Practical tips to build connections, write better messages, and grow your career

- Welcome, premium members. We've got Cassio in Brazil, there's Darren in Montana, we've got Jarret in Canada, Amy in Pennsylvania, Adisa in California, and me, I am Jessi Hempel. I am host of LinkedIn's flagship podcast, Hello Monday. I'm a Senior Editor at Large here at LinkedIn. And today we have a LinkedIn career expert. We have Andrew McCaskill with us. Now we're going to talk about a much requested topic, networking. We will cover the biggest pain points around networking, like how to make networking feel natural, tips for crafting LinkedIn messages that actually get responses, strategies for keeping connections warm, networking with recruiters, and so much more, in fact, you are going to bring the questions. That's right, you. So if you are listening, get your questions into the chat early because we are a packed house. Now, before we get to the conversation, I want to remind everyone that a replay of today's show can be found on this page following the event. Okay, let's get to it. Welcome, Drew. - Thanks for having me. This is fun already. - It's great to have you in the studio. It's great. And I really do consider you a networking expert. - Thank you. - So let's dive right in. We're going to be really practical here. How about maybe we want to begin with some easy ways to begin to think about how we make networking a part of our daily routine. - Sure. I mean, one of the things that we do with networking is that we put it in the too hard pile. We make it so much harder than it actually is. We forget about the fact that your network, particularly your professional network, is really just a group of people who are rooting for you to win. And you can find those folks in your family, you can find those folks at jobs where you used to work, in your community where you volunteered. Think of it not so much as like just a look forward of all the people I have to go out and meet, you have to also think about your network and how all of the people that you've met previously are potentially part of your network too, you just have to activate them, right? And bring them in and invite them in. - So right now, you have a network, no matter who you are. - No matter who you are, no matter what other, what your jobs have been previously, you have a network, right? Just because maybe you didn't go to university, right? Or you didn't go to a traditional four-year institution, you still have people that you've worked with and worked for and worked alongside who have seen your skills in action, they know what your personality is, they have a feel like that they could call you and ask you a solid question about what you've done previously, that person is a part of your network, you just now have to activate them. - Well, listen, we're going to get into so much of that, and I want to bring some member questions in. But before I do that, just a quick shout out to Dave in Ontario, Mark in the UK, Jean Francois in France, Magali in Belgium, Leah in Ireland. We are such a global group of folks. And you know, we've asked some questions of the audience. We actually want to hear from you too. I mean, you are, by virtue of your being part of this conversation, invested in networking. So how often do you make time for networking? Love to hear the answers, get a sense of what the community here does, so drop your thoughts in the chat on that. But this is a question that comes from David Dust in Nebraska. - Okay. I love Nebraska. - Right? So David asks, for someone who's not the best at kick-starting conversations, what are some techniques to help break the ice and open up dialogue when networking? - Okay, so there's one thing that I think is super, super helpful if you're not really good at that sort of blank sheet of paper or that blank open email, right? Is look, especially if you're on LinkedIn and there's people that you want to, in introduction to, or maybe you want to meet, think about getting a warm introduction from someone that you already do have a strong relationship with, or a friendly relationship and say, hey, you know Jessi, I would love an introduction to her. Here's what I'd like to, you know, kind of build out my network or why I would like her to be a part of my network. And if you know me and I say, hey, I'd love to introduce you to someone, you're much more likely to engage that person and then you now have expanded that network. So a warm introduction is always super, super helpful. - I love that. And Drew, what I love about that is the specificity of that ask, right? You know Jessi, here is how I think this relationship will benefit me and Jessi. Are you willing to make the ask? - And you said two things there that are really important, I want to really hone in on 'em, is reciprocity and specificity. Busy people need specificity. So the best way to get like an introduction kind of tossed in the old proverbial trash can is to ask somebody to pick their brain. - Oh, I hate that word. - 'Cause people oftentimes just don't know what to do with that, right? So, but if you, if someone reaches out to me and they're really specific, they say, hey, Drew, you used to work in media, now you work in technology. I'm really interested in a career pivot that's similar to one that you've had. I know how to help you. I know that I'm the right person to help you. Or if I know someone who may be even a better fit to help you, I'm more willing to open up my network and say, hey, this person needs something specific that you can help them with. Busy people need specificity. So think about that as you're building out your network all the time. And then the other thing I think is really important is that you have