If you want to advance in your professional career, it is imperative to obtain guidance from the right supporter. Keith Chaney learned this while working at technology company Google as the strategy and operations lead of its global partnerships and at McKinsey & Co., where he served as a management consultant. That’s when he decided to exit those jobs to pursue his own career as a founder. During the South by Southwest (SXSW) 2024 pitch competition, he recalls his experience as a first-generation graduate navigating the intricacies of post-college life. He later realized the importance of gaining peer support to be successful in the long term. “When I started my career, I was surrounded by an amazing family. Unfortunately, no one in my family had worked for Google, McKinsey, or any of the places I found myself during my career. So, despite their best efforts, no one was ever able to tell me the information that I needed to win in those spaces,” Chaney said at SXSW 2024. His desire...

Even for someone who is highly extroverted or a social butterfly, networking events can be uncomfortable. From your mind going into overdrive on whether something you want to say is too informal to feeling overwhelmed approaching strangers, it can be socially exhausting. A group of young Black professionals across fields have joined forces to carve a space for people to create connections but also genuinely enjoy themselves while doing so.

As we approach ten months into the global pandemic and nationwide halt on social gatherings, most people have adapted to using online means of interaction. Attending online workshops and conferences can put individuals in spaces with people they possibly would not have had the opportunity to meet. Just as in-person networking required preparation (and a pep talk) before approaching someone you admire, there is a science to building connections online. Before the week ends, here are some tips for making more connections during AfroTech World. Do your research In AfroTech World, a person’s name and company is displayed above their avatar. Take a moment to search for them on LinkedIn. Doing this will help you find a common ground to approach them in conversation. Compliment the work they did on their latest project, comment on the sports team they’re wearing in their profile picture, commend them for a question or comment they made during the conference, etc. Also, visit the AfroTech...

In today’s world, there are very few spaces for Black women creatives to gather, network, and explore our talents. Without strong support systems and a proper spotlight, Black women creatives continue to struggle to find opportunities in our career field. However, Polly Irungu — multimedia journalist, self-taught photographer, and founder of Black Women Photographers — is striving to amplify Black women’s creative work and disrupt industries to change common, obsolete hiring practices. “I’m not trying to be a movement, but I do want to help connect the dots,” she said. Irungu — who grew up in a traditional African household in Kansas and later in Oregon — has always had a creative spirit but found it difficult to find communities for Black women who had a passion for photography. After attending the National Association of Black Journalists’ convention, she discovered the organization had a large close-knit community of Black writers and creatives, and so she came up with the idea...

If you haven’t heard, LinkedIn is where it’s at, especially for entrepreneurs. Of course, your Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are great networking tools, too, but LinkedIn is a startup founder’s dream. Connecting aspiring founders with heavy hitters in their field as well as providing a channel of communication for established businesses, LinkedIn has a little bit of everything, including social networking, job opportunities, and a place to blog ideas. Here’s why you should set up and maintain a LinkedIn account: Increase Your Startup’s Visibility If your personal social media account has ten times more followers than your brand account, then using LinkedIn might increase your visibility by giving you an audience that is interested and seeking out business-related posts. Simply put, LinkedIn is about business and entrepreneurship, which makes it different than other social media platforms that are more geared towards entertainment. According to statistics from Oberlo, LinkedIn has...