Most people find networking uncomfortable at the best of times. When you're trying to break into an industry where you don't know a single soul, it can feel less like professional development and more like turning up uninvited to someone else's party! Hello
But here's the thing: being an outsider is not the disadvantage it feels like. With the right framing, it's actually a conversation starter. People remember the career changer who asked genuinely curious questions far longer than they remember the tenth person who handed them a business card and talked about synergies.
This guide is about building real connections in a new field.
Why your usual approach won't work here
If you've networked before, even a little, you probably relied on existing relationships. A former colleague introduced you. A shared employer gave you common ground. You had a ready-made reason to be in the room.
Switching industries removes all of that scaffolding. You don't have the jargon yet. You might not know who the key employers are, let alone who the respected voices are. That's not a personal failing; it's just the starting position, and it's fixable.
The mistake most career changers make is trying to network exactly as they would in their old field, which tends to produce stilted conversations and a growing sense of fraudulence. The better move is to lean into your outsider status rather than hide it.
Start with research
Before you contact a single person, spend two or three weeks immersing yourself in the field. Read the trade publications. Follow the industry bodies on LinkedIn. Subscribe to newsletters. Learn the current debates, the recent redundancies, the companies that are growing.
This matters because informed curiosity is magnetic. Someone who says "I've been reading about the shift toward embedded finance and I'd love to understand how that's changed day-to-day compliance work" will get a very different response than someone who says "I'm interested in fintech."
It also tells you who to approach. You'll start to notice the same names appearing in comment sections, on panel line-ups, in bylines. Those are your targets.
LinkedIn: use it like a journalist
LinkedIn is the single most useful tool for breaking into a new industry, but almost everyone uses it wrong. Blasting connection requests with "I'm looking to move into your sector" is the professional equivalent of cold-calling at dinner.
Instead, engage first. Comment thoughtfully on posts from people you'd like to connect with. Not "Great post!" but an actual observation or follow-up question that shows you've read what they wrote. Do this consistently for a few weeks before you send a connection request.
When you do reach out, keep the message short and specific. Reference something real: a talk they gave, an article they wrote, a project their company is running. Then make a small, low-pressure ask. "Would you be open to a 20-minute call? I'm making a deliberate move into [field] and I'd value your perspective on how the industry has changed over the past couple of years." That's it. No CV, no job ask, no paragraph about your life story.
For more on presenting yourself well on the platform, how to use LinkedIn to get noticed by recruiters covers the profile side of things in detail.
The informational interview: your most underused asset
An informational interview is simply a conversation with someone working in the field you're targeting, where your goal is to learn rather than to pitch yourself for a job. It sounds almost too soft to be useful. In practice, it's one of the most efficient ways to build a network and gather intelligence at the same time.
People are remarkably willing to talk about their work when there's no transaction implied. Ask about their career path, what skills they find themselves using most, what they wish they'd known earlier, how the industry is changing. Listen properly. Take notes.
At the end, ask if there's anyone else they'd recommend speaking to. A warm introduction from someone inside the industry is worth twenty cold connection requests. This is how networks compound.
One practical note: always send a short thank-you message within 24 hours. Keep the relationship warm with an occasional check-in, something like a relevant article or a quick update on your progress. You're building a relationship, not harvesting a contact.
Industry events: show up before you need anything
Conferences, meetups, and professional association events are still one of the best ways to meet people quickly. The key is attending before you're actively job hunting, so the pressure is off and the conversations feel natural.
In the UK, most professional bodies run events that are open to non-members or to people considering joining: the CIPD, the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Tech Nation alumni events, RIBA talks, and dozens of others depending on your target field. Many are free or low cost. Search Eventbrite and Meetup alongside the professional body websites.
Go with a simple goal: have three genuine conversations. Not three exchanges of contact details, three actual conversations. Ask questions, be honest about being new to the field, and don't spend the whole evening rehearsing your elevator pitch. The people who are most memorable at these events are usually the ones who seemed most genuinely interested in others.
Online communities: the underrated route
Some of the most useful networking for career changers happens in places that don't feel like networking at all. Industry-specific Slack groups, Reddit communities, Discord servers, and LinkedIn groups can give you access to practitioners who would never respond to a cold message but are happy to answer a well-framed question in a community thread.
Contribute before you ask. Answer questions where you can. Share resources. Over time, people start to recognise your name, which makes a direct approach much warmer when you eventually send one.
This is particularly useful if you're targeting a technical field or a creative industry where community culture matters and hiring decisions often happen informally.
How to frame the career change conversation
The framing question most career changers agonise over is: how do I explain what I'm doing without sounding lost?
The answer is to lead with your reason and your transferable value, not your gap. "I spent eight years in NHS commissioning and I'm now deliberately moving into health technology, because I want to work on the systems side of the problems I spent years trying to solve from the inside." That's a coherent story. It's honest and it positions your background as relevant rather than irrelevant.
This framing carries through into your written materials too. If you haven't already, how to write a CV when changing careers covers how to position your experience on paper, and transferable skills: how to identify yours and sell them is worth reading alongside it.
The conversations you have through networking will also sharpen your story. You'll hear which parts of your background resonate and which parts land with a polite silence. Adjust accordingly.
Keeping track without losing your mind
Once you start having conversations, you need a simple system to track them. Who you spoke to, when, what they said, what you promised to follow up on. A spreadsheet works perfectly well. Nothing kills a promising contact faster than following up three months late with no context, or worse, asking the same question you already asked.
The broader job search organisation side of things is covered well in how to track your job applications without losing your mind, and the same principles apply to your networking pipeline.
Building a network in a new industry takes longer than it does in one where you already have roots. Expect three to six months before it starts to feel like a proper web of relationships rather than a list of strangers. That's normal, and it's worth it; most roles, particularly in competitive or specialist fields, are filled through networks before they're ever advertised.
Start with one person this week. One genuine, curious, low-pressure conversation. That's the whole strategy, repeated.
Sources
- CIPD. (2025). Resourcing and talent planning survey 2025. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. https://www.cipd.org/uk/knowledge/reports/resourcing-talent-planning-survey/
- Office for National Statistics. (2026). Labour market overview, UK: April 2026. ONS. https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/uklabourmarket/latest
- LinkedIn. (2024). UK workforce confidence and hiring trends report. LinkedIn Economic Graph. https://economicgraph.linkedin.com/research
- CBI / Pertemps. (2025). Employment trends survey 2025. Confederation of British Industry. https://www.cbi.org.uk
- GOV.UK. (2025). Career guidance and labour market information. Department for Education. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/career-guidance-and-access-to-labour-market-information