Women of Color in Tech by Susanne Tedrick

Author:Susanne Tedrick [Tedrick, Susanne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781119633495
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2020-04-14T00:00:00+00:00

As someone who struggles with social anxiety often, I know it can be hard to turn the negative thoughts off and to use the anxiety as a reason not to attend or participate in networking events. But your career is too important to leave it to chance or to hope that someone will notice how awesome and talented you are on your skills alone. It's a competitive job market, and any way that you can help your efforts will make life easier.

Here are some strategies that may be helpful:

Put your phone on silent and put it away. You can't engage in meaningful dialogue with people if you are staring into your phone. It can also be a crutch that prevents you from interacting with people. Put your phone on Do Not Disturb, turn it off, and do whatever you need to do to keep your phone time to an absolute minimum during the event.

Bring a friend. You don't have to do this alone. Ask a friend or two to accompany you so that you won't be by yourself. You can chat with them during low points of the event, but don't stay with them all night. Make sure to move around the space where the event is being held and talk with others.

Bring several friends. There's strength in numbers! With a group of friends, you can strategize where one or two of you can go out in pairs to network and then return to your “hub” to report on your interactions. You may get a better sense of who you may want to talk to and who you may want to try to avoid.

Let your partner do most of the talking. If you are at a loss for what to say, ask other people open-ended questions. You can ask things like, “How are you enjoying this event so far?” or “What projects are you working on now?” You don't want to hammer them with questions all evening, but you'll get to learn more about the person you're talking with and ideally engage in a deeper-level discussion.

Don't feel like you must talk about tech, work, or school. You can talk about movies, television, major cultural events—it's completely up to you. Plus, if you're at an all-day event focused on one topic area, you may want to talk about an entirely different topic later in the day.

Make a networking goal. If you're someone who gets physically drained from constant networking, it may be best to set goals and pace yourself during the event. For example, at the start of the event, you could decide that you will meet one or two people. After that, you are free to do as you please for the remainder of the event.

Talk to everyone, regardless of title or position. Talk to people who truly interest you—you share common interests or hobbies or work in similar professions and can relate to each other. Don't focus on only talking to recruiters, managers, or C-level employees, as you may miss out on meeting great people.

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