My name is Tatiana Sorokina and this is my first book. My journey to the West started when I moved from Russia to Budapest, Hungary to do my MBA in 1999. After graduation in 2001 I went one step further: I moved to London, UK to work. So when I was looking at the perspective of moving to the USA in 2005 I really dreaded the idea: too many life-changing events in just 6 years. But I didn’t have much of a choice: my husband was working in Chicago, IL at the time and one of us had to make the sacrifice.
My first feelings with regards USA were being lonely and being an alien in the New World. My friends, family, professional ambitions were left behind in Europe. My husband tried to help me as hard as he could but being a medical researcher he had no clue about Marketing/International Business field (my area of specialization), he didn’t know anything about business start-up or business development, women-related issues, etc.
So here I was standing at the crossroads and having no idea where to go and what to do next. Doesn’t this sound familiar? If you have relocated to USA or even within USA you probably felt pretty much the same way I did 1,5 years ago. According to various statistics 65 – 75% of jobs are found through networking, i.e. through people you know. That was good the news for a newcomer who didn’t know anyone.
Probably the same figures are true for your own business development. Now I meet a lot of people through various organizations I belong to and irrespective of the nature of their business most of them say that the majority of the clients they get are through referrals. If you want just to make friends in a new city you have to meet people somewhere somehow too.
It took me 4 months to persuade myself to go out there and meet total strangers and force myself to approach at least 1 person, make an introduction and ask for advice/help. I am sure many of you experience the same stress levels in these circumstances. A lot of you feel uncomfortable if not terrified just with the idea of networking and cold introduction especially in an unfamiliar country/culture. But I had to learn my hard way that you will not get anywhere without networking in America.
During the first 10 events I felt awful, then it started to get better. You definitely can learn how network and the whole process is so much easier when you know where you are going, what to expect, what is the structure of the event, what are the advantages for you, who you are going to meet, what is the environment, etc.
It took me more than a year to perform my research, analyze and filter the data, check out various resources so that you don’t have to! You would say that generally there are no easy ways in life but since I already “invented a bicycle” I will let you use it. Enjoy the ride!
If you want to contact me, please, write to: info@emadvice.com
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