Networking. The time-honored tradition of getting great opportunities just by knowing the right people. The actual process is a little bit more nuanced than that — less about making friends, and more about ingraining yourself in your chosen professional community.
Either way, it involves a lot of targeted human interactions. For introverts — people who are more comfortable keeping to themselves — this can be a bit of a challenge. Fortunately, there are ways to overcome it.
In this article, we talk about how to overcome the stresses of networking as an introvert.
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Introvert Doesn’t Have to Mean Shy
The stereotypical idea of the introvert is a quiet wallflower, anxious, uncomfortable in social situations, and most content at home with their books and tea.
That’s probably not you.
Most introverts are socially well-adjusted — they simply thrive in a more understated environment than their extrovert counterparts. While the extrovert is making their rounds throughout the room, shaking every hand, and learning every name, the introvert is more likely to have one or two much longer conversations.
This is an important distinction to make but it can still hold you back in networking situations. That extrovert met a lot more people than you at the job fair. So what’s to be done about it?
Develop a Great Pitch
You may not have as many interactions as extrovert job seekers, so you need to maximize the impact of all of them. Having a great elevator pitch is an important part of the networking process.
“Elevator pitches” are so named because they are supposed to be statements that are strong enough to sell someone on something in the time it takes to ride an elevator. And no, not an elevator at Sears Tower.
Keep it fast and to the point. Two or three sentences max that explain who you are and why you’ll be an asset to their business.
A tall order, maybe, but think of it as just another part of your application. You’ve got a cover letter. The pitch should essentially distill the best parts of that document into a few words that really sell you to potential employers.
Use Your Time Effectively
If you’re only going to talk to two or three people at a public event, make sure it’s the right two or three. People who are most likely to connect you with a professional opportunity. Quality over quantity is actually an important ingredient in the networking process, so you’re going in well-positioned here.
Think about it this way: The person who talked with everyone at the event may have made a wider impression, but they also spent a lot of time talking with people who, from a professional perspective, have nothing to do with them.
Leads that won’t go anywhere. Job opportunities they don’t even want. At the end of the night, they may also walk away with only two or three leads, but the problem is that they only had a superficial interaction with those people. They were too busy shaking every hand.
Not you. You know that you’re only going to talk to a few people, so you’re darn sure going to make sure you make the most of those interactions.
To really capitalize on networking opportunities, it’s good to know who will be there going in. That way you can not only beeline in their direction when you get there but also better prepare what you want to say to them.
Two or three really perfect leads are significantly more valuable than a dozen general ones. Especially because….
You Need to Follow Up
That’s right. Following up with leads after networking opportunities is important. The extrovert — and we aren’t anti-extrovert — but in this scenario they have a lot more people to follow up with. At the end of their night, they need to go home, sift through twelve interactions and try to figure out if one of them could possibly result in a job.
You’re only nudging a few people, and you already know they are a great fit.
There are right and wrong ways to do a networking follow-up. You want to be assertive enough to make them understand that you take the opportunity seriously without being off-putting. Wait a week or so, then call them, or fire off an email.
Make it brief. They are busy people. Remind them who you are — without context they won’t remember — express interest in working with them in the future and consider attaching your resume.
That’s a good follow-up. Anything more than that is going to rub people the wrong way. Remember: nudging once is professional and endearing. Nudging twice is rude. Nudge three times and they are going to give your picture to building security.
Use Social Media
Here’s good news for the introvert who isn’t excited to go to a bunch of job-seeking events: a lot of networking happens online now. Job seekers turn themselves into a product by developing a highly tailored and nuanced “personal brand”— basically a professional persona that gives employers a taste of what it will be like to have you on their staff.
To use social media effectively in the job-seeking process you first need to:
- Decide who you want to be professionally. What do you value as a person, and how can you channel those values into your professional work? Once you figure that out, it’s crucial to…
- Stay on brand. You’ve established your persona and begun publishing it online. Here’s the thing — one wrong move, just a single unprofessional Tweet or Facebook post, completely undoes all of your hard work. That means nothing political. Nothing that could be perceived as even remotely offensive. Certainly, no jokes that would be considered inappropriate at the workplace.
Social media can be very useful, but mistakes come at a big cost. Remember: this is the first place that future employers look to vet a candidate.
Stressing over whether or not a social media message is professional enough to represent you online? When in doubt, cut it out. No Tweet is worth losing a job opportunity over.
