The Networking Challenge
When I landed in Toronto some three years ago, I knew it would be a difficult time. From reacquainting myself to academia to figuring out where to get a haircut — my list went on and on. But the thing I did not see coming was my struggle to build a meaningful professional network. Networking was nowhere on my mind as I was preparing to move here. In fact, it wasn’t even a part of my everyday vocabulary. And it turned out to be one of my biggest mistakes.
Why was I unprepared for Networking?
The short answer: I had no notion of professional networking.
I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from a premier engineering institute in India with 500 other students who fell into one of three categories: friends, acquaintances, and batchmates. And then there were seniors and juniors.
Thanks to the campus placement — I was never faced with the daunting task of sending out resumes to the void where resumes go to die. As I went on to work in the IT industry the people I met were either team members or colleagues. Some even became friends.
When I was looking to switch jobs or figure out a way forward in my career — I reached out to my friends, batchmates, and colleagues. And that was enough. All this while, I never once thought of them as my network.
So practically speaking, I had no notion of professional networking.
The challenges
Every conversation was difficult
As I started grad school, I found myself struggling to find topics to talk about with my classmates who were 6, 8, or 10 years younger than me. Especially with the whole environment being super competitive, striking up a conversation was intimidating. There is every possibility that this was me just overthinking. But it was what it was. I felt a strong inhibition in reaching out to anyone.
It took a while for me to realize I should be building a network
Even when I realized how important networking was, I had no idea where to start, who to turn to or where to look. Being at a top Canadian university, I had a lot of resources at my fingertips — academic advisors, TAs, professors — the list goes on. If only I had known that I could turn to them. I also noticed some of my peers were overly invested in building and protecting their connections. It somehow cast a negative shadow on the whole networking thing. And it developed a sense that I was already behind my peers.
I did not know what was expected or accepted when reaching out to someone
Am I supposed to be direct? Or do I beat around the bush? Informational interviews did not exist where I came from. So reaching out to someone just to gather information in a seemingly social setting but really being a professional connection was completely alien to me.
I was at a loss for words
What words do I say or rather write to ask someone for their time? I of course came across hundreds of templates for it. But almost all of them felt superficial and lacked genuineness. And how could they? I hardly knew anything about folks I wanted to reach out to. I wanted to be sincere in my approach. And not just present myself as a taker, but what could I give them?
I was having difficulty gauging how deep a connection should be
Once I made a few connections, I had a hard time determining how I should be treating these relationships. Up until now, my relationship knob had friend, batchmate, acquaintance, and colleague levels, but it did not have a professional network level. How often should I talk to them? Do I keep the conversations strictly work or school-related? Is it okay to ask for details about what they are currently working on? Are hobbies okay? Can I ask them about family?
How to keep a connection alive after the first conversation?
Some of the advice I came across suggested I occasionally send messages on LinkedIn. But what should it say? “Hello! How are you?” every few weeks. That does not feel sincere.
I was especially struggling when it came to maintaining relationships where I had worked with someone closely for a short time. How do I reach out to them after the project ends?
Overcoming the challenges
I wish I could say I have overcome all these challenges. I certainly haven’t! But here is how I started:
Testing the messages
Even though I did not like the templates I found online, I had to start somewhere. I aimed to send out a fixed number of LinkedIn messages every day. I would tweak the message a little and which ones performed better. Finally, I landed at a few different ones that worked the best.
Message depends on the role
A message that worked for junior to mid-level folks will not work for seniors or managers. In-house recruiters respond differently than those working at a recruitment agency. I learned this as I was testing my messages.
Look for folks who want to mentor
I learned that the professionals who are open to mentoring and giving their time will respond no matter what I say. It’s so much more effective to find such people than to spend time messaging random folks. Platforms like the ADP list are a good place to start.
Solutions or support I wish I had
Professional Networking 101 class
Someone laying out the basics of networking in my current context. Things like what is expected and accepted. Walking me through professional networking etiquette. Basically answering all the questions I listed in this article and more.
Tools such as Leapon
Of course, I wasn’t the only one in my class struggling with this. A friend and classmate, Nikhil Pawar did more than just acknowledge the problem. He is building a solution to support professionals like me in overcoming the networking challenge — Leapon.
Here are some ways Leapon could have helped me to manage and grow my professional network:
- Organize my connections: When I learned that I should be interacting with recruiters and managers differently, I wished there was a way I could put my connections into categories.
- A central location to track all interactions: I was utilizing different channels for communicating even with the same person — LinkedIn messages, email, phone call. As I was interacting with several people at once, it became a challenge to remember all the key information.
- Reminders and next steps: I take pride in my ability to pay attention to detail and it is a virtue I want to showcase to my connections. But interacting with several people simultaneously meant I was missing a few deadlines. There were a few instances where my connections followed up with me because they did not receive a response in time. So a solution that can automate managing deadlines would go a long way.
Leapon provides solutions for all these problems in a single platform to alleviate logistical frictions of managing professional connections.