to sort of like, when you're looking at that I'm building out my network, all of those the little things also matter. So when you layer in that bit of specificity, you layer in that part of the conversation where I kind of recognize the other person who's asking me for this, you're winning. - Yeah. I love that. Listen, this question comes from Claire in England who is curious about the size of networks. And I love how she frames this one. She says, is there such a thing as growing your network too much and being connected with too many people? Should there be a limit? Or should I be picky? And here, I just want to say, Drew, we're talking about LinkedIn, connections on LinkedIn, but we're also talking more broadly in the world. How much is too much? - I think that based on where you can actually manage your network, like there's going to be people who are part of your network on, say, LinkedIn or in your network sort of writ large that you may not have a lot of contact with, it's just the nature of networking. There may be people on the outer edges of your network that you only engage at certain points, right? When you have something that you want to specifically share with them, or something that you think that you might need from them and you engage them, there are other people who are, as you get closer and closer to your inner circle, that you may engage with more. So I think that your network is, it doesn't, you can have a million contacts and then you never engage with 90% of them. But I do think that there will come a time where you have to prune your network. There will be people who maybe your values no longer match, that maybe you don't want to have as much connection to, then that becomes more obvious in terms of that. So you can and should sometimes prune your network, but usually, larger networks are more beneficial. - Well, you know, Claire uses the term "limits," but it feels to me, Claire, like maybe the better word here is "boundaries." - Boundaries. Absolutely. - Okay, I want to dive into a question that comes from Patricia right here in New York in the US About remote work. Because folks, this comes up so much, right? What are tips for networking when you are working remotely? - I think you have to be incredibly intentional when you're working remotely, right? I think that now in particular, so many people want hybrid work or remote work. And the opportunities are fewer and farther between. Roughly only about 9% of the opportunities on LinkedIn are remote. But yet that 9% gets about 40% of the applications that are active. People really want remote work. - They're hard jobs to get. - They're hard jobs to get. And then the thing I think that if you're trying to network in that moment is you've got to be really intentional. So when there are opportunities for you to engage your teammates IRL, in real life, as we say, build in time on those visits to where you can actually engage with the team and build up some of that sort of relationship equity when you have IRL or in real life opportunities. If you're not having many of those, one of the things you can do is just set up time to say, hey, I'm going to dedicate and hour every week to building my network with people at the office or people in my industry right? Having a coffee chat with someone, having someone who's identifying people who are in your industry or in a similar role or in your company to say, hey, I'd just like to have a conversation. Want to sort of do a little get to know you. Talk a little bit about what's not on our LinkedIn profiles or what's not on our plates at work, but what maybe our ambitions are, or how we got into the roles where we are today. Those things really matter, and that if you build up over time and you plan for it, it'll be super, super helpful. - I love that. Hey, I just wanted to circle back to the question that we asked all of you, which is how often you make time for networking? Because wow, you all had a lot of really great answers. We heard from Lavandula who says, still working on making time for it. Keep working on it. - Keep working. - Rick, on the other end of the spectrum, says many times a day, constantly, Rick, I bet that's why you're here. We've got Kutemba who says, I check daily, more or less about three times a week. Jennifer says, right now, three-ish times a week proactively, and then daily seizing opportunities that show up. Lauren says, daily. The relationship economy is the best insurance to your career, regardless of level. Lauren, I want to put that on a mug. That's exactly right, right? And what I love about this is the diversity of responses. No one's doing it wrong, right? The idea here is that you're being intentional in how you think about it. Now, let's move on to another topic. I want to talk about strategies for finding the right people to connect with, right? 'Cause it's not about how many, it's about making sure that you can access the right connections at the right time. Do you have any thoughts about how we do that? - Yeah. So when I start to think about networking, the first thing I think what's your home base and how your home base of your network, right? Of your professional community of people who are rooting for you to win. I like to think of my home base of the tightest part of my network as my personal board of directors. These are folks that I can talk to, I can say, this is how much my offer letter was, is what do you think about that? I want to negotiate for this. Or hey, at what point should I talk to my manager about the fact that I'm family planning and we're pregnant, right? Or like all of those things, like your personal board of directors are that core group of people that is the ask me anything folks, right? It's