marketing professionals as well as Finance Directors.
- Business recovery or turnaround specialists who can help during corporate distress.
- Fund raising professionals – Finance Directors with expertise and a successful track records with raising funds from PE Houses and Venture Capitalists.
- Bi-lingual FD‘s with strong language skills, often native speakers.
Visit our FD and CFO Network page to learn more about our FD Capital Network.
Plus many more not listed here, contact us if you have a particular requirement and you’ll be impressed with our ability to find solutions whatever your requirements.
Socialising with FD Capital Finance Directors
We host regular social events, drinks, presentations and wine tasting evenings around the UK. So if you are looking to build up your own network, or just to have some social intereaction with like minded people, reach out to our team and we will update you when our next event in your area is running. Networking is a great social activity in its own right.
How we work
If one of our team is available and the location works then we put them forward as preferred candidates, as we already know them and they have a track record with us. If an opportunity comes along that is outside of the areas where our FD’s and CFO’s are based (less of an issue now that businesses are more open to remote working) then we go out to the market in much the same way as regular Senior Finance Recruitment service does. We use Linkedin a lot and find that we can attract strong interest if we advertise roles with them.
There are many benefits to being part of our network, these include:
- Getting first refusal on new opportunities
- Sharing advice and tips from other members of our team.
- Meeting up for a social and chat, its surprising how isolated being a Portfolio FD or CFO can become.
- A team you can turn to for help and advice
- A panel of PE houses and Venture capitalist who can help with fund raising for clients.
- Opportunities for new roles we are a professional firm of FD and CFO recruitment consulltants.
If you are interested in joining our network please reach out to us today.
Most senior finance people are creatures of habit and use one of the top financial recruitment sites to help them find their next job, either that or they sign directly with agencies which is broadly the same approach, the agency route is of course very successful for the huge majority of candidates, occasionally an opportunity may also come along via contacts with an Audit firm, but there is a new growing avenue to explore that of social media.
Now the key issue to understand with social media is that you can’t sign up on day one and receive a stream of jobs and interview opportunities how is works is instead through the power of networking and that your posts or comments are published on the news feed of your followers. You can find really good opportunities through this approach and these are roles which are not advertised openly otherwise.
Read our blog post about Twitter here. Please feel free to follow us on Twitter!
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