Networking is a major must when trying to advance your career. You can apply to online job postings all day, but without networking, your chances of getting a call for an interview are much lower. If you’re unsure where to start when trying to boost your networking prospects, start using an AI professional headshot to get into the game.
Professional headshots help you stand out and start the networking chain you need to see results in your job search. They can boost your networking opportunities in many ways, and using AI technology can help this process go even faster.
Choose a High-Quality AI Headshot Platform
Avoid free platforms when looking for high-quality AI platforms, as the results will be lacking. A quality platform will come with a price tag but only cost a fraction of what a professional photographer charges.
AI headshot platforms, such as our favorite platform Portrait Pal, have pricing packages ranging from $35 to $75, which is far below the $150 to $600 costs of professional photographers.
When you get AI headshots from Portrait Pal and other high-quality platforms, they’ll be easy to use and understand. Not to mention they produce realistic results to help boost your networking prospects.
Boost Your Networking Prospects in 8 Ways with AI Headshots
Using AI professional headshots offers many benefits, including ease of platform use, low cost, and fast and realistic results. This list could go on, but here are eight ways AI headshots can specifically boost your networking when you use them in job searching.
1. Creates an Approachable Presence Online
There are a lot of scammers out there. Profiles missing a professional headshot may seem sketchy, and those people are less likely to build a network in professional circles.
Additionally, if your profile photo is a low-quality selfie or a group photo, it’ll lack the quality expected among professionals. Using photos like this won’t do you any favors in your networking efforts. Best to stick with a real headshot.
2. Builds Trust
With a high-quality AI professional headshot, you can convey a message of being trustworthy. People see your confident and professional face as you network with others, and their trust in you builds.
3. Helps You Stand Out
With the use of AI technology, you can create some impressive backgrounds in your headshots that may be more unique than traditional headshots. What’s behind you won’t distract from you as the main focal point. Instead, they add the message that you’re an interesting person people should want to get to know better.
Being able to stand out among 200 other applicants has its perks, especially if you’ve been networking and building a professional circle at the same time.
4. Helps People Remember You
A stand-out professional headshot will make your face more memorable to those who matter. Networking, sending resumes, and enhancing your online profiles are just the beginning. When you attend conferences or other face-to-face opportunities, they’ll recognize you and remember who you are. As a result, you can get your foot in the door further and open opportunities for more networking prospects.
5. Makes a Good First Impression
Whether we like it or not, looks matter when searching for jobs and networking. A good-looking, headshot helps set the first impression. Ensuring that your headshots are true to who you are and that you carry yourself as a professional when networking confirms that impression.
Along with helping you stand out in your career, this good first impression can be great for future opportunities. When others hear of opportunities that arise in the future that you may be interested in pursuing, they can let you know, and you’ll see that your networking has paid off.
6. Shows Relevance to Your Industry
When creating your AI professional headshots, you get to write a prompt with your photo-style vision. In this, you can suggest background ideas and even the use of props. When appropriate, props in your headshot may show that you are relevant and knowledgeable about the industry. It can also help you stand out, as traditional headshots don’t usually contain props.
7. Helps You Create a Brand for Yourself
A brand is memorable. We all know brand-name items at the grocery store. We recognize big-name companies. You can create a brand for yourself with a quality professional headshot. As you network, people will recognize your “brand” because of your headshot, making you more memorable amongst the professional crowd.
8. Improves Your Online Interactions
As you reach out in comments or messaging on online platforms to try and network, having a quality headshot will increase the likelihood of people responding to you. They’ll see that you’re professional, current in your professional standing with a quality updated headshot, and that you are serious about making connections and furthering your career.
How Do I Create My AI Professional Headshot?
It’s very simple. Once you’ve chosen a trusted platform (again, we like Portrait Pal), you’ll follow simple instructions of uploading selfies, candids, and portraits of yourself and writing a prompt with your photo style vision for the AI generator to follow.
Once you’ve followed a few simple steps, you sit back and let the generator work for two to three hours. At the end of that time, you’ll see the results. AI technology has become so advanced that, at a glance, no one should be able to tell you used an AI platform to create your network-boosting headshots.
Start Building Your Network
Now that you know the benefits of using an AI professional headshot to make connections, it’s time to start building your network. Create your headshots and get them out there in your online profiles, resume, and any pertinent company websites.
Headshots, of course, are just the beginning of building a successful network in your career. You’ll also want to put effort into being at the right events, volunteering, talking to the right people, offering a firm handshake, sharing your business cards, following up with connections, etc.
You might be amazed at how quickly your network starts to grow as you associate with the right people. Pretty soon, a friend of a friend of a friend might be reaching out with a potential opportunity for you to consider, all because you put in a little work to establish a strong professional presence.
