Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Networking when you're an introvert who hates networking
So I did a bit of research yesterday about strategies to network when you hate talking to people. Like Robert said in the comments of the previous post, you pretty much do have to force yourself to do it. However it doesn’t have to involve walking up to a stranger and attempting to strike up inane conversation. I read about a couple of strategies that can help people like me.
1. Arrive at the event early. It’s much easier to become get involved with a smattering of individuals than to get there and find a lot of people already grouped in conversations.
2. Sit in the first two rows. Although it goes against everything my personality prefers, the fact is a lot of important people tend to sit in the front. If you arrive early and get your butt into one of those important seats, no one is going to ask you to move. Chances are higher that you might sit next to someone that could be helpful in your career, and the fact that you’re there before the event is starting gives you time to strike up a conversation.
3. Focus on how you can help the other person. Introverts like myself are usually not keen on talking about ourselves. We are excellent listeners. Extroverts love this. Finally, something that works to our advantage. As a networking novice, I always thought the whole point of networking was to find people who can help you. This is too “me-centric” to be successful. The point of networking is to find people who can help you later. People rarely happen to have a job in their back pocket waiting for you. More importantly, it’s not just those who can help you later, but those will want to help you later. And the best way to get them to keep you in mind is by helping them first. Help them how? Maybe they’re looking for a particular type of contact. Maybe you can put them in touch with someone. Something like that. I am personally going to find it this part hard because, well, I don’t really know anyone useful.
The thing about networking, I discovered, is that you need to cultivate and maintain your contacts so they’re there when you need them. It’s not like groceries that you get when you need eggs or carrots. I can’t just go to some event and find people with jobs waiting for me. I have to think of it like an herb garden. If I don’t maintain it, there won’t be any herbs for me to use when it’s time to cook. That’s another difficult thing for me. I am terrible at maintaining relationships outside of the one i have with my honey. I’m like one of those one-person dogs who could care less about other people. This is fine for dogs, but bad for one’s career. I don’t even keep in touch with my own family and friends that much… how am I going to maintain some kind of relationship with a bunch of strangers? I guess that’ll be another day of research for me.
(2) Comments • Permalink
Categories: • Office Hijinks