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How to network 101

How to network 101

A lot of people say networking is important.

And also a lot of people despise the concept of networking.

So did I.

I allowed this to lead my actions for a long time and did not connect with people I didn't know - especially not on the internet.

It wasn't until years later that I reframed the networking concept in my mind and made it manageable and less futile.

But first, let me paint the picture of where not-networking got me.

(Feel free to scroll down to the step-by-step networking guide below for the actionable part of the article).

Where not-networking got me

During my time studying biomedical sciences, I fell in love with three topics: gut microbiota, epigenetics and personalised nutrition.

Gut microbiota are the bacteria that live in our gut (trillions of them) and modulate our health by affecting the immune system, producing essential vitamins and influencing our mood, among other functions. The second, probably lesser-known topic, epigenetics, is a study of how our environment affects gene expression.

And they share two common denominators: they are both incredibly cool (although that must depend on your definition of 'cool') and are influenced by what we eat. Which leads us to the third topic - personalised nutrition - which is about the fact that different people may respond differently to the same food. For example, I might tolerate carbs (bread, pasta, oats etc) very well, while you may not.

The bottom line is that it fascinated me that nutrition can have such a profound impact on our biology: that it can be a friend or a foe to our gut microbiome, impact us on as fundamental level as gene expression, and induce body responses that are unique to you.

I wanted to learn all about it. And figured the best way to deepen my understanding was to pursue a nutrition degree and career.

In the process, I didn't consider a couple of important questions:

  • If I am interested in a topic, does it immediately mean that pursuing it would be a path for me?
  • What does the study of nutrition entail and does it suit my preferences?
  • What alternatives to nutrition would allow me to explore these topics?
  • What different paths can nutritionists take and would any of them suit my inclinations? What am I actually looking for in a job?
  • What would be my return on investment if I chose this career path?
  • The list goes on.

So a few years and GBP 12K later, after I had completed a Masters in nutrition and worked as a nutritionist for over a year, I came to the realisation that the answers to the above questions were 1) no, 2) no, 3) many, 4) no + I don't know and 5) not much.

So, I knew it was time for a change. But I wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice and get into something uninformed, only to later realise that my assumptions were flawed.

I began my transition with the exercise I described in this article. Through the reflections on my past, present and future, I came to conclusions that ultimately led to entrepreneurship.

I wanted to make a step in that direction and after considering a couple of options, I landed on strategy consulting. But I needed to verify my assumptions.

The least time-consuming and most representative way to do that was to speak to strategy consultants. But there was one problem - I knew only one or two and this wasn’t a large enough sample to make informed decisions.

So, I started reaching out to people. People I didn’t know and, most of the time, didn’t have any connections with.

And to my surprise - they answered.

Long story short, in the span of 2 months I spoke to over 50 strategy consultants, who helped me drill down what the job is about, helped me become aware of the upsides, prepared me for the downsides and made me understand if consulting would fit my long-term plan.

As a bonus, I learned about the differences between consulting firms, which I could then use in my motivation letters. In the process, I also got referred to 8 companies (including 2 MBBs and 2 Big4s).

Below is a step-by-step guide that will help you get out of your head and into the world to validate your assumptions. And much more.

Let's get into it.

Step-by-step guide to networking

1) Set an objective

First, we need to set an objective to frame our project and give it clear direction.

If you’re connecting with people to get an understanding of which job would even be suitable for you, you will approach it differently than if you’ve decided you want to get into a specific profession and you are choosing between companies.

So, take a brief moment to write down the result you would like to achieve with this exercise.

Depending on your objective, the following steps will be relevant for you:

2) Lay the groundwork

Next, I suggest optimising the platform you will use to reach out to people.

Like it or not, first impressions count. If you have not met a person before, the only way for them to understand if speaking to you is worth their time is through what you post about yourself on the internet.

You can look up online articles/YouTube videos on optimising your profile. Generally speaking, a good one would:

  • be up to date with your most recent accomplishments/activities
  • contain a short description about you: what you do, where you are heading, etc
  • include a photo of yourself (well-lit, suited to the context etc).

3) Choose the jobs you would like to know more about

If you have yet to identify the jobs you wish to explore, list all of the ones you have ever considered or simply want to know more about.

Alternatively, if you're looking for a more thorough and systematic way of approaching this, you can go through the exercises I propose in this article (this will take much longer but is worth it, imo).

4) Prepare templates

You want to be as efficient as possible and if you're going to reach out to 10s of people over a couple months, it would be a waste of time to start your messages from scratch each time.

That isn't to say that you shouldn't personalise your message. But we can still create a reusable template to tailor to each person.

In terms of the format, make sure to be concise and to the point or else you won't get anyone's attention and/or won't fit into the word limitations imposed on certain platforms (like LinkedIn). I suggest not going above 300 characters, including spaces.

In terms of the structure, I would use the following:

  • Introduction

Since we have already established we don't have much space, I suggest jumping straight into something that will grab attention.

The hook I have used is a commonality between me and the other person. For example, I would say: Hi X, I can see we both studied at UCL and that you now work at Y in Z.

Commonalities are great for at least two reasons:

1) they highlight that you once belonged to the same community, which makes the person more inclined to reply

2) they show that you have put some effort into finding this person, which suggests that a conversation with you will not be a waste of time.

