My girl Alex is a freelance copywriter specializing in resume design, public broadcasting and corporate branding — with a kick. You can find her blogging up a storm at Unicorns for Socialism and tweeting away @alex_franzen. This is the second half of her guest post on networking!6. Talk to yourself like a crazy person.
Time for some hallucinatory hustling! Visualize your next social gathering or professional event. Who’s going to be there? What are they going to ask you? What are you going to say? Rehearse a series of witty, succinct responses — out loud. That’s right: talk to yourself like a crazy bag-lady. Pretend Oprah is interviewing you, if that helps.
The Crux: develop a 25-second elevator speech that encapsulates who you are, what you’re doing, and what you want to be doing. Keep it snappy. Keep it light. No jargon. Plain English. Memorize it, and carry it around in your mind like a mental business card. Don’t leave home without it.
7. Do your homework, Nancy Drew.
Wanna know what really impresses employers — more than lofty degrees, fancy accolades and decades of seamless work experience? People who actually give a damn. If you want to shine, do your research. What is the company’s mission statement? Have they been in the news lately? What are some competing products?
The Crux: Strengthen your first impression by doing a little detective work. If you don’t care enough about the company to spend five minutes Googling them, why are you trying to connect with them in the first place?
8. Get pumped!
Hustling takes energy, ebullience and — let’s be honest — a certain degree of visual appeal. Debutantes call it “poise.” Drama geeks call it “presence.” I call it “physicality” — that sparkly-eyed, visceral, vibrant energy that makes people stop and stare.
The Crux: Push-ups, or a push-up bra? Ghetto hip-hop, or Gershwin? Lipgloss, latex, a little liquid courage? Whatever it takes to get your game face on, take the time to do it. Animal magnetism is your friend.
9. Keep orbiting.
No matter how hard you hustle, one cold obstacle remains: most people are busy, overwhelmed and easily-distracted. They’ll forget your name. They’ll lose your business cards. They’ll flake. Don’t take it personally — just keep orbiting.
The Crux: When it’s time to make the leap from casual connection to signed-and-sealed employee, a little initiative goes a long way. So send that follow-up email. Circle back with a phone call. Post a hand-written thank you note. The onus is on you to keep yourself looped in.
10. Don’t fight the river.
So you’ve courted a prospective client for eons, and you’ve done absolutely everything right. Yet for some unfathomable reason, they’re stonewalling your advances.
Maybe they’re in the middle of a hiring freeze. Maybe they lost their grant funding. Maybe the president of their Board of Directors just resigned. Maybe they just don’t like you. Whatever the reason, you have two options: keep pushing (at the risk of depleting yourself and annoying your contact) or stop pushing (and divert your energy elsewhere).
I think you know which option is healthier.
The Crux: Sometimes, no matter how hard you hustle, the stars just do not align. Let go. Float for a minute. Release your death-grip on your previous plan, but retain your sense of agency. The current will carry you where you belong.
Happy hustling, gangstas!
Time for some hallucinatory hustling! Visualize your next social gathering or professional event. Who’s going to be there? What are they going to ask you? What are you going to say? Rehearse a series of witty, succinct responses — out loud. That’s right: talk to yourself like a crazy bag-lady. Pretend Oprah is interviewing you, if that helps.
The Crux: develop a 25-second elevator speech that encapsulates who you are, what you’re doing, and what you want to be doing. Keep it snappy. Keep it light. No jargon. Plain English. Memorize it, and carry it around in your mind like a mental business card. Don’t leave home without it.
7. Do your homework, Nancy Drew.
Wanna know what really impresses employers — more than lofty degrees, fancy accolades and decades of seamless work experience? People who actually give a damn. If you want to shine, do your research. What is the company’s mission statement? Have they been in the news lately? What are some competing products?
The Crux: Strengthen your first impression by doing a little detective work. If you don’t care enough about the company to spend five minutes Googling them, why are you trying to connect with them in the first place?
8. Get pumped!
Hustling takes energy, ebullience and — let’s be honest — a certain degree of visual appeal. Debutantes call it “poise.” Drama geeks call it “presence.” I call it “physicality” — that sparkly-eyed, visceral, vibrant energy that makes people stop and stare.
The Crux: Push-ups, or a push-up bra? Ghetto hip-hop, or Gershwin? Lipgloss, latex, a little liquid courage? Whatever it takes to get your game face on, take the time to do it. Animal magnetism is your friend.
9. Keep orbiting.
No matter how hard you hustle, one cold obstacle remains: most people are busy, overwhelmed and easily-distracted. They’ll forget your name. They’ll lose your business cards. They’ll flake. Don’t take it personally — just keep orbiting.
The Crux: When it’s time to make the leap from casual connection to signed-and-sealed employee, a little initiative goes a long way. So send that follow-up email. Circle back with a phone call. Post a hand-written thank you note. The onus is on you to keep yourself looped in.
10. Don’t fight the river.
So you’ve courted a prospective client for eons, and you’ve done absolutely everything right. Yet for some unfathomable reason, they’re stonewalling your advances.
Maybe they’re in the middle of a hiring freeze. Maybe they lost their grant funding. Maybe the president of their Board of Directors just resigned. Maybe they just don’t like you. Whatever the reason, you have two options: keep pushing (at the risk of depleting yourself and annoying your contact) or stop pushing (and divert your energy elsewhere).
I think you know which option is healthier.
The Crux: Sometimes, no matter how hard you hustle, the stars just do not align. Let go. Float for a minute. Release your death-grip on your previous plan, but retain your sense of agency. The current will carry you where you belong.
Happy hustling, gangstas!
8 comments:
These posts are super. Thank you so much for this advice!
this is super advice, very useful! thank you for sharing
xx
marian.
Love the advice! I've been job hunting since September. I need all the tips I can get! :)
This is just what I need while I send my CV to everyone in a fifty mile radius of my house. And I do mean everyone.
Might be practicing the talking to myself bit because that's where I get awkward. Thanks for the advice!
great advice and motivation! Can't I just hire you to find me a job??
What great posts? Who knew all these years I've spent talking to myself would end up being good for me/
Yessssss!!! Thank you for including these fantastic guest posts and True Story features into your already amazing blog, Sarah Von!
Alex Franzen is one of my very favourite bloggers, and I especially dig her killer sense of humour, totally bitchin' style and shared love for Teen Vogue. These guest posts are also incredibly timely and relevant. They mos' def' helped clear up some of the mystery around "networking" for me, and made the concept/process a lot less vague.
Thanks, guys!
These tips are really great and would work for just about any field. I think ultimately it is about showing, not telling, people that you are motivated and detail oriented.
Post a Comment