Networking for Programmers
Sarah Roche gives her advice on how to make the most out of a networking event.
Originally posted on the untapt blog. untapt matches tech talent (like you!) to hiring companies using machine intelligence.
Making connections opens doors. Being good at making connections helps you to stand out. That’s where networking comes in.
You already have an impressive set of skills and you know you can hold your own in a code review, but more and more, developers also need to be good at soft skills. Things like collaborating with subject matter experts who have no knowledge of programming, being able to communicate your assets and understanding your own value proposition.
Networking is a great way to stretch all those muscles and make yourself better at communicating how you can benefit a team. Once you are able to efficiently communicate that piece of information, any person who knows that and sees your skill set is more likely to be equipped to help you in your job search.
I’m often told that I am extremely good at networking. I don’t actually consider myself good at networking, I consider myself a good listener who likes to connect people. That being said, I attend a large number of networking events and see people make some pretty common mistakes over and again. As a result, I’ve consolidated some of my tips here, focused specifically to help programmers get the most out of networking opportunities.
Realize everyone hates it. Everyone does. It’s the dirty secret no one wants to mention because we all want to appear confident and brilliant, but really, we would all much rather be curled up on the couch eating popcorn and watching Netflix. Staged interaction with people you don’t know is, pretty much, always going to stink. So get over it, realize that even the most poised and confident person in the room would rather be burying their face in a bag of Cheetos, and walk up to people and say hello. There is no point in attending if you leave without talking to anyone.
Prep your intro in advance. Make it only one or two sentences and be concise. It should follow this format: “Hi, my name is [name]. I’m [what you do] who is looking for [what you want to do].” Other variations can include you passion, your goals, the skills you want to focus on, or other items as you see fit, but it must be short, understandable to the person you are speaking with, and help to launch the conversation. Do not get lost in describing your coding languages here. Know your audience and keep it as simple as possible. “I am a back-end developer working in Financial Technology” is much better than “I am a Python programmer who creates peer-to-peer lending solutions.” One of those statements invites further questions. The other intimidates anyone who did not understand one or more of those words.
Be curious. One of the hardest parts of networking is when the conversation stalls for a minute. The way to fix this is to ask the other person about themselves. Open ended questions are great for this. Things like “What brought you to this event?”, “What do you love about your current position?”, “What’s something most people don’t know about your job?” are usually enough to open up the conversation and allow you to start rolling.
Wear your name tag on the right side. This lets someone look up from shaking your hand and immediately see your name.
Carry your drink in your left hand. That way your hand isn’t wet from the condensation of the glass. This helps you avoid soggy handshakes.
Don’t eat anything that is green, that is likely to fall onto your shirt or will make your breath terrible. For some reason every networking event seems to offer spinach dip, which is literally the ultimate culmination of the prior three don’ts. Avoid the spinach dip at all costs. And stay away from red wine for all the same reasons.
Be welcoming. Whenever someone walks up to join your conversation, smile at them, even if you can’t break away for a quick introduction for another sentence or two. Let them know they are welcome.
End conversations. As soon as you start to hit a lull, take control and end the convo politely. My usual script is “Well, [person’s name], this has been a [adjective of choice] conversation. It’s a pleasure to meet you and I’m looking forward to [speaking again some time or other predetermined action].” Then shake their hand and walk away. This puts an end to those weird awkward endings where you both stand looking around the room not sure what to do next. Ending conversations is a great skill once you understand how to do it correctly. It allows you to maximize the number of people you talk to in a room, gives you the opportunity to let the person you were talking to feel good about themselves, and allows you to create a reason for you next contact.
Follow up. This is my favorite tip that people always forget about. So few people actually follow up after meeting people that it really makes you stand out if you do. The day after a networking event I always pick the people I will be writing hand-written thank you notes to and get those out within a day of the event. Once those are mailed, I connect with those that I may have had shorter conversations, or conversations that I wasn’t sure would lead anywhere, through email or LinkedIn, but I always include a personal note about the conversation. A huge part of networking is making the people you are speaking to feel valued. Following up does that and ensures that if they see you at another event, they will recognize you. It also allows their inbox to have a reference to your conversation; if in six months you want to reach out to them again, you can just reply to that conversation and without having a weird re-introduction, they can read that you met at such and such place and discussed this topic.
So there you have it. My secrets for nailing any networking event. Hopefully this will make you more confident and comfortable in rooms of people you don’t know.
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