Hello, and welcome to EduKatedSTEM.
I am Kate, the founder of EduKatedSTEM,
and today we're going to be talking
about networking, So sometimes you
might be qualified for the role. You might
apply for the role, but you don't even
get interviewed. And maybe if you had
utilized your network or had built a network,
you would have a completely different
outcome. So, this is one of the reasons
why I'm going to encourage you to develop,
build a network, and then nurture it so
that when you are ready to move on,
you can work with your network. Let
them know that you are looking for
another opportunity, And maybe you
can utilize them to get informational
interviews or other things. But the first
thing is, you need to network. Now, when
I mentioned that word did a chill, go
down your spine? I've had a lot of
conversations with individuals who
think networking has kind of a horrible
connotation. It's slimy. It is kind of
using people you know to get your
own way or for your own benefit.
But it goes both ways, right? So,
they're in your network. You could
potentially help them. They might
be looking for that as well. And
you're going to be building a network
of friends and colleagues. So, these
are going to be people that you want
to be connected with. You're not
going to be, hopefully meeting someone
that you don't want to be talking
to in the future, because that is going
to be uncomfortable for you. So, let's
talk about maybe networking at a
conference because, as a scientist,
this is what you're going to be doing.
Hopefully you're going to go to a
conference you're going to listen
to presentations. You're going to
learn new information. You might
present a poster, you might present
an oral presentation. And then
hopefully you're going to talk with
your peers, maybe meeting new
people. Maybe figuring out who
you might want to be working for
or with in the future. So, networking
isn't a bad thing, But I'm going to
encourage you to go in with plan.
And I've seen a number of networking
talks. At ABRCMS I saw a talk
specifically for networking for introverts,
which was very, very good, but I
thought a lot of the information
was also quite pertinent to people
who were not introverts. So I'm an
introvert. I find the concept of going
to conferences and going to networking
events. It's challenging. It really is.
But I force myself to do it because
you know, the more you do it, the
easier it becomes. And I take advice
from my friend Mary Mitchell and
she always said, when you go, just
have a goal in mind. So, if your goal
is to meet a certain person, then
that is what you try and do. If it's
to meet a certain number of people,
then you know three to five individuals
in and to have a good conversation
with them, then that is what you do.
Once you have met your your goal,
your requirement, it's then up to you
if you then choose to leave the
networking event. But hopefully
by that point, you will feel comfortable.
You've made some friends. You
might actually want to stay. When
you're going to a conference,
especially nowadays, a lot of the
time you will get information on a
conference app. so ABRCMS
definitely does that. The National
Postdoc Association does that.
And they actually use the same app.
I might completely kill the pronunciation
Whova, I'm not sure but it's a good
little app. It has a list of all of the
attendees. It has the presentations,
where they are, what the talks are.
You can go on and you can highlight.
Yes, I want to go to these presentations,
and then you have an itinerary,
and then the app can say, you know,
you've got to talk in 10 minutes in this
place, so it's very, very helpful. But
you can utilize the app to kind of
come up with a plan for what you
want to do for networking. So, maybe
there is someone in your field that
you are absolutely dying to meet.
Are they on the list of attendees?
If they are, are they speaking? If
they're speaking you absolutely
know where they're going to be
at one point of time. So you could
try and go and speak to them after
they have finished. Or maybe you
just know that they're going to be
there so, maybe you try and have
a conversation in a more relaxed
setting. So, maybe over a coffee,
or you see them at a lunch table,
and you ask if you can join them.
Whatever it is, if there are certain
people that you want to meet,
then let's try and make that happen.
Why do you want to meet them?
Maybe you want to potentially work
with them in the future. You just
want to have a chat about an
experiment or a paper that they've done.
Whatever it is. So let's focus on
what we want to get out of that.
And maybe there are other people
there who would be helpful, someone
who works at an institution that
you're interested in working at, but
not necessarily that individual.
You can have a conversation with
them and find out is it a great place
to work? Maybe you'll have a
chat to them and go. Oh, I don't
want to do that. I don't want to move
on. So look at the conference
attendees and see who you might
be interested in working for or talking
to. And the next thing is be prepared.
So, as a graduate student, you might
not have the opportunity to have
graduate sorry, to have business cards.
But maybe your graduate school
will purchase them for you. We used
to make them for our graduate students.
So that was a possibility. If not
Vistaprint or something very similar,
will make you cards for actually quite
cheap. So, I designed my business
card on Vistaprint. I think I got a
thousand of them for $25 or
something. It's really not that
expensive, and you can, you know,
put your name, an email address,
I don't put my phone number
because I don't want people
phoning me at random times.
And if you've got a website, then
put that information on there.
You could always, if you get a
obviously a smaller number of
them, you could say where you
currently are, that you're a graduate
student or a postdoc, you can
always personalize it even more
and say, you know, this is your field.
I'm looking for jobs or whatever it is.
You can pop it in there. So even
if your institution won't give you
a business card, then maybe you
can kind of get some made. You
might want to take a few copies
of your CV or resume with you.
You know if you have a particular
person that you want to meet
and you want to share your work
with them, you could always print
a copy of a paper or an abstract
or something and attempt to give
it to them. I will say that people
have tried to give me CV's, resumes,
papers in the past, and I'm gonna
be honest. You get home, and
you don't really do much with
them. Business cards, yes,
know, I have a big stack of them.
Then it's really funny because
somebody will email and be like,
Kate I met you at this conference.
We spoke, and if I can't remember
them, then I'll go through my
stack of business cards. I'm like,
did I meet you? Because if I know
that I've met you, then you know
my response is probably gonna
be more helpful. Or like, if you see
me speak and you say, Kate, I saw
your seminar on this, rather than
Kate, I want this from you. Then
obviously, I'm going to be more
helpful to the person who you
know opens up with I saw you
at this thing and I would like your
advice. So I don't know about
giving things other than a business
card. But you want their business card. If they can give you a business card that's really helpful, because then you can find them on LinkedIn. You can send them an email. And even if it's just you know it was wonderful to meet you at this meeting, I would love to stay in touch. Or if there's a question or something that you can kind of talk about following your conversation. Kind of move it on. And that's always really helpful to kind of get them into your network. Obviously, if they're at a conference and you email them that night or something, then it might take a few days for them to respond because they're really conference,