when I asked one of the guys on my personal board of directors one time, I said, hey, I got all of the HBCU interns this summer to mentor. You think that's because I'm Black? And then he was like, absolutely, that's because you're Black. And here's how you're going to work that. Here's how you make sure that they have a great experience, right? So your personal board of directors is there to give you context and confidence in how you move through the world. - Those questions you can ask anyone. - The questions that you can't ask anybody else, but you can ask them, and you know you'll get a great answer. So I'd say, look at that core group of people. And most of us have that. We call 'em different things. and take your cues for how you build out your network on people that have those similar qualities, and you start to build out from there. Like I think if you think about your networks intentionally, again, those people who are rooting for you to win, but you also think about people that I also have something to offer to as well, right? And once you think about the reciprocity in that relationship, it really opens the door for you to have a true relationship with the people in your network. And the tentacles get longer and larger because they're saying, Jessi, I would love for you to meet Jill. Or Jill, I would love-- - They are proactively creating your network for you. - Absolutely. - You know, this idea of a personal board of directors, it comes up with almost every powerful person I know. We just had Melinda Gates in the studio, and she was talking about-- - I love that interview, by the way. - She was talking about the importance of a personal board of directors. I'm going to ask the audience here once again, another question for you all. How do you find the right people to connect with? Get your answers into the chat. While you are populating that, I want to come to a question from Aline Durbe. - Okay. - In the United Arab Emirates. Aline says, what's the most effective way to network on LinkedIn when you are transitioning to a new industry? - Yeah. I think there are a couple things that you can do. Start to follow companies in that industry. Start to follow some of, follow them on LinkedIn. You can follow some of the professional organizations for that industry. That'll give you a lot of insight to what's happening in those groups. It'll give you insight into what the news is in the industry, how you should think about the industry. It'll help you keep your finger on the pulse of what's going on there. Then I would say after you begin to identify leaders or executives in those industries as well, you will always be able to look and see kind of what's around the corner for that industry. And that way when, if you're thinking about, hey, I'm going to pivot to this industry, here are the companies that are leaders there. Who do I know in any of these companies. So you're much more likely to get a job at a company if you know just one person there. Does not have to be your work bestie, doesn't have to be somebody that you have that, you know, you've really hung out with a long time, that's the power of networks. Sometimes just knowing someone and having access to that person and information will help you in your job search or your career search. But being able to follow companies, follow the news, follow the leaders in that space will make you so much smarter about the space and give you so much more just sort of organic intel, and it'll give you confidence as you start to look for opportunities. - You know, so many of the people who are in our community today are people who are actively searching for new opportunities. Maybe they're employed but looking around, maybe they are unemployed. This actually is a question that comes from Craig Godfrey in New Jersey. Thank you, Craig, for putting this. Craig asks for best ideas for networking for those who are unemployed, and I want to attach something to it. I want your thoughts on networking specifically with recruiters. - Yeah. So here's one of the things I think. Recruiters are incredibly overwhelmed, right? And so it goes back to the specificity and the relevance And when you're reaching out to a recruiter, I think if a recruiter, if you've identified that a recruiter is someone who has a open role that you may be interested in, if you want to engage that recruiter, 'cause oftentimes those recruiters will be available on LinkedIn, you can reach out to them directly is what can I do to make this an easy conversation for this recruiter? Should I link a couple of my references in my note to that recruiter? Should I make sure that I have identified what my superpowers are and the skills that match up against the opportunity that this recruiter's recruiting for? What we know for sure is that about 50% of, more than 50% of recruiters are using skills to source talent. So if you understand what the skills are necessary for a role or an opportunity that that recruiter may have open, or that if you know that these are recruiters who are recruiting for the line of work that I do, these are recruiters that I've identified are recruiters for communications, for instance, I'm going to make sure that I am engaging them and talking to them about my skills for roles that they may be hiring for. So if you're strategic and you're specific and you're helpful to that recruiter, you make their day or their, or make the possibility of them engaging you even easier, that's how you win with a recruiter. - Okay. I love that. In just a second, I'm going to ask you about how AI can be a tool for this as we get into it. But before I get there-- - Especially for premium users, there's some great ones. - Right? But before we get there, I actually