Virtual Networking Tips

Your first job out of college can feel overwhelming. I still remember joining IBM as a fresh grad, unsure of what to expect but eager to prove myself. While I had worked hard to earn that opportunity, I quickly realized that succeeding in your first job takes more than just technical skill. Here’s my biggest piece of advice to new grads stepping into their first role: 𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼. Be proactive, not reactive. That one shift in mindset changes everything. Instead of just doing what was assigned to me, I started thinking about: → How can I make my manager's job easier? → What’s slowing the team down? → Is there a process that can be improved? → Can I learn from teams outside my own? 💡 I wasn’t confined by my job description- I explored! I reached out to people beyond my immediate team, set up 1:1s to learn what they were working on, and asked where I could contribute. That helped me meet incredible people like Armand Ruiz, Dr. Seth Dobrin, Priya Krishnan, Shadi Copty, and so many more! That habit of thinking beyond your role, and then sharing your thought process and actionable ideas, is what builds credibility early on. It also helps you get noticed. 🌱 Having a growth mindset was key. I didn’t wait for opportunities, I created them by showing initiative and being vocal about how I could help. 🤝 Networking inside your company is as important as networking outside. Many of the best career moves I’ve made happened because I nurtured relationships beyond my team. Don’t underestimate the power of a coffee chat with someone in a different org. If you’re just starting your career, remember: → Speak up even if you’re the most junior person in the room → Share ideas that benefit your broader org → Learn fast, ask smart questions, and stay curious → Build relationships early and intentionally → You don’t need to have it all figured out. You just need to start showing up like someone who’s ready to grow. 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗮 𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝘀 𝗶𝘁. 💼 #Classof2025

You don’t need to attend awkward networking events to build connections. Here are 10 ways to network online (from your couch) to land your dream job, mentorship or just to stay in touch: 1. Start with warm calls, not cold DMs Reaching out to strangers is intimidating. So, begin with people you already admire or respect: past colleagues, old classmates, mentors, or anyone you’ve gotten value from. Reach out, share your goals, ask for advice, or simply reconnect. — 2. Build (or join) a 3-6 person mastermind Invite people you admire to check in monthly or quarterly. Ask 3 simple questions in each meeting: • What’s your biggest win? • What’s your biggest challenge? • How can we help each other? This becomes your personal board of advisors, and their networks become yours, too. — 3. Make intros within your own network Instead of always trying to add new people, try connecting two people you already know. It builds goodwill, and often sparks reciprocity. Some of my best opportunities came from introductions I made first. — 4. Be the tortoise, not the hare Strong networks aren’t built in a week. They come from consistency, trust, and staying top of mind. Check in. Celebrate small wins. Be helpful, even without asking for anything.  — 5. Send snail mail Want to stand out in a sea of LinkedIn messages? Send a handwritten card or even a fun comic with a note. The person will always remember your “extra” effort. — 6. Elevate the interaction • Only chatted with someone online? Try a call. • Had a few calls? Try a Zoom meeting. • Know them over Zoom? Meet up in person. Each upgrade strengthens the connection. — 7. Pick one platform to dominate Instead of being everywhere, go deep somewhere. For example, if it’s LinkedIn: • Endorse people • Write thoughtful comments • Share niche insights your network actually values   This depth pays off more than shallow visibility. — 8. Curate, don’t just connect Curate the best insights, tools, or articles in your niche, and share them regularly. You’ll become a trusted source people keep coming back or referring to. — 9. Do something fun together Shared activities build bonds. This could be as simple as playing a game, joining a sweepstakes, or co-hosting a webinar.  People remember who made them feel something. — 10. Swipe right (yes, really) Apps like Shapr or Invitly are designed for warm outreach — you match with people who want to meet others. It’s cold networking without the awkwardness. Networking isn’t about pitching. It’s about planting seeds. Start with one person. Reach out. Reconnect.  Then keep showing up, helping others, and making connections that count.

