Networking is important. We all know that. In my experience, being able to pick up a phone and call a contact for relevant information has been priceless. But making contacts is not something I would call "easy". Networking can be awkward and uncomfortable. Unfortunately, if you are really going to be a rock star in your field you’re going to have to learn to live with networking.
Last year I attended the GDC Focus On In Game Advertising Summit in San Fran, Can. The company I worked for at the time sent me out, all by my lonesome, to learn more about an in game ad project we were working on. I decided to live blog the whole event so my seniors and co-workers could keep up to date on what was going on. I blogged about each speaker as they spoke. I went into painstaking detail about what I was learning. I was becoming an expert at something I knew almost nothing about only days earlier. I figured I would return a hero.
Then my boss left this comment on my blog:
Hope we got more out of this event than what is written about here. Did we get any designer leads or cards from any other in game agencies?
I suddenly figured out why I was really sent to San Fran: Networking.
If you are being sent by your company to an industry event there is a VERY slim chance they want you to sit attentively at every track and simply debrief them upon your return. If you want to come back a hero you’ll need to have a virtual Rolodex of new contacts in hand. That’s the bottom line.
I’m not shy. I’m not scared of the public. I’m not scared of social settings. But something changes in me when I have to use social skills to actually produce a result that my boss is counting on. I’m not alone though, seems many professionals have this very same problem.
Some common misconceptions that hinder the networking experience are…
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Everyone here knows already knows each other, except me
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I will annoy people
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No one wants to talk to me
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I’ll be outed as a rookie immediately
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I have nothing valuable to add
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I’ll look like I feel: nervous
Here are some great links to help you network better and get over my all-too-accurate bullet points.
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