I will describe how to find people with something in common with you in step 6 and 7.

  • Objective

Next, say why you are reaching out and what you hope to get out of the conversation, ideally specifying why this person is a good match to help you.

  • Conclusion

Since our space is limited, here you say thank you and that you are looking forward to hearing back.

The exact template I used is as follows:

Hi [name], I hope you're well! I can see we both [enter commonality] and that you now work at [company and location]. I plan to apply in [location] myself and wondered whether you'd be open to telling me about your experience with [company] so far? I would greatly appreciate it! Many thanks

Note that this is just a suggested structure that has worked for me. If you want to use a different approach, go ahead. After all, you need to make sure that the message you send reflects your personality and is something you align with.

5) Find people who work these jobs

We now have an objective, a list of jobs we would like to explore and message templates ready to use.

It's time to find the people who work the jobs we want to know more about.

The first step is to identify where these jobs may be. For some jobs, it is relatively easy. For example, clusters of doctors, let's say gastroenterologists, can be found in hospitals or clinics.

But what about graphic designers? This is more tricky as graphic design is relevant across different industries.

If the job you want to explore falls into this category, list 5-10 potential places to find them. For example, graphic designers may work at:

  • graphic design studios - that one was easy
  • advertising agencies
  • in-house design departments of large corporations
  • freelance
  • print and digital media agencies
  • non profit organisations
  • ... the list goes on

If you're stuck, check with ChatGPT and you'll get a list similar to the one above.

Next, for each category you identified, find 3-5 companies in your area that fall within that category. This will give us an anchor to search for the people who work the job you are interested in.

6) Define potential commonalities

Ok, now we're getting to the good stuff.

You are going to find the people to reach out to. You’re going to be strategic about it, though, by finding the commonalities mentioned before.

This step is not necessary but does it increase your chances of getting a response? My bet is definitely yes.

I had about a 50% response rate and I think this extra step played a big part.

So, if you choose to personalise your messages, here are the commonalities I would look out for:

  • Education or work history: Find people who attended the same high school/uni/worked at the same company as you. Of course, the more experience you have, the easier this will be.
  • Location: If you had the chance to study in different regions or countries, find people who lived in the same location as you - for example, I did an exchange in Australia, so when I came across someone who had previously lived in Australia, I would use that.
  • Atypical career path: If you’re considering a job that is atypical for someone with your background, you can find people who followed a similar path. For example, I transitioned into strategy consulting while my background was in health sciences, so I would reach out to people who also made a similar switch.
  • Similar situation: If you can’t find many commonalities, you can select people who have been in your shoes recently. For example, target new joiners who most likely still recall the process of looking for a job and the pains associated with it. Of course, reach out to people with a similar grade to yours as the experience of someone much more junior or senior may not be relevant to yours.

7) Find the people you share commonalities with

Now that we have a plan of who to target, how do you actually find people you share commonalities with?

To save time, we're going to use LinkedIn filters.

Here's how I would do it

  • Type the name of the company followed by the location in the search bar, but don't go to their LinkedIn page. You're going to end up on a page looking something like this, where you're going to select All filters in the top right corner, like so:
  • Select the following parameters:
    • Connections: first connections.
    • Current company: select the one you searched for in the previous step to ensure LinkedIn searches only for people currently employed there.
    • Past Company: select all companies that you have previously worked for.
    • School: same thing - select all schools you studied at.

A little hack - if you studied in at least two cities or more, you can also select other universities from that location to expand your chances of finding a 'match'. For example, I studied at the University of Queensland, University of Amsterdam and University College London. I would select all three and expand my search by selecting other universities in those locations. For example, the University of Amsterdam, King's College London, Imperial College London and so on - because I could always use the line 'hey, we both studied in London and I see you now work at XYZ Company in Stockholm. I am thinking of applying to that office too ...'

This obviously wouldn't work if you are applying for a job in London because a LOT of people have studied in London and it wouldn't point to a unique commonality between you and the person.

  • Select the profiles you would like to reach out to:

Finally, out of the people you have identified, select the ones you plan to reach out to based on the number or quality of commonalities they share with you.

8) Message the people you have selected

By now, this is just a formality - we have prepared our templates and selected people with whom we have something in common. You only need to personalise the first line of the template and send it out.

An issue you may come across when reaching out to people you don't know on LinkedIn is that the number of messages you can send monthly is limited to only 5. But there is no limit on how many people you send connection requests to. The key to doing that is making sure you attach a message to your request with a rationale for why you want to connect. So that is where you will enter the message we have prepared in previous steps.

One last note

I suggest you allocate enough time to this project and take your time with it. You won't be able to go through these steps in one afternoon, especially if you are exploring multiple career paths or companies. It took me around two months to reach out to and have conversations with over 50 strategy consultants.

Because of that, I suggest you make this into a short project. I spaced it out for myself by having one session per week where I searched and reached out to people. This would allow me to space out the calls later as they wouldn't all come at the same time.

Spacing it out in time will also bring you the benefit of seeing what ‘gaps’ there are in people who have responded to you the first time around. For example, if you wanted to speak to lawyers and consultants but only consultants replied, you know that you will need to focus on contacting lawyers in the next session.

Thanks for reading, that's it for today.