Speaker: Lauren Celano, MBA, Founder and CEO, Propel Careers

Description: Most people find networking to build their professional network intimidating and therefore often shy away from this valuable activity. This talk provides tips to take the stress out of this activity, so that you can easily develop relationships and make a positive first impression to enable you to grow your network and develop in your career.
Propel will provide advice for how to start conversations and how to navigate conversations to keep the discussion flowing. Propel will cover networking advice for different scenarios – networking for informational interviewing, for job searching, and for other reasons such as building collaborations. Propel will also provide advice on how to develop an effective elevator pitch, so that the next time someone asks you, “what do you do?”, you will have a concise but effective response. Lastly, Propel will provide advice on various ways to follow up so that you can cultivate the relationships you make now for years to come.
About the speaker: Lauren Celano is the co-founder and CEO of Propel Careers, a life science search and career development firm focused on connecting talented individuals with entrepreneurial life sciences companies.  Propel works with current leaders and actively cultivates future leaders through full time placement, internships, mentoring, career coaching, and networking.  Propel Careers is engaged  across all areas of life sciences, including therapeutics, medical devices, healthcare IT, diagnostics, consulting, venture capital, and investment banking. Full bio