Video Friday: Networking for Introverts – Why You Should Go Alone
Introverts are sometimes advised to take a friend with them to networking events. But in today’s video blog, Kimberly Beatty explains why she disagrees with that advice and feels “going it alone” is best for introverts.
Learn more about networking and interviewing for introverts here.
Hi Kimberly,
Those are great points about the benefits of going it alone. Thank you for being a good role model for those that are nervous about networking.
As a career coach, especially for introverts, I’m one of those “experts” that often says “bring a friend!” So I giggled at that part.
What I actually say to people is to make sure to be out there networking at all, and start with what’s comfortable so you can build your muscles and experience with it. If bringing a friend is what it takes to get you there at first, then do it. Gradually work to build your muscles with all kinds of networking so that all of it gets easier.
I offer more specific networking tips for introverts on my blog.
http://www.valnelson.com/tag/networking/
Thanks for bringing up this great topic.
Hi Kimberly, great advice. Before I even watched the video I was thinking that the best reason for going alone is because you’ll otherwise cling to a friend and meet less people, so I’m glad you reaffirmed that in your video.
Another bit of advice I’d give if going alone is if you’re a Twitter user and there’s an event #hashtag, to see who’s tweeting about the event and see if you can recognise anyway. If their avatar is of them (and not a logo or something else unrecognisable) then it can be a really good icebreaker, an opportunity to say “hey, I saw what you tweeted…” and take it from there.
Steve,
Using Twitter for some pre-event preparation and research is a great idea.
Thanks for sharing.