want to go back to the question I asked all of you, which is, how do you find the right people to connect to? Gisha says through interactions, and that is the answer that I love. It's that simple, right? JR says, I focus on networking with people I have something or someone in common with. Exactly, right? And then Jenny says, mostly I connect with med tech, med device connections. I tend to stay in my industry. Should I broaden my network to other industries? - I love that question because absolutely, yes, you should. I think that it's great to have a plan for how you're going to really engage and get to know people in your industry in your space. But you never know when you might want or need to pivot. You also are thinking of, have to think about it a little bit about, okay, this is how I'm networking for very specific jobs and opportunities that I'm looking for. But I'm also thinking about how not everybody's job gives them the opportunity to do to give back or do things that are closely tied to their personal values and things like that. There may be come the time where you want to branch out and use your network to help you identify opportunities for community impact or opportunities to be more engaged in other aspects in civil engagement or civic engagement. You never know what you might need your network for, and having a professional network of people that you can ask great questions to, even outside of what you do every single day could still be important. Diversity in your network. We don't talk about it enough. And that diversity is definitely the diversity that you can see, right? 92% of the population growth in that has happened in this country in the last 20 years has come from communities of color. So everyone should have like diversity in their professional networks. I think it makes your network stronger. But you also have to think about a little bit around diversity in terms of industry and community and role in that as well. I think that oftentimes we get locked into thinking about, I've got to network up. It's this thing, I think that they, that in college and universities, that we get ingrained in our head. It's like, if we got to network up to the ivory tower and they're going to tell us something amazing and it's going to come down on tablets, right? We should be peer to peer mentoring. There's so many things that your peers can share with you and that you can learn from them from your wins as well as your losses, right? And information share across the board that will be incredibly helpful to you. So diversity in terms of identity, is really important. Particularly for people of color, I think it's really important to, we often have smaller and more homogenous networks. And I think it's really important for us to be intentional about having racial, ethnic, and gender diversity and orientation diversity in our networks. It makes us stronger professionals, and it makes our networks stronger. - I love that. Now I want to circle back to the question of how AI can be a tool for us as we're brokering these relationships. - Yeah. One of the things I love is to put like my opening salvo, if I'm doing a cold introduction or a cold outreach to someone, I'll use the AI tool, and there's AI tools in, embedded in LinkedIn to help you do this, and particularly if you're using premium as well, to help me refine this a little bit, make it more succinct, right? I like to use AI tools to give me a little bit of a rewrite. Sometimes I take what it gives me. Sometimes I say, mine is way better, you know? But you've got something to juxtapose it to. I think also you can start to think about too is like when you're looking at how can I use artificial intelligence to like make my networking better? You can also use artificial intelligence to do things like, say, where are, if I had to get a job in this industry, what are the best companies for me to look at? You can use AI tools to help you tell you that, and then identify those companies and say, oh, maybe I should make an introduction to someone at each of these companies, right? There's tons of ways where you can use really strong prompt engineering to make your game plan or your strategy for networking the all the better. - I love that. I think about the way in which, let's say you and I are meeting for the first time, and I'm looking for the areas of commonality with you. You know, it's going to be pretty difficult for me to get to the best areas quickly, but AI can often help us with that. So I feed my bio in my LinkedIn profile to AI and say, what is the most unusual thing I have in common with Drew? And it says, well, did you know that you both have spent a lot of time in Mississippi? And suddenly-- - And suddenly we have a new connection. - New connection. I love that. - Listen, I'm going to move us on. But folks, if you want us to come back to that, you just tell us in the comments, we will. - We'll go back. - So we're moving on to the third topic, which is connected. It's how we write LinkedIn messages that actually get responses, okay? So this is a question that comes from Damian Lawson in England. Using outreach is okay, but are there messaging tips that help us grab attention? - Sure. I think one of the things is if you've met someone in at a conference or you met them in actually in real life, always think of how something that you can reference from when you met, right? Even if it's maybe the color that they were wearing that day. I think that one of the things that, one of the mistakes that we'll sometimes make is that we'll say to someone, hey, I'm going to reach out to you when I get back to my desk or back to my computer, if we meet someone in real life. A trick that I learned from sales guys when