Best tips on how to network *even if you're not a social butterfly*

Hi everyone, I'm Christine and I'm a full-time UX slash product designer working in San Francisco. In today's video, we'll be talking about four best tips on networking effectively, even if you're not a social butterfly or you're an introvert. And these tips will be more general and not geared towards a specific position or a role, and they will be more focused on networking online on platforms such as LinkedIn because we're in a pandemic. But there are ways that you can network effectively with these four tips. So this video is sponsored by Grammarly, which is a writing assistant tool that you can set up on your web browser or your phone keyboard that will give you suggestions to help you become a better writer. I use it often when I'm writing important emails or when I'm messaging people on LinkedIn. You can sign up for a free account and get 20% off Grammarly Premium using my link in the description, grammarly.com slash chunbuns. The Grammarly Premium comes in pretty handy because it gives you vocabulary and clarity suggestions that the free version doesn't. I'll also be doing a demo of how I write my messages on LinkedIn using Grammarly, so make sure to watch this video until the end. So tip number one, know what phase you're in. When we think about the purpose of networking, we're not really networking to make new friends or really to socialize. So it takes off a lot of pressure because you don't need to befriend everyone and keep up that connection. But we are networking for the purpose of either landing a specific job or making that career switch. So we can assume that majority of people who are networking are networking for the goal of landing a job. And so in order to get to that goal, there are different stages and I kind of see them in three steps. The first stage is the exploratory phase. You're trying to explore your different career options. Maybe you're looking to transition into a new field and you're trying to gather data and information to make a better decision for yourself. And you're trying to see what's out there, kind of test the waters. So this is where you might be asking for informational interviews so that you can get a better understanding and get a better picture of what working in that field might look like. Now phase two is where you're going to be preparing to apply to these jobs that you're interested in. So for UX designers, that would be updating your resume and your portfolio. And you'd probably want to reach out to other designers out there to get some feedback so that you can keep improving your resume and portfolio to make sure that once you apply that you would hear back from these recruiters because your work is just so amazing. In phase three, you're all ready to go. Your resume and your portfolio are all nice and sleek and you just need those referrals so that your application has a higher chance of being seen by recruiters and hiring managers. Now working mindlessly can create a lot of noise and it can be extremely stressful. So it's important to know what you're exactly looking for when you're networking so that the time and energy that you're putting in to connect with people are actually driving the results that you want. Tip number two is once you know why you're trying to connect with people on LinkedIn, make sure you're writing sweet and concise messages that have clear action items. Keywords there are clear action items. I say this because there are so many people who don't write clear action items on their messages and I know this because I get a lot of messages on LinkedIn and that is not the way to network. Okay, I'm going to tell you some basic do's and don'ts and also walk you through the step-by-step way of how I write my messages depending on the different phases that I'm in when networking. Some basic do's and don'ts. I share some of these things in my Instagram stories, but I'll expand a little bit more here. Please, please don't write an essay. Nobody has time or wants to read three to four paragraphs written by a stranger detailing their entire life. Save that for the phone conversation that you want to have with them. Keep it to three to four sentences maximum. Don't define the relationship. That is relationship 101 right there. In the beginning of any relationship, you don't want to put a label. So don't be like, hey, I'm looking for a mentor. Can you mentor me? That is a lot of pressure on the other person and they will most likely just not reply to you. Don't be vague and be explicit about what you're looking for. And this one is gold and I'm going to give it to you for free. Time box that thing. What I mean by that is, let's say you have two different messages from different people. One says, hey, Christine, I'm looking for some advice. I would love you to be my mentor. I'll be like, okay, what does that mean? Does she expect me to hop on a one hour call every week? What am I signing up for? I will most likely not respond versus this other person goes, hey, Christine, I'm so and so I would love to hop on a quick 30 minute call with you. I had a few questions to ask. I would be much more likely to say yes to a 30 minute conversation that I know exactly what I'm signing up for versus a mentorship that have very vague expectations of what I'm signing up for. So this is a very basic skeleton of how I structure my messages. Hi, X, say something nice about them. Don't overdo it. Just do one sentence. Say something nice because everyone loves hearing how awesome they are. Second sentence, write an intro. Again, one sentence. Don't write your whole entire life story, please. The third sentence is what you're looking for. I'm looking for some feedback on my designs. Would you be able to hop on a 30 minute call? That's it. Okay, so we're going to get into the demo. I want to set this up. Chrome extension and I'm going to add it to my Chrome so that whenever I'm writing messages on places like LinkedIn or Gmail, Grammarly is enabled to give me grammar suggestions. Grammarly for Chrome is now active. Now let's pretend that I'm a new grad who wants to connect with other grads who have interned at companies that I would like to potentially work for. So this is my friend Ellie and she just finished her internship. I'm just going to make sure that Grammarly is correctly set up for LinkedIn. Check for writing suggestions on LinkedIn on. So I'm going to write a message to Ellie because I'm interested in hearing her experience. Hi Ellie, say something nice about them. I came across your profile and loved checking out your portfolio. I'm going to tell her a little bit about myself. I'm a new grad trying to transition into UX design and saw that you also have a background in psychology. So I'm trying to find something that we have in common and then I get straight to the point of why I want to connect with her. I'd love to hear about your experience working as a designer and how