by George Webb
RCEL Industry Relations Director
“Coronavirus Brings Business Networking to a Standstill” – or so The Wall Street Journal declared in early April, as communities across the United States entered various forms of lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the headline isn’t true. Professional networking has not stopped at all; it has simply shifted gears. While business lunches and happy hours are no longer on the calendar, opportunities for networking are as available as ever.
The keys to successful networking remain the same:
- Focus on others, not yourself. The best way to get someone to take interest in you is to take interest in them. When connecting with a professional peer, ask what they are working on, what their goals are, what challenges their company is facing. When connecting with someone more experienced, ask them what they do, how they got there, what they enjoy about their career. None of these topics are of immediate benefit to you – but immediate benefit is not the point; creating a relationship is.
- Understand that it takes time.Sooner or later, everyone changes jobs, and a strong network is a powerful asset when the time comes. But networking is not job-hunting. Networking is the long-term process of creating and maintaining relationships. As your career progresses, successful job-hunting will almost always involve using your network to uncover opportunities. But building the network comes first, and a professional network takes time to build.
With these principles in mind, you can take advantage of a variety of networking tools that can be especially useful during the present pandemic:
- Text messaging: Social lockdown is an excellent time to send simple notes to people you know, just to say hello. Short is good; here’s an example: “Joe: this is George Webb from Rice. I thought I’d reach out in this quarantine and just say hello. I hope you’re doing OK.”
- Online events: Professional societies, alumni groups and other organizations that used to have in-person meetings and mixers are now having online meet-ups instead. Of course the online format does not allow for quite the same interaction and may not be as much fun. On the other hand, an online meet-up makes it easy to take notes on particular people to follow up with. You can jot down things they say, where they work – even capture their picture with a screen shot. To make the connection, you can follow up afterward via email or a LinkedIn message, and you can also send them a note during the meet-up, using the chat feature. Again, short is good: “Jill: George Webb from Rice. I was impressed by your comments and I’d like to learn more from your perspective. Can we connect by email? Mine is gwebb@rice.edu. Thanks.”
In fairness, The Wall Street Journalis an excellent newspaper. But they got this one wrong: people may not be gathering in person, but networking is alive and well.
In Part II, we’ll discuss networking tools that can extend your reach and help build your brand during the pandemic.
George Webb, RCEL’s Industry Relations Directors, is a Rice alum (BSEE ’88, MEE ’91) and a past president of Rice Engineering Alumni. If you have any questions or would like some assistance in professional networking, please contact George at (713) 348-2704 or gwebb@rice.edu.
Presented by RCEL faculty, the RCEL Tip Tuesday Series addresses a variety of topics applicable to young engineering leaders, and encourages them to learn more and improve.