LinkedIn Networking for Biotech: Give First to Get Better Results

December is networking month, so I'm continuing on that theme for our episode today, we have been doing a networking challenge in the biotech career coach community and people have been getting great results. They've been growing their reach, they've been seeing how interacting around the platform changes their metrics in the LinkedIn analytics. So if you are curious about that and you want to join our challenge, it is free, it is fun and you can pop in there anytime and start on day one. It does not matter when you join. We will help you through day by day. But today I want to go over a few themes that have come out from that. So every day I ask people little questions as they're doing this networking challenge and we've seen some interesting trends. So first of all, people in our space tend to be introverts. Me too. I get it. It is scary to network. And so a lot of the fears around networking come from feeling like you're going to say dumb things or you're not going to add value on the platform or how do you make it worthwhile for other people without being really kind of spammy and just asking for things. So I want to go over a few of those themes and we're just going to talk about the psychology of networking, how you can sort of get yourself in the mindset, get over some of those little fears that you may have around it. I'm Karina Klingman, scientist turned CEO of a talent strategy consulting firm. I've helped over 85 biotechs hire and develop thousands of amazing employees. So I know what works and what doesn't work when it comes to landing a job and then excelling in it. I created the Biotech Career Coach podcast to give you simple, actionable speed, step by step strategies to help you land your dream biotech job, then move up the career ladder. If you are exploring career paths, looking to learn about biotech, or simply striving to be the type of person who makes an impact and gets promoted, you're in the right place. So I want to talk about why giving first on the platform makes you feel better about networking. The psychology behind networking well is that there is a give and a take. You are making connections, but you're also giving to those connections. So you may eventually ask for favors in the future, but we don't want to do that right away. People genuinely enjoy helping others when they feel valued. We talked about this on a couple of days of our networking challenge, but I really want to emphasize that people enjoy helping others. There's a Lot of psychology research around this. People enjoy giving gifts more than getting gifts. So when you put that into the context of networking and you genuinely ask someone to share their expertise and experience in their career and you make them feel valued for it, they get a dopamine hit of being appreciated for their expertise. And so reciprocity is a natural human instinct, but it really can't be forced. What we've seen in the challenge is that people are getting results by asking genuinely about somebody's expertise. They're getting coffee chats, they're getting conversations with people about their career paths. Not by asking for jobs, not by asking for anything really, except for just that shared human experience. There are a few things on the platform that you can do to give back to your network before you ask for anything. And simply nurturing your contacts, keeping Google alerts for companies that are interesting, and then sending congratulatory notes to people who are doing great work. If you see a company has filed an ind, congratulate all of your friends there. That just feels really good. Highlight their really great work. Engaging on the platform with posts and tagging relevant people, leaving meaningful comments. All of that also gives people a dopamine hit. That is why social media is so popular. People love to see their like counts go up. They like to feel like they contributed something valuable. So you can contribute something valuable to the people in your network by simply engaging on their posts and showing them that they have said a valuable thing or shared a valuable article. That is really, really key. And again, that makes people feel really good about themselves. And then they're more likely eventually to help you. You will also feel good about it. It is a little bit of a mood lift. When I go through the platform and I chat on people's posts, I really genuinely enjoy it. But I had to be trained to do that. I had to do it very consistently in order to get to a point where I felt comfortable engaging and chatting on those comments. But now that I do, I genuinely look forward to it. In my day, one of the key takeaways from the first 10 days of the challenge is that giving value is really not transactional. This is about relationships and you are building a reputation as someone who lifts others up around the platform. So let's start there. It doesn't have to be overly complicated. Another pushback that I have seen is people worried that they don't have anything valuable to offer. Like if they're going to post something on LinkedIn. LinkedIn, like, why does anyone care about me? Why would they care about what I have to say, I just want to say that you have more value than you think. Even as a career changer or an early professional, you can be a thoughtful amplifier by commenting on other people's posts, by sharing and tagging people and relevant content, and by using comments as a value add instead of just saying like congrats when somebody posts that they've changed jobs. There is a lot going on on the platform, but what's interesting is that the algorithm in LinkedIn amplifies things that you have been commenting on. So you need to get outside of your bubble a little bit and look at comment and like posts that are a little bit more value driven than simply career changers. New job notifications and things like that. As you're connecting to people, offer strategic introductions. A lot of the folks that you're going to be connecting with are on the job hunt. And so if you can make a warm intro to one of your connections that's in the same field or similar job, do that. That makes people feel really good. So offer warm intros and you will start to be known as a connector. That is really important. If you're a connector, people go to you for those connections and you have more opportunities to connect with your own network and to nurture your own network. Our community has also been working on sharing relevant resources. So if you are in a certain therapeutic area, if you're excited about a certain area of research, look for articles and relevant things about that, share those articles, share job postings like that that you don't