you made the pivot into UX. Let me know if you're available for to hop on a 30 minute call next week. So I timeboxed it so that she knows exactly how much time she needs to give me which will make it easier for her to say yes. And I also gave her a rough timeline so that she can actually check her schedule and get back to me with her availability. Then I'll end it with I'd really appreciate your time and looking forward to connecting. And then let's say I'm looking specifically for some feedback on my portfolio or maybe my resume. I see that we have a lot of mutual connections as well. So that's our common ground. I'm going to use a smiley face. Some people might say you don't ever want to use smiley faces when you're connecting with people professionally but I don't know. I think it adds a little bit of a human touch. I'm looking to transition into UX design and wanted to get some feedback on my portfolio. It's very clear what you're looking for. I really like the way you explained your design decisions. So again you're saying something nice about what they can offer you and what they're good at on your case studies. And would love to hear your thoughts on how I can improve. Especially in the design world I feel like people really appreciate it when you're eager to learn and you're eager to grow. So that's why I added the improve. I'm gonna link my portfolio so that she doesn't have to ask me for my portfolio when she replies back. She can just check it out herself. So Grammarly is suggesting I really like the way. I really like how. Yeah I do like how the word how makes the sentence more concise. Looking good. Now for referrals. So the reason why I didn't really start off with complimenting them is because for referrals you just want to get straight to the point like what you're looking for. Because most people are likely to refer you because they're also getting a referral bonus. So you don't have to sugarcoat it. You just send them your profile and like your resume and if they think you're a good fit they'll be happy to refer you. So I could say I was wondering if you'd be able to refer me for the position but since in this case I have zero connections with this person so I want to be mindful that they might not feel comfortable. Oh it's important to specify what role you're exactly looking for. You want to minimize all the back and forth that might happen. So here's my portfolio so they can check you out and attached is my resume in case you wanted to check out my work. So that way they have a little bit more context as to who you are and how competent you are. Otherwise they might just pass on you because you have given them no background of who you are in terms of your skill set. So again here even if they're not comfortable referring you maybe you can get some feedback which is good for you anyway. Oh it seems that you are missing a comma. I like this. Great. Most people get referral bonuses anywhere between $2,000 to $5,000 so even if you don't have any mutual connections it's very likely that they'll be happy to refer you but just make sure that your resume and portfolio are really good because if your profile is good they'll be more than happy to vouch for you because they also want that extra cash. Tip number three. Do your homework and be proactive. When I'm talking about homework I'm talking about the work that you should do up front to make it easier for the other person that you reached out to. So if you're looking for informational interviews you should write out a list of questions that you'll ask during the phone call or the video chat to make it easier for the other person to just follow along and answer your questions. It also feels like you're the one driving the conversation so you'll look more confident and it's just going to be a much smoother time with less awkward silences and be proactive about locking down that date and time for the phone call and the video chat. So if you're the one reaching out you should be the one making it super easy for them to get a reminder that the phone call is coming up they can just go to the calendar invite they'll know your phone number and make it even easier by saying hey I will call you at this time what's your phone number. All they have to do is tell them your phone number and you will do the call so if they forget you're not just waiting on them wondering what happened you already have their number so you can be the one reaching out. Tip number four this is probably one of the most crucial tips that most people forget to do follow-ups. Let's say that you reach out to this person and they don't get back to you after a week or so do a follow-up just say hey so and so hope you had a great week just circling back on my previous message I hope to connect with you thanks. Send them a little ping because a lot of people are super busy they might not check their and don't take their lack of response personally if they don't get back to you after the second ping just move on you don't have to be hung up about this one person who's not replying to you reach out to another person there are so many people to connect with after your phone call or your initial video chat send a short thank you message this needs to be done within the first two days just say something like hey I really appreciated your time what you shared was super helpful that's it. A small little thank you note can really go a long way it's such low effort but so many people don't do follow-up thank yous and when you do it you'll really stand out and they'll also appreciate that you appreciated their time because everyone's busy right everyone has something to do they could have grabbed coffee with their friends or I guess in the quarantine world they could have Netflix but they ended up chatting with you so you should thank them and you will stand out. One last thing I want to mention is I know there's been some articles about how weak connections will get you the next job that is not worth relying on strong connections and developing deep relationships and I actually really disagree with this mentality because what will get you the job is your skill set put that time and energy not into maintaining these weak connections and acquaintances but put that time and energy into developing your skill set because once you have a really great portfolio your resume looks great that's going to be the foundation in which you connect with others professionally they will see that wow Christine is such a great designer I really want my team to hire her that's going to be the reason that they vouch for you not that you guys just happen to know each other and lastly don't stress out I know that networking can be very stressful and you can get self conscious by reaching out to strangers they might think you're creepy but if you follow these tips you will have a lot easier time networking with people and not being stressed out even if you're an introvert and I will see you in my next video.