Hi Stephanie,
I always say to have easy goals to reach, especially as an introvert trying to network. This was helpful when I was still a student, making my way through ASCE crowds in Philadelphia and engineers at events, needing to talk to new professionals and younger engineers. Making small goals at networking events can be helpful especially to introverts, which many civil engineers often are. I myself was anxious and terrified to talk to new people, but it was a necessity at the time.
One goal that is helpful, is to aim for five business cards. Tell yourself that you can't go home until you have met five new people, gotten 5 business cards as proof, and have written at least one or two memorable points that were discussed on the back of the card to follow up on. Another goal: come up with five talking points or conversation starters local to your area of interest or of the city you live in. Also, ask people if they are on LinkedIn. Also, a good goal is to get others you know, civil engineers in similar positions wanting to network, and go in as a team - but making sure you both have goals to talk to new people and that you are not there to talk only to each other. Having a buddy at these events can be helpful, to push each other to network, as long as you don't stand together in a corner the entire time. Bring someone who inspires you and who motivates you.
Even as an introvert, it's helpful to remind yourself that you can force yourself to be an extrovert for one hour. You can even set a timer. Knowing that you can go home and be by yourself the rest of the night, can be a helpful reminder if you can just force yourself to talk to people for 30 min to an hour- especially if the benefit of five new business cards outweighs no new business cards.
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Charles Mumford, A.M.ASCE
AECOM
Civil Engineering I
Philadelphia, PA
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-30-2018 13:02
From: Stephanie Slocum
Subject: Introverts and Networking Advice
I am an introvert, and when I started my career I felt incredibly uncomfortable, awkward, and ill-at-ease anytime I had to "network," especially at in-person events. As my career progressed - and especially after earning my PE - I realized that I absolutely had to get better and develop some level of competency to get where I wanted to go in my career.
These days I actually look forward to attending a limited number of events (at least as much as an introvert can), and I wanted to share a blog I put together yesterday on a few things I learned along the way that made this less scary for me, especially the first time I attended an event (click HERE for the blog).
Do you have any advice or lessons you've learned about networking, especially for engineers just starting to develop their networks or those who want to move into management (where this skill is required and almost never taught)?
To help start the discussion, I'm also tagging a couple of knowledgeable engineers in this subject for comment:
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Stephanie Slocum P.E., M.ASCE
Founder
Engineers Rising LLC
www.engineersrising.com
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