How to Start Networking w/ informational interviews| Andrew Whelan

Happens.

Okay.

I want you to start networking. You should be out networking even if you aren't sure what you want to do. I want you to put 2 networking events on your calendar every week. Because even if you don't go, you know what organizations are having them, who's running the meetups, when they are, the times, because when you do have time you can get to them. But if you wait until you say, when I have time I'll go to them, you don't know what's happening. Who gets great speakers? Who's got the people I'm interested in? So start putting that together. The other thing is you should be reaching out to people on a regular basis. Anybody here done an informational interview? Do you know what an informational interview is?

No.

Well, let me help you with that. Okay, this is very common in this market. Businesses are often training their employees now to manage informational interviews specifically because we want to attract great people. You are in market that everyone in the world wants to work in for the most part. So the competition is harder than anywhere else right now for a lot of the fields, especially, especially the fields that I actually coach in, right? So if you want to be a data scientist, a product manager, a designer, or developer, you are up against people all over the world. So in order to get ahead of the field and differentiate yourself, you got to know people and you got to get referrals. Many companies offer bonuses for referring somebody. Some companies offer upwards of $10,000 to bring in a senior-level engineer. Thank God I'm not an engineer 'cause I would just wanna work there and I'd spend all day just finding people to refer instead of actually doing my job, right? So, for you, what you need to do and what I suggest is find the people you wanna meet. How many of you are leaving San Francisco when you leave here, when you're done this week? I know you're here all the time, but how many of you, there's some people that you'd kind of like to meet that you might be able to get to? Maybe you come back again the next time you're going to spend a week in San Francisco. Part of it is going to be checking out things, maybe getting help, maybe meeting up with people, but use some of that time to actually have informational interviews. Reach out to people via LinkedIn. Ask them for 30 minutes. It's not, I want to get a job, because I want to get a job scares people and they're like, I'm not here to give you a job. I'm really interested in your career and how you've done this. I'd love to pick your brain for 30 minutes. Can I take you out for a cup of coffee and talk about this, this, and this? Have your questions ready. You can bring a notebook and write in them. That is all okay. Make sure you buy them coffee. I had someone recently that was like, I feel horrible. They got there early, ordered their coffee. When the person came, they just started asking questions because they were nervous and they never bought them coffee. And they're like, what do I do? I was like, that's great. Invite them back. Now you owe them 2 cups of coffee. And they did. And the person came back. Right? So, you get to do that. But this is common practice now in this market. If you want to get to know people, because they want to know young people who are really good at what they do. 'Cause it's hard for every company to attract the best people, right? When I work with new people, I'm like, okay, tell me where you want to work, and they're always like Uber, Twitter, Facebook, Google, and IDEO or some other place, right? That's great, but there are a bunch of other companies out there that do amazing work that it's hard to attract great people for. So reach out to those people, and all those people who are at Uber and Twitter and Facebook and Slack now and all these places, A lot of them are now heads of departments in some of these other companies. So you get a bonus, you get to work with them if you work with them and you get all that knowledge from the other places, but then you get the knowledge about how they've grown because now they're building departments at new companies or starting their own companies, right? So reach out to them and ask them to coffee. It takes a little bit of time to get back to them, so if they don't respond in a week, respond after a week and be like, hey, I just want to follow up, I'd love to take you out for coffee. Many of them will. Many of them will say, hey, would you like to intern? Many of them will say, what are you working on? Oh, I know somebody who is funding right now. I know somebody interested in that area. That's how you start to build your connections. Now, the thing is, once you have informational interviews with people, keep them in your network. Don't wait until the next time you need something, because then it's hard. You're like a year later, hey, by the way, I'm back in San Francisco. Would you like to have coffee again? Every quarter or so, and I'm going to show you a network list, a really easy one. Every quarter or so, reach out to them. Hey, I just want to see what you're up to. Anything you need help with? This is what I'm doing. Because then when you build your business, when you get your first job, you get to let your network know who supported you. I'm here now for the next X amount of time, really excited. Let me know if you need anything. That's how you build your community because a couple years from now, Amazing things happen when your paths come together and you help each other grow each other's businesses or knowledge or whatever. That's the kind of stuff you should be looking at.