I was much younger, much younger, is immediately, when you meet someone, remember at least one detail about what your conversation was and reference that when you reach out to them the second time, right? And so now maybe you have never met this person in real life, just actual just cold introduction. Look through their, to your point about AI, look through their LinkedIn profile. Are there any similarities that you can point out that will help with the specificity and the relevance that you use in other ways, right? If it's an actual cold call, that's when your specificity then comes in. Maybe you don't have a lot of things in common. Maybe you don't have a person in common. Usually you do have at least something. But if you don't, that's when it gets to be very specific about, hey, I know that you were in this industry or you worked here at this company. I'm so interested in your experience working there. Would love to have a conversation about that at any time, XYZ time. - I love that. We have so many folks with us today. Thank you to Audrey in Idaho for joining us. Michael in Indiana, Denise in Maryland, Ricardo in Portugal, Nicole in Canada. And this question comes from Sayed in India. What's one unconventional yet effective LinkedIn networking strategy that most people just overlook, especially when trying to build genuine connections? Yeah, I think though, one of the things that people overlook is they don't go back into their past. They don't go back and engage people at previous companies. They don't go back and engage people at university or in their alumni associations. If you're thinking about, hey, out of work for the first time in a very long time. I'm a journalist. I want, I may be am going to connect with my alumni association from my university and ask them, hey, I want to connect with maybe five other journalists who have the exact same degree that I have. And that commonality go so far, right? - It really does. - So actually, great careers are team sports. Nobody does any of this alone. So thinking about who are people who would be, who are most likely to be willing to join my team? And that's people that you have some shared experience with. Shared company, former companies, shared, maybe even people from your community or maybe people you've gone to church with. Your group chat of your friends who you talk about everything with, oftentimes people who are in your immediate friend group could not put their finger exactly on what you do. - Oh, it's so true. - No matter how successful you are, they don't know exactly what you do. And some of, and the people that you already have a relationship with, are some of your best emissaries out into the world. But you have to help them help you. You've got to tell them, hey, I'm looking, here's what I'm looking for. If you run into someone who's in that industry, here's what I'd love for you to say about me, right? People don't oftentimes know I lost a job opportunity one time because a friend of mine said, oh, I don't think you guys would pay enough for him. And I was like, yes, they will. - I just want to say here that, not to plug it too much, but this is actually where AI becomes my friend again. Because I have that moment where I think, oh gosh. I talk to Maria all the time in my group chat. She's a mom friend of mine. I know she's a lawyer at that firm. I really kind of have no idea what she does. But now I'm out of work, what am I going to talk to her about? ChatGPT, Microsoft Co-pilot, whatever it is that you can pull up free online is your frontier. You say, here's Marie, what should I talk to her about? What are three questions I could ask her that would be useful for me to know right now? And I'd be surprised how great the answers are. Now, are there other ways that you might use a ChatGPT or a Copilot, Claude? It really, by the way, I'm not plugging one, Drew, because anything that you can pull up for free is going to give you something compelling. - It's going to give you a ton of compelling things. I think one of the things you can do is put your own content into those, into those tools and say, what do you think my superpowers are reading this, right? What do you think my top talents are reading this? And if it comes back as something that you hadn't anticipated or not how you had planned on presenting yourself, that's a really good red flag to go back into the lab and start to work on it. I think using it as a checkpoint for your talk track when you're thinking about interviewing or how you respond to an interview question, or just using it to gut check what you present to the world, either how you show up on your resume or how you show up online, putting those things into those, into those tools can give you a really great readout and it can actually help you shift your strategy. - Right, and I just want to say here, Drew and I are not experts at this any more than anyone else. My guess is a lot of you all are using these tools in interesting ways too. You should share how you're using them on LinkedIn and tag us. In honesty, I actually would like to know. There are so many creative ways we can use them. Now I want to talk more about how we revive these older relationships. That you were talking about, right? Because you are right. Like so many of the next opportunities, they're not going to come from the people that we know most in our careers every single day. They're going to come from those loose ties. What do we do about that person from the first job that I really haven't called in 15 years feeling nervous? - LinkedIn has done a couple of things that will help you with that too, 'cause we've got on our network, on my network tab, we've got the grow and we've got a a tab that will help you