Building a Professional Network
Definition: A mutually-beneficial network of people in your field, as well as related fields.
Whiteboards:
Benefits:
- Early info on possible job opportunities.
- Personal recommendations for jobs.
- Introductions to people.
- People you can add to your own network.
- People who may be able to help you achieve your own goals.
- Advice and mentorship/
NotesL
- This is a long-term part of career development. It’s best to start early and maintain this network throughout your career.
- Don’t be a leach- both parties should benefit from the association. It doesn’t have to be in the same way- someone who helps you find a job might be someone who comes to you to discuss ideas sometimes. Early in your career, it may feel a bit one-sided, but once you are more established you will have the opportunity to pass that kindness along to other newbies.
- You don’t need to do all of these different things. Try things and figure out what works best for you. Do challenge yourself, this is likely to be uncomfortable in the beginning and it takes practice.
Creating Direct Connections
Finding Opportunities
In-person Networking Events
- Currently very rare due to covid
- Can be challenging to walk up to people and introduce yourself
- Can be easier because people are there specifically to make introductions.
- Some have attempted to convert this format into the digital world.
- Meetup.com and Eventbrite can help you to find local events (digital or in-person)
Digital Communities
- Slack and Discord have become places for all sorts of communities, including building professional connections. (https://disboard.org/servers/tag/accounting)
- Reddit also likely has a related subreddit to your profession
- Don’t necessarily need to be in a specific time/place to participate, these communities are significantly more fluid than in-person events.
- Can get advice/job info from people who aren’t directly in your network.
Social Media Part 1
- LinkedIn- love it or hate it, it is the top dog in professional networking.
- Makes it easier to maintain connections.
- Content tends to be more work-focused and can be higher quality on average. (Still a lot of garbage)
- There may be communities centered around other platforms like Twitter- you may wish to either “edit” your social media presence or create a separate account.
Just being Social In Your Life
- Friends and family might be in similar fields
- We often interact with people with our hobbies, some of them may work in the same field
- You might have friends you’ve made in college, or have worked closely enough with one or more professors that you can add them to your network.
Introducing Yourself
People generally don’t like to feel like you are trying to promote yourself, but they generally like talking about themselves. Because of this, one of the best strategies for networking is to ask the person to tell you something about themselves. A good way to practice this is by taking turns: one person asks a couple of questions while the other answers, and then switch. If the conversation starts to flow on its own, let it.
Take the time to listen to your partner’s answer, show interest, and ask follow-up questions if they would be relevant. Do not try to use their answer as an opportunity to talk about yourself, even if you have a very similar experience. You can acknowledge that you’ve done/said/experienced something similar, but move on from there. You will have an opportunity to talk about yourself- for now, you are there to listen to what they have to say.
If you are answering and the question is about your experience, go ahead and be proud of what you have accomplished. This is not the time to hide or to minimize. It’s not bragging- they asked! On a similar note though, be yourself. You have enough to offer the world without making up stories.
If you are reaching out to someone directly online you’ve never talked to before, be very mindful of their time. Asking them a question or two is still a good strategy, but make sure it is tailored to them and can be answered in 5-10 minutes (15 max). If it is something like a coffee meeting that will take longer, be sure you are prepared.
Example Questions
You don’t have to stick to this list, but these are here to get you started.
- What do you currently work on? (followup) How long have you been working on that?
- What is your favorite tech to work on?
- alternate - What would you work on if you could work on anything?
- Do you have any side projects you are working on?
- Alternate - What side project would you like to work on?
- (For devs) What is your favorite language to work with? (followup) What about it makes it your favorite?
- Why did you decide to participate in this event?
- What is the best professional development book you’ve ever read?
- What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
- What is your proudest accomplishment?
- What are your professional goals or interests?
- What is the craziest request you’ve ever gotten in your career?
- What is one thing you’d like to change about your job?
- If you could pick up a new skill in an instant what would it be?
- What’s one question you would ask if you were me?
- What is something about yourself that people sometimes forget?
- What problem have you been trying to solve lately?
- What’s the most difficult part of your job or your industry?
Maintain Connections
- Connections aren’t useful if the other person doesn’t remember who you are.
- Two types of connections- personal and general
- Personal connections are the core of your circle- Keep in touch with them at least once a quarter if you don’t see them as part of your regular life. (a calendar reminder would be helpful here)
- More general connections are easier to maintain using either content (coming up next) or an active presence in the related community.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is the practice of producing useful, usually free, content related to a product in order to promote it. In this case, the product is your professional expertise.
- If you don’t like introducing yourself to other people, content marketing lets you cheat- people will introduce themselves to you.
- It makes you a “low risk” hire. The person can easily see what you are capable of, and so they have a pretty good idea of who they are hiring.
- Content can have a much broader reach than creating individual connections.
- This can lead to other opportunities. (HG is an example of this especially)
- This is extremely expensive in terms of time required and can take years to build up a following.
Creating Content
- You are going to suck in the beginning, publish it anyway.
- There are plenty of different types of content, experiment and find what works best for you.
- Some platforms make creating content and finding an audience easier, but more challenging platforms come with less competition.
- An easy way to come up with content is to talk about what you are currently working on. If you are facing a problem, others probably are dealing with something similar.
Blogs
- Shorter articles 300-500 words, or long 800-1000 words each have their own space.
- If you want to host it yourself, unless you are a web dev trying to use your blog as part of your portfolio, just use WordPress or Github Pages. Spend your time on the content, not the site.
- If you don’t want to host, LinkedIn and Medium are two of the most popular platforms.
Video
- Youtube is easiest for longer videos. Twitch is usable for professional content, but it’s going to be more difficult.
- Tutorials make for great professional Youtube videos. It’s likely a crowded space, but not everyone explains things the same way– your way of explaining things might work better for some people.
Social Media Part 2
- The same social media platforms you use for personal connections can be used to create content.
- Shorter LinkedIn posts and Twitter threads are good for this. You can use something like a single tweet to stay active, but in order to create useful content, you probably need more than 140 characters.
Other options
- podcast
- newsletter
- books
- public speaking/conferences
- memes or infographics