Networking as an introvert feels scary AF. But it doesn’t have to be. Here are 3 tips that helped me build relationships with CEOs, influencers, and high-profile entrepreneurs (without leaving my couch): Context: For Introverts, By An Introvert I’m an introvert through and through. Networking, speaking, etc. Those were all SCARY uncomfortable for me early on. But, like any skill, I got better with practice. Here are 3 strategies that helped the most: 1. Quality > Quantity Instead of: - Going to meetups - Blasting out random connections - Attending conferences I focused on a handful of specific people. They met two criteria: - They had already done what I wanted to do - I was genuinely excited to engage with them 1a. Why Those Criteria? The first is easy. You should only take advice from people who already have what you want. For the second, forcing connections creates so much anxiety. Life is a lot easier when you're genuinely pumped to engage with the people on your contact list. 1b. Why A Handful? Great relationships require depth. By selecting a small set of people you're super excited about, you can invest more energy into each relationship. That energy is going to shine through and lead to a better, stronger, more authentic relationship. 2. Engage On Your Terms The idea of meeting a stranger for a 30-minute coffee terrified me. So I engaged where I was comfortable: virtually. - I commented on their posts. - I left reviews for their podcasts. - I proactively offered feedback on ideas. - I made introductions. 2a. Engage On Your Terms You are your best self when you show up where it's comfortable for you. I love starting in a virtual space because: It's easier to connect. You ease into things. When you meet for coffee down the road? You already have a history! Way less scary. 3. Monitor Your Energy Connecting was a roller coaster for me. I got anxiety beforehand, was super energized during, and exhausted after. Due to that, I limited myself to a certain number of networking convos each week. Then I scheduled non-negotiable "me" time to recharge.

If you want to build a network in 30 days, read this: Goal: Build a foundation for your professional network by forming genuine connections with 10 individuals relevant to your career goals. Before you start: Define your goals: What do you hope to achieve by building your network? (e.g., career advice, industry knowledge, potential job opportunities) Identify target individuals: Who are the people you want to connect with? Consider their expertise, experience, and potential value in achieving your goals. Days 1-10: Laying the groundwork Utilize social media: Update your LinkedIn profile to showcase your skills and experience. Join relevant groups and follow industry leaders. Start small: Reach out to 2-3 people you haven't spoken to recently or connect with 1-2 new contacts. Personalize your message and focus on value. Attend online events: Look for webinars, online conferences, or workshops related to your field. Participate actively and introduce yourself to others virtually. Identify industry influencers: Research thought leaders and key players in your field. Follow their work and engage with their content online. Volunteer your expertise: Research volunteer opportunities related to your industry. This allows you to give back, network, and build your reputation. Days 11-20: Building connections Follow-up with initial contacts: Send a follow-up email or message expressing your appreciation for their time and reiterating your interest in staying connected. Engage in online communities: Participate in relevant online discussions. Offer your insights, answer questions, and build your online presence. Connect through mutual connections: Research your existing network for potential connections who know people you'd like to meet. Seek introductions and personalize your outreach. Attend local events: Look for industry meetups, networking events, or conferences in your area. Prepare conversation starters and actively connect with new people. Leverage alumni networks: If you're a college graduate, reconnect with alumni in your field through professional groups or university resources. Days 21-30: Nurturing relationships Share valuable content: Share relevant articles, industry news, or resources with your connections through emails or social media. Offer congratulations and support: Celebrate your network's achievements and offer support during challenges. Show genuine interest in their lives and careers. Schedule informational interviews: Reach out to individuals you admire and request informational interviews. Use this opportunity to learn more about their career path and gain insights. Be a resource: Look for ways to help others in your network by offering introductions, sharing opportunities, or providing relevant information. Schedule coffee chats: Invite 1-2 people you've connected with for virtual or in-person coffee chats to deepen your relationships and explore potential collaborations. Source: "Reach Out" by Molly Beck

𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐏𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬, 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 Does the thought of networking make you feel like you're just selling yourself? It's time to flip the script. Here’s how to network effectively without feeling 'salesy': 📍Seek Depth, Not Numbers Forget about amassing contacts. Harvard Business Review suggests that meaningful, in-depth conversations are far more beneficial than a vast network. 📍Become a Master Listener Effective networking is less about talking and more about listening. Show genuine interest in others' stories and challenges. This approach not only builds stronger connections but also makes your interactions more engaging. 📍Lead with Value Always offer help before asking for anything. According to LinkedIn, 80% of professionals believe that networking is most effective when both parties gain something from the exchange. 📍Customize Your Connections Skip the generic connection requests. Reference specific details about how you met or a topic you discussed. This personal touch transforms your approach from transactional to meaningful. 📍Make Memorable Follow-ups After meeting someone, follow up with something relevant from your discussion. Whether it's an article related to a topic you spoke about or a simple congratulation on a recent achievement, personalized follow-ups make you stand out. 📍Engage Thoughtfully Online Interact with your connections' content by sharing insights or thoughtful comments. This keeps you visible and valuable, enhancing your network's strength without overt selling. 📍Embrace the Long Game Remember, effective networking builds over time. Stay consistent and patient—American Express reports that 40% of executives credit networking for their success. 𝙉𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙁𝙚𝙚𝙡𝙨 𝙍𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩: 𝘽𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙 𝙏𝙧𝙪𝙨𝙩, 𝙉𝙤𝙩 𝙅𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙨. 𝙍𝙚𝙫𝙖𝙢𝙥 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙣𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙖𝙘𝙝 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙨𝙚 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙚𝙨. 𝙄𝙩’𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜—𝙞𝙩’𝙨 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙗𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙪𝙞𝙣𝙚, 𝙢𝙪𝙩𝙪𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙗𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙥𝙨. ---------------------------------- Follow Surya Vajpeyi for more such content💜 #EffectiveNetworking #CareerGrowth #ProfessionalNetworking