to like get back in touch with someone. So when people have a birthday or they get a promotion or any sort of milestone in their career, that LinkedIn, you can look at the grow tabs or you can look them network tabs and it'll give you little prompts to help you just reach out and say hello. Those are really good for people who are really starting to say, I want to start to rebuild and sort of regroup with my network. So use some of those prompts and those things like that as idea starters for how you would re-engage people in your old network. If you're connected with them on LinkedIn or if you found them on LinkedIn, a great headline, it will always be a reference to and that company where you worked. So remember when we were doing the fries at Chick-fil-A in 19, you know, 99 in Atlanta? Or whatever that is that will like, who knows me from that part of my life? Or it could be like, hey, Andrew McCaskill from your days at Coca-Cola for the simple headline and then say, hey, I'm reaching out, it's been 10 years or 20 years. I'd love to reconnect. Here's what I've been doing now. Would love to just connect and catch up maybe on a virtual coffee, or if we're in the same city, maybe a lunch or something like that. It doesn't have to be a big moment. It could just be a, hey, I want to say hello and make sure we're back on each other's radar. Would love to catch up soon. - Yeah, totally. I love that. Okay, this question comes from (indistinct) in California who says, how can you keep the conversation going after connecting? Any tips for maintaining the priority connections beyond a simple congrats on a LinkedIn post? - Yeah. I think that when you're engaging in the beginning, try to not make the engagement just about what you want from them, try to figure out a way that you can listen to them and hear a little bit about what they're interested in, what's going on in their career, and their lives right now. When you make that next sort of outreach to them, make your next bit of outreach something that they would be interested in. I read this and thought about you, just lobbing it over. Or how did the next meeting with, you know, your manager go. I think the reciprocity is how you keep it going. Being really interested in the other things about that other person gives you the fodder to keep the relationship going. And I will say this, that networking relationships matter. And so there will be some that are just, that are more transactional and more surface, and that's fine. That happens in our networks. But where we get the true value of our networks is when we actually build a bit of a relationship. Even if that relationship is just a professional relationship and we're checking in on each other to support each other in our careers, or sharing information or sharing resources or just sharing the simplest of encouragement or a thank you for being a part of my network, if you have nothing else to say, thank you works every time. - And look, the other thing that I think that you are getting at without explicitly saying is that this is a long-term game. That this is not as one and done as, okay, I'll be in touch with you. Something great will come from that. That more likely, when you open the door on a relationship, you need to tend to it with all these sort of soft touches over a long period of time for it to deliver value for both the person and for you, right? - A hundred percent. And to you will get to understand how that person communicates, how they relate the more you have interactions and more you have engagement, and that relationship and relationship building, what you learn from the building of one relationship, apply it to the others that you're working on, right? Like, you should look at this as like a skill that helps you all throughout your career that you continue to invest in. - okay, so this question comes from Tori in California. Tori says to maintain a contact, how often do I need to reach out? Is there, do you have a golden rule? - I don't have a golden rule because every relationship will be different. Even in our personal lives, we have friends that we can talk to who we may talk to on the phone every other day. And then we've got friends who are just as committed to the relationship that we may talk to every other month. And when we see them, it's just like old times. You've got to kind of understand what that, what it takes to maintain that particular relationship, how much you want and have to invest in maintaining that. But I think that you, it begins when you start to say, when we talked about earlier about, you know what your boundaries and your capacity is. But you also should know what your sort of networking values are. That I'm going to outreach when I have something good or meaningful or encouraging to say, what are my values for doing? I'm going to always reach out with a mindset of reciprocity and engagement because I want it to be a two-way street. And that'll sort of guide you as a rubric for how often you reach out to folks. Because as your network gets bigger, you know, you're not going to be able to talk to every single person every week. It's just impossible. But you should have a little bit of a design on, as your network gets bigger, how can you engage in a meaningful way? And sometimes, that's just, hey, just checking in. It's been too long. Hope all is well. Simple, easy, out. - I love your focus on the values. I think that that can be such a useful tool. And if you are watching right now and you are thinking, well, I have a lot of things that I value. I don't what you're talking about. Spend some time on this. In fact, we've done full episodes of this on Hello Monday. You can go back into the archive and find them. It will serve