Yeah.

Please share your favorite. Yeah.

Speaker, they're hosting the fireside chat or whatever, afterwards she'll just email them. She'll be like, I saw you speak here, like, thank you for your time. And she'll just give them advice or content or things that could support them in their company and just free advice. And I've used that technique and gotten interviews or conversations, and it's really interesting to see what people are willing to give you when you give them just your time or ideas.

That's amazing. That's exactly spot on. Thank you for sharing that. 'Cause I'll tell you right now, people who are founders, people who are doing other stuff, yeah, they're busy. Everyone assumes they're really busy, so no one talks to them. So the minute someone goes, hey, would you take 30 minutes? I'll come to you. They're like, oh my God, yeah. Not all, but many of them will. It has been my experience in the last couple years that people are like, okay, yeah. Why don't you come meet with me? And then you get to go, but be prepared. Bring some questions. Be prepared to have that conversation with them.

And so you give advice to the CEO?

Well, yeah, for example, one founder, Caroline Goshen, she's the founder of Level Lead. It's like a millennial networking platform. And I heard her speak and I was like, I have all these suggestions based on my experience at Draper on how you could get into a college market. So I just gave her some ideas and she's like, I'd love to speak with you more if you want to have coffee. So she asked me to coffee.

There you go. She's building her business, she knows how to network. Did you go?

I was out of town, so I haven't gone yet.

But you are, you're planning on it, great. It'd be hilarious if you were like, no, I don't have time for her. Yeah, that's great. Perfect example. It happens all the time. So reach out, because when you start to move into the next phase of your careers, whatever it may be, if you do this now and you start meeting people, it gets easier. Let it be really messy up front, who cares? If you have a couple you're like, ooh, that was really awkward and weird, Keep doing it because it gets easier so that when it is really critical, you're not walking in. I have a lot of people ask me on a regular basis and I also ask specific people I'm interested in. And it's really funny when I meet with somebody and they sit down and like sweat just starts because they're nervous, right? And I'm always encouraging. I say, that's great. Is this your first one coming to an informational interview? They're like, yep. And I go, perfect. Then I will talk them through it. Most people will be really helpful. They'll be like, look, I'm working, or I have a company. Let me buy you coffee. Let me help you. Because one thing we forget about human nature is it feels good to help others. So they're going to want some support and say, like, oh, if you have feedback on my company, great. But there are many people out there who do want to help you. They want to encourage you because everybody got help when they started. Everybody who started a company, everybody who's in business, everybody who in some way or another works in a specific field, you get help from somebody. So when you all make it and you become successful, the next thing that happens is someone's going to ask you out to coffee. Go to coffee with them. You really don't have to do anything other than just answer questions and share your experience, which is, I got help from someone and I did this. This didn't work. This did work. This is how it works. Does that make sense? Did you have a question? I saw your hand up.

Just wanted to share an experience. I remember the last time I was here in Silicon Valley, I said my objective is to speak with Sheryl Sandberg, and I sent her a message so much, so, so hot. And in the next morning, I got like five hours later, I got an answer from her. And even though she wasn't available, she told me to meet someone. From her team, and I got to meet them.

So there you go. It's amazing. I love people who practice. If you look at people who practice— everyone know what zero inbox is? I love that because you know you're gonna get a response right away. So you know either you're getting a response or they deleted it. It's the best. Yeah, there's nothing stupid in here. Come on, we're all friends. It's not stupid, and we're going to talk about LinkedIn in just a couple of minutes, but absolutely not. We're going to talk about quality versus quantity and what the effect is if you don't, right? Because I have a brand, and we'll talk about my brand a little bit later on, but I don't want to be open to everyone. I want to be in demand. So I'll help you to determine what is valuable to you and what is not. And so we'll talk about that in just a second, right? It is important to To help others, but it's also important to know that there's a reason why you're actually connecting with somebody. And we'll talk about that in just a couple minutes. Because I think that's important. Because look, this is—