necessarily want, but maybe someone in your network might be interested in share papers that align with these interests. And the algorithm is going to start to surface more things about that interest area to you personally. It's also going to mean that you're going to attract the right people. So people who are interested in those things are going to see those posts even if they're not connected to you, and it's going to grow your reach on the platform. This is a scary way to do it. It is a little bit putting yourself out there, giving an opinion on a new article, but it is probably the fastest way to grow your reach in a certain space, a certain disease area or research area in LinkedIn. And my secret weapon here is PubMed alerts. That's a really great way to look for things, but also Google Alerts are great for this. Another way you could post is to provide a fresh perspective. Maybe it's on job seeking, maybe it's on the job market or things that you've learned through your job search. A lot of other people who are also job seeking that you're linking in with may really enjoy this content and engage with it highly. Plus the platform, which is a job seeking platform, highly rewards this type of content. So if you have just learned something really interesting like maybe you redid your resume according to my methodology and you got a phone screen, maybe just share how you changed your resume and how that actually impacted your job search, that would be valuable to someone else and the platform will reward it by amplifying it because that is what LinkedIn is all about. And then the fifth way, and probably the easiest way to engage is to offer a genuine enthusiasm and gratitude around the platform. So just don't underestimate the power of being someone's biggest cheerleader. People really, really like that. If you are seeing people landing jobs, be genuinely excited for them and comment on that. If you're seeing something exciting happen at the company, congratulate the people at the company. People love that. And if you were fortunate enough to have a great coffee, chat with someone and learn from their career, reach out with a genuine thank you note and tell them what you are implementing from their advice. So don't just send a thank you note for the chat, send them a thank you note that also says your advice on X has prompted me to take Y action. They will really love that you're taking action based on their advice and that will give them a dopamine hit and make them feel good. As part of this challenge, I shared a whole bunch of templates in the community for thank you notes and follow ups and things like that. So if you need those, I've got those for you. And I just want to remind everyone that networking is a long game. It really pays off over years. Now you might get lucky and network your way into a job quite quickly and that is wonderful. And when it happens, I will celebrate you all the way. In my experience, it is also more likely that your networking now pays off in 6 months, 12 months, 3 years, 10 years. I have great connections that I still have coffee with regularly, that I work on my relationship with them and they're there for me when I need them and I'm there for them when they need me. Networking is a give and a take. It's a relationship building. So I just want people to realize that if you start networking this week and you don't have a job next week, that is normal. Networking takes time. A lot of the folks in our community come in with a couple hundred contacts on LinkedIn and that is it. It takes time to build that momentum and to get more connections on LinkedIn and you can do it quite intentionally and you can really work on it day by 30 minutes a day and make a huge impact to your long term outcomes. So we are tracking metrics right now in this challenge and with one week of consistent action, our community members are seeing their platform reach grow by hundreds of percents to one person had 5,000% increase. This is huge, right? Even my increase where I was just dedicated to working through this with you doing it, consistently grew something like 50%. And these are views around the platform. People seeing your face, seeing your headline, starting to recognize you as a thought leader in the space. It takes time though, so I just want to reinforce that that is okay. And there will be short term ones. You will get coffee chats, you will have informational interviews and that will help continue to make you excited to keep networking. Finally, I just want to go over a few quick comment pitfalls to avoid. I get connection requests every single day on the platform that sound a lot like, hi, I need a job, here's my resume, what time can we chat? And that's a real turn off. It is so important to network from a genuine place of curiosity. Wanting to learn about someone else's career. How did they make their career shift? How did they move from academia to industry? How did they achieve their goals? That is something people want to talk about. I'm sorry, but they really don't want to talk about your needs. Yes, you can sort of get there. As you're networking and as you're making genuine connections. If you make them feel really good, they're going to want to reciprocate and help you as well. So don't be a taker disguised as a giver. Actually want to learn about somebody's career path and how they did it. If you're asking them for a coffee chat or an informational interview. Being inconsistent on the platform also yields inconsistent results. So a pitfall is being really inconsistent. That's why we're doing this for 28 days, to build the muscle of networking so that you can keep doing it. Another pitfall is forgetting to follow through. If you said you'll send something, send it. And look, I'm guilty of this too. I get very, very busy. But really try, try and make yourself a note. If you say you'll send an article or you'll report back on how something worked for you, do it. And like I said, a huge pitfall is expecting immediate returns and then not continuing the process. That is all for today. I hope this is helpful. I would love to see you in our community in this challenge if you're not already. And if you are, awesome. Keep doing it. Thanks so much for listening to the Biotech Career Coach Podcast by the Collaboratory Career Hub. Join our school community to get access to support resources and materials and be sure to connect with me on LinkedIn. Pro Tip when you connect with me on LinkedIn, you get instant access to my entire network of biotech folks, which is powerful for your career. If you found this podcast valuable, please subscribe or follow us on YouTube so that you never miss an episode. Have an amazing week and we'll see you back here next Friday.