This post is inspired by Jacob Christensen, a video professional who spoke about the power of storytelling and also touched on networking. I loved what he said about developing real relationships in the field over business-only networking, both because people are going to remember, recommend, and hire someone they have a relationship with and because it’s just much more pleasant to connect with people in a genuine way. That being said, there are definitely situations where it might be appropriate to do a quick career-focused introduction to sort of ‘hook’ a person into chatting with you for networking purposes. For example, for an old job of mine, I went to a few conferences, and I felt like I was constantly needing to do a quick blurb about myself and the program I worked for as I was meeting a lot of people in a way that was sort of rapid-fire, either introducing myself in workshops or when walking around to presentation booths or when there were social events connected to the conference that I attended. It’s easy to make a connection in those situations because everyone is looking for connections already and most people are looking for someone to hang out with socially too since people have traveled alone across the country to attend the event in the first place. (This was before the pandemic…) This can also be the case when hosting a table about your work (like we might at the Portshowlio eventually), and it can even come in handy in an interview when they say “Tell us about yourself…” at the beginning. It’s like speed dating for careers. Although it’s good to have a blurb in your back pocket if needed, I think it also helps to try to make a personal connection whenever possible; it helps the other person to buy in and also provides a little platform where an actual genuine relationship can start to form down the road. So here’s a little formula that I might riff off of when doing an “elevator” introduction:
- Introduction: Hi! I’m Brigid! I’m a graphic design student at Seattle Central, which is a really exciting career pivot into creative work from the project management and science education that I was doing before.
- Intent: I’m hoping to eventually be doing some work in… [Insert the relevant topic that ties my interests to the person. Currently I’m most interested in UX related to accessibility and inclusion, experiential or environmental design (also could call this “design that builds connections between people and place” or “designing for events or immersive experiences”), and design for a social cause. I am also curious about a branding/packaging path and really about any design work that has an aspect of materiality to it in addition to the digital.]
- Connection: Insert something to directly connect to the other person here such as: “I’m so interested in the work that you’re doing on X project because…” or “So-and-so recommended that you might be a great person to get in touch with because…” etc.
- Call to Action: Ask a question about their work or knowledge or ask for what you want from them. [Examples: “Would you be up for sharing a little more about what it’s like to work for X company?” or “I am working on an accessibility-focused project right now and would love your feedback if you have time! It would be so helpful to have some input from someone who’s actively doing this work in the field.” or “I would love to get some first-hand experience related to experiential design, and my program requires an internship/special project. Do you think there could be a possibility of working with your team in some way?”]
Here’s an example recording (although hopefully in real life it would go a little more conversationally than this and I would definitely be more comfortable with asking to chat more before jumping straight to asking for an internship!):