Net, work!

First off, Happy Cinco de Mayo!  Apologies in advance for the long post, but margaritas make me philosophical...

I hate networking.  My personal philosophy on things like "hate" are that we should not hate because the thing we hate is simply not worth the energy that an emotion like hate requires (sorry if that made NO sense).  But if there is an activity that I actively think about how much I do not want to do it, it would be networking.  Now, there is no good reason why, as I'm no more socially awkward than any other law school graduate out there.  In fact, I've been told I'm downright friendly and a good person (crazy internship person notwithstanding).  So you would think that meeting people would be no sweat, right?  Smile, make a bit of small talk, and see where the night leads?  Um, well, the last time I tried that...well...I made a personal resolution (stronger than other resolutions, apparently) to not talk about dates on the internet.  Especially ones that remind me of my weak resolutions.  So needless to say, the "Smile + Small Talk = Network Success" formula needs to be tweaked a bit to result in a steady paycheck and benefits instead of just benefits.

Today, however, I resolved to network.  Papering the DC-metro area with my resume isn't working quite how I thought it would, so I need to think smarter, not necessarily bigger.  Focus on my audience.  Target, not Wal-Mart.  So how many intro emails did I send today?  One.  And it wasn't even an intro email, it was a "I would like to be your contact on LinkedIn because I want your resume to be mine" message.  I also sent out a non-intro-email, which went much less awkwardly.  But, because I prefer to dwell on the awkward and absurd, let's go back to the awkwardness that is the intro email/message.

To me, it's much easier to go up to a person and say, "Hi, I'm Sarah, nice to meet you!" than it is to write it.  Part of it is that I've found some people think my use of exclamation marks is excessive.  Another part is that a conversation can flow much easier than an email that says, "Hi, I'm Sarah, nice to meet you!" when read by a Very Busy and Easily Annoyed Person.  A further part is that the verbal conversation can flow how it flows, with each party contributing according to their comfort level.  A written email, however, can take two flavors: the general "let's be friends" email, or the more pointed, "let's be friends because I need a job" email.  I personally received differing views on where the email should go.  Some people told me to go the "friends" route because it's much more casual and inviting and doesn't immediately come across as "I want something that you have."  On the other hand, others have told me that when people receive these emails or letters they already know what you're looking for, and so it's better to just come out and say, "I'm looking for a job in this field, if you know anyone, let me know."  Or something eloquent.  Personally, I don't have enough experience with either to say which works the best (See: Hate of Networking). 

When I had gone through the LinkedIn group membership listings and finally chosen my prey figured who I would most likely hear from, I didn't really know what else to do to get the other person to listen to me.  So, I did internet research and came upon this article:  How to Write a Networking Email (post written by Janice Darling).  Since I just tried it today, I haven't been able to actually see if it works.  However, the three, short steps seemed very comfortable.  The article mentions to ask the person, not for a job, but rather for advice, which I think is key.  I love to give advice, and give advice all the time to anyone with ears.  I lovelovelove it when someone comes up to me and says, "Hey, Sarah, can you help me with this?  You did it, and you did it well, so how did you do it?"  I go into this crazy professor-mode with graphs and pictograms, and the person can walk away and write a doctoral thesis on how I get my brownies to be the right fudgy consistency or something.  Even if they didn't want to.  But the thought that someone wants MY advice, above others, is a very self-satisfying feeling.  Not to mention, I want to make sure that I gave good advice and the person's brownies actually turned out well.  Now just trade out "Sarah" for "Wise Attorney" and "brownies" for "practice," and we got ourselves a deal! 

I'll try again tomorrow and see if it works.  If not, back to the drawing board...