Carrer Options Magazine posted a few days ago an excellent article about shy people and networking I’d like to share with you today.
It covers 10 items that, I can assure you, hit every shy guy on earth… And shyness, I can assure you (once more), can ruin your networking efforts (and many other things)!
Here you are…
- Bring a Friend: You’ll obviously feel more comfortable having somebody you know at your side. An important side note is that when you are at a career fair, it is best to approach an employer alone as they see “tag-teaming” as a weakness and that you lack confidence.
- Start Small: When you start small, you make the mistakes on people you really don’t care about. Just save the best for last!
- Don’t stick to talking business: The one thing employers hate is students who just won’t stop bragging about themselves and have pointless and boring business talk. Show your personality and your passions. Get friendly!
- Do Your Research: In case your conversation ever turns a little bit awkward, pull out one of your prepared conversation points!
- Take Your Cue and Leave Gracefully: At some point your conversation may begin to feel a little forced. You need to be able to listen and feel for these cues. Never overstay your welcome as that will just leave a bad taste in the employer’s mouth.
- Smile!:You may not even notice or think about this but you really need to face new people with a welcoming smile instead of a nervous scowl.
- Ask Questions: A great way for shy people to network is to listen in to a group of people networking, understand the conversation, form an opinion and ask a question.
- Listen: Say nothing and all and just listen with sincere interest. People love to talk about themselves and if you listen intently they will continue on having the time of their life all while you say nothing.
- Bring Business Cards: Nothing looks sillier than talking to an employer, getting their interest and now they want to continue this conversation outside of the event and you don’t have a single business card.
- Say their Name: We’re all egotistical and love to hear our own name so make sure you repeat it (just not too much). When you say somebody’s name, they begin to feel more comfortable (plus it great to help you remember).
What do you think? Are you shy? How do you deal with shyness when you have to network with other people?
Source: Career Options Magazine
You can also find related information at...
- Immigration to Canada Free Webinar This Friday March 25th! This coming Friday February 25th at 8:30pm Eastern Time (Montreal / Toronto / Ottawa) our good friends from Martineau&Mindicanu will be hosting a Webinar and will talk about immigration to Canada. That you don’t know what a webinar is?! Simple! A webinar is like a conference or a seminar but online. You just connect your [...]...
One last point: the more you do it the easier it becomes! It will be strange at first but don’t feel bad about your English or your status as a newcomer to Canada. In fact, this is an excellent conversation starter, as long as you don’t dwell on how much you love/hate your birth country for too long
We are still talking about networking, right?
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