you well. Now I have one more topic I really want to hit. And there are many of you in the comments who are about to be like, that's me. If that is you, I want you to drop a smiley face in the comments. I'm talking about introverts here. - I am not one, but I know many. - I Can tell. I can tell sitting across from you that you are not an introvert, but you are an expert at networking, which means that you have had to think a lot about how introverts can excel at it. What have you learned? - So what I've learned is that networking can be done regardless of how you like to do it, right? So you don't have to, the beauty of what we get from technology is that you don't have to go to cocktail parties and after work mixers to build a strong and useful and reciprocal network. You can sit behind your computer and have a great interaction or a great engagement with someone. And you can do it on your own terms, your own time. And you can take the time to choose your words in the exact way you would like to, right? And so I love that about the technology piece of it. And so you get a chance to be really intentional about who you're going to reach out to. You can take your time to decide how much you want to do that. I think the other thing, if you are a bit of an introvert, I always go back to your peer group and make, and having your peer group make introductions for you. I think being really strategic about who all you engage and like having, you know, almost like Santa Claus, make a list and check it twice. I think I would like to, somebody like this in my network, someone who could help me with this. I'm in the process of becoming a working father. And so they're now I identified working fathers that are doing really great in their careers that I want to meet. And I literally have made, been intentional about doing that. - I love that. Okay, this question comes from Wilmer Flores in Toronto. Says, what advice would you give to someone who has not normally networked before and is trying to get into the mindset of networking naturally all the time? I love that mindset. - I love the mindset part of it too, because I think it is of how you think about it. What I would love for Wilmer to do is to think about that this is not an old school passing of business cards kind of networking. Your professional network, your network is just a people of, a group of people who are rooting for you to win, particularly at work. And start to think about if you build out a baseline of people that you already have a really good relationship with, and just ask them to be a part of your professional community, it's really interesting. It's a really great way to do it with LinkedIn, not just 'cause I work at LinkedIn, but when you reach out to people and say, I'm going to share my LinkedIn with you, it becomes very clear that you want to have a professional interaction with them. And so that's always a great way to kind of begin that, right? So you start, you start small, everybody starts small, and then you branch out more. I would say too is that use, if you are more akin to doing things in person or having in-person meetings, almost every in-person meeting is an opportunity to build out your professional network. I was coaching young college students about how to use homecoming as an opportunity to network. And what I would say to them is like, hey, you might be at a step show, or you might be a place where there's alcohol involved, being able to say, hey, I would love to connect with you on LinkedIn, says that this is a professional connection, not a connection to go out and drink a little bit. And so that sets it apart differently. And it's opportunity for you to then say, when you get back to have another interaction with them, remind them of where you met. Oh, we met at the on-campus event for, you know, for alums or whatever that case is. All those in-person opportunities are a great way for you to solidify the relationship by having then that LinkedIn connection that layers on top of it, and it gives you a professional safe place to be able to start to expand your network and understand how to have those professional conversations to build out your network. - I love that. Okay, so this question comes from Masa in Barcelona. I'm targeting a specific company. And I've been reaching out to current employees in the role I'm interested in. Would you say this is a strategic move? - I think it's a strategic move within reason. You should absolutely follow companies where you want to work. I think that it's better if you can identify a person that you already have a relationship with in the company. Or if you can identify someone who's currently in your network who has a relationship at the company. But a cold, well-written InMail to someone who's already working at that company about, that's polite, that's curious, that's optimistic about, hey, I'm thinking about a role at this company. I'm really excited about what the possibilities could be. I'd love to have a conversation if you would be open to it about the culture or about what opportunities may be like there. I think it's going to also become one of the things where more and more people who are working in companies, I think particularly people from underrepresented groups or marginalized groups, are going to get a lot more in mails from people saying, hey, what is it like for a woman at your company? Or, hey, what is it like for an out gay man at your company? Or, hey, what is it like to be a Black woman in management in your company? Because of what's happening in our external environment, our networks are going to become even more valuable tools potentially for those of us who sit in, in spaces where we don't always know exactly if the brand