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Please teach me on how to network? I am really bad at networking!

afarrell 5y ago
The three steps to networking: 1. Find conversations with people who are working on problems aligned with your interests. Be present. Listen and pay attention. 2. Ask questions which demonstrate your genuine curiosity about their problems and how they overcame struggles with them. "Clean Language" questions are a neat hack which does authentically work here. 3. Do the boring admin work of sending an email expressing gratitude for their time and following up on opportunities to help out and learn more. The intro book here is How to Win Friends and Influence People. Also, Half of Models by Mark Manson is also relevant (gender is mostly irrelevant) because the underlying philosophical principles are the same. EDIT: Berne Brown is probably more relevant than Mark Manson.
- the_only_law 5y ago
  I have enough problems finding jobs aligned to my interest, let alone people working on them already.
DrNuke 5y ago
> Please teach me on how to network? I am really bad at networking! Ok, I am taking this plea seriously and assuming you are not constrained to your basement and your laptop (yes, you will need to show up in person, sooner or later)! 1- Select five recent applications you made to five companies you would really like to work for (that is, start with affinity instead of trying your indifferent luck). 2- Trace the company’s contact list and the exact role of some of their employees (from the company website, from LinkedIn, from a meetup or what else…), that is the ones that may possibly become your colleagues, in case you are hired. 3- Conjure a professional hook related to the company (a recent meetup, a conference they went to, a technical workshop or paper from them and in your field of interest, a recent press release showing their latest milestone) and send one of the designed contacts a cold email to ask more info, while introducing yourself as a passionate guy doing similar things… this will however kickstart an informal screening without or by-passing your CV. 4- If unsuccessful at first shot, just align your manners and persist… maybe instead of five companies, try ten companies… align more, persist and repeat. All this converging effort, if done without seeming a stalker, would lead in a few weeks to someone you are starting to know offering you something to progress things further, be it at a conference or at their office, upon the basis that you showed already you can at least interact with them in a way they like, that you seem to know and like what they are doing, and that they think you may help and become part of their team. Hope it helps. Good luck!

The three steps to networking: 1. Find conversations with people who are working on problems aligned with your interests. Be present. Listen and pay attention. 2. Ask questions which demonstrate your genuine curiosity about their problems and how they overcame struggles with them. "Clean Language" questions are a neat hack which does authentically work here. 3. Do the boring admin work of sending an email expressing gratitude for their time and following up on opportunities to help out and learn more. The intro book here is How to Win Friends and Influence People. Also, Half of Models by Mark Manson is also relevant (gender is mostly irrelevant) because the underlying philosophical principles are the same. EDIT: Berne Brown is probably more relevant than Mark Manson.

the_only_law 5y ago
I have enough problems finding jobs aligned to my interest, let alone people working on them already.

DrNuke 5y ago

> Please teach me on how to network? I am really bad at networking! Ok, I am taking this plea seriously and assuming you are not constrained to your basement and your laptop (yes, you will need to show up in person, sooner or later)! 1- Select five recent applications you made to five companies you would really like to work for (that is, start with affinity instead of trying your indifferent luck). 2- Trace the company’s contact list and the exact role of some of their employees (from the company website, from LinkedIn, from a meetup or what else…), that is the ones that may possibly become your colleagues, in case you are hired. 3- Conjure a professional hook related to the company (a recent meetup, a conference they went to, a technical workshop or paper from them and in your field of interest, a recent press release showing their latest milestone) and send one of the designed contacts a cold email to ask more info, while introducing yourself as a passionate guy doing similar things… this will however kickstart an informal screening without or by-passing your CV. 4- If unsuccessful at first shot, just align your manners and persist… maybe instead of five companies, try ten companies… align more, persist and repeat. All this converging effort, if done without seeming a stalker, would lead in a few weeks to someone you are starting to know offering you something to progress things further, be it at a conference or at their office, upon the basis that you showed already you can at least interact with them in a way they like, that you seem to know and like what they are doing, and that they think you may help and become part of their team. Hope it helps. Good luck!