extends inside the doors. - a hundred percent. Such a good point. - Our networks are going to become incredibly valuable tools on how we make big decisions about our careers and our financial stability is tied to so many of those. And your networks are going to be even greater tools for many folks to understand, is there safety in this opportunity for me? - Okay, here's a question for you that is a me question. I'm sure a lot of you all may have it, but I want your thoughts on this. The problem with cold networking for me is the turn down. It doesn't feel good. I'm scared of it. People don't get back to me, or they get back to me and they don't perceive me as important enough to meet with. It's an ego hit. I don't want to do it again. How do you deal with a no? - I think you deal with a no in networking in the same way you deal with a no when you have, you know, when you're looking for a job or a job interview. You take your hit you keep on getting, and you keep on getting up and you try again. The person that did not reach out to you, it's not necessarily even a reflection of you or your importance, it may just be a reflection of what's going on in the life of that particular person at that moment. Who knows that if in six months, you may send that exact same cold email to a person whose life has now gotten clearer, and they're like, I'd love to have a conversation with you, Jessi. You know what I mean? So I think that what you have to do is, it's hard not to do it. Don't take it personally. You think about it and say, hey, could I have tweaked this to make it a little better? And I'll think about that tweak for the next time that I send a cold email to the next person. - Okay, this question actually builds on that, Norma, and I swear I did not know you were going to ask this when I asked question to you, but Norma wants to know, okay, well, if someone doesn't respond, especially cold outreach, how many times do I reach out? - Oh, listen, I think what you don't want to do is become, go from inquisitive to stalker. - You're not going to make friends and win influence that way. - You're not going to make friends by stalking a person. I think you give it two shots and then you move on to the next person, right? We talked about that I am from Mississippi, and one of the things my grandmother used to say to me all the time, she said, oh, the God in the universe is going to use all kinds of people to bless you, honey. And and I didn't know what that meant until later. But I think about like, there will be another person who will come along and will give you incredible information after you send them a cold email. Move on to the next one. - Make room for that person. - Make room for that person. - This is our last question from the group. It comes from Robert Pearman in England. He says, should you adopt a different approach to recruiters and networking if you are in a more senior role and past the midpoint in your career? - I think you absolutely should think about networking differently if you are at a more senior level in your career. I always say that thinking about recruiters is one thing. At this point, you should never burn a bridge with a recruiter. You should treat recruiters like a person you will meet again in life, right? So I think you have to be really respectful of recruiters and treat them well, no matter what the outcome of your initial engagement of said recruiter is. The other thing, if you're more senior in your career, I think you have to start to then think about recruiting firms and executive recruiters, recruiters who are very specific to your realm. And hiring executives is rare air. So I think that you have to think about who are your peers and how your peers perceive you, how your network of peers engage you. And then think about the people who are in a position to actually put you up for a role or recommend you for a role. How are you engaging with those folks? You should still be networking and still answering notes and helping people along the way. But the way you network as an executive or someone who's in, who's positioning themselves for an executive role, it should be different. - It's an ecosystem situation. You got to think about the whole ecosystem. - You have to think about the entire, the entire ecosystem of people who have the ability to say yes and the people who influenced that decision. - Well put. Okay, folks, I have to say there are so many people on this session. The comments are on fire. - Are the comments good? - There's so much talent here. This is a sentiment that Margie from California is offering up, but I feel like it nails the spirit. I'm getting excited to connect with everyone. Please address the best way to do this. Folks, we have spent the last 45 minutes addressing the best way to do this. And we know this is a community of folks excited to be in touch with people as an avenue to further their own career paths and the career paths of the communities that they're in. So reach out, look around you. Drew, thank you so much. And thank you to everyone for joining today's event. I'd love to continue this conversation. Post on LinkedIn using the hashtag #WatchWithPremium. And while you're at it, tag me, tag Drew, tell us your key takeaways. We want to be part of that conversation. And remember, a recording of today's event will be available on this page for premium subscribers. Now, next week we have another great conversation. We'll be sharing advice on how to make your skills, your competitive advantage, whether you're actively job searching, whether you're pivoting industries, or you're planning your next move. We hope to see you then. (lively music) (lively music continues) (lively music continues) (lively music ends)