You don't need to send 50 cold messages to strangers. You need to show up where your people already are. Here's how I approach it (and honestly, it's simpler than you think): 💜 Start with likes – I know, sounds basic. But when you consistently like someone's content, they notice. You're on their radar now. 💬 Then add thoughtful comments – Not "Great post!" but something real. Share your take, add value, ask a genuine question. This is where people start remembering your name. 🤝 Send connection requests to people you've engaged with – They've already seen you around. Now you're not a random face, you're someone who gets their content. ✉️ DM with intention – Once you're connected, say something specific. Compliment their recent post, mention something you both care about. Make it feel like a real conversation, not a pitch. ☕ Suggest a coffee chat – If the conversation flows well, take it off the platform. Virtual coffee chats have led to some of my best collaborations. 🎯 Collaborate when it feels right – Co-create content, do a LinkedIn Live together, feature each other's work. This is where your network turns into your community. Your personal brand grows when you're genuinely interested in others, not just interesting to others. The connections that matter? They start with you showing up, being helpful, and staying consistent. P.S. Want to build a personal brand that attracts the right connections? DM me for a free consultation call. #PersonalBranding #LinkedInNetworking #ContentCreators #CommunityBuilding #NetworkingTips #LinkedInGrowth #AuthenticConnections

I’ve trained in rooms where people speak English, but think in Marathi, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil Same company, same goals, but completely different communication styles. We love patting ourselves on the back for being diverse. But when a South Indian team feels a North Indian manager is "too aggressive," or a Gen Z employee thinks their Gen X boss is "dismissive", we call it a "communication gap." When really it's India's invisible boardroom barrier. Because while communicating, you’re navigating: 🔹 Cultural nuances 🔹 Generational gaps 🔹 Language preferences 🔹 Urban vs regional perspectives And if you're not adapting, you’re alienating. Here's my 3A’s of Cross-cultural communication framework: 1. Awareness: Recognize that your communication style is shaped by region, generation, and upbringing. It's not universal. 2. Adaptation: Match your message to your audience. One style doesn't fit all rooms. 3. Ask: When in doubt, clarify: What does yes mean here? How do you prefer feedback? What's the protocol for disagreement? India's diversity is incredible. But if we are not actively learning to communicate across cultures, not just languages, we're wasting it. P.S. What's your biggest cross-cultural communication struggle? #CrossCulturalCommunication #AwarenessAdaptationAsk #3AsFramework #Awareness #Adaptation #Ask #CommunicationGaps

Most networking advice is written by extroverts who treat social interaction the way toddlers treat slides. No fear. Full send. “Just walk up!” “Just DM!” “Just follow up!” Love that for them. For me, “just walk up” sounds like “just casually enter the lion enclosure and ask for a career opportunity.” The problem isn’t that awkward people hate networking. We don’t. We hate auditions. That moment where you can feel yourself being sized up, and your brain immediately goes: okay great, time to become a highly persuasive version of myself that does not exist. And listen, I’ve been cosplaying as an extrovert basically my whole life. But it’s not as fun as it looks. It’s exhausting. It took me a stupidly long time to realise that this wasn’t a “me” deficiency. It was a performance expectation. The world l hands you a script and then acts like your worth depends on how naturally you deliver it. So here’s what actually helped: I stopped treating networking like a personality competition and started treating it like logistics problem. Because relationships don’t start with “chemistry.” They start with context. A shared room. A shared friend. A shared obsession. A shared problem. Extrovert advice assumes you can manufacture context with energy. If you’re awkward, don’t try to manufacture energy. Build context. Which basically means: don’t ever message someone with “Would love to connect and learn from you :)” because that’s not a sentence, that’s a fog machine. Give them a dot. A dot looks like: “You said X. It made me rethink Y.” Then one honest line about you, but placeable. “I invest early-stage and I’m mapping robotics in India.” Then a tiny ask. Tiny. Embarrassingly small. Not “can I pick your brain.” First of all, murder. Second of all, expensive. Ask for one thing: one question, one resource, one perspective, one intro. People can’t help a cloud. They can help a dot. Also, awkward people do this tragic thing where we try to win the whole relationship in one interaction. We try to compress an entire future friendship into five minutes because we’re terrified we’ll never get another chance. Extroverts can improvise their way out of that pressure. We cannot. So don’t. That’s why I think the best follow-up is the one that doesn’t beg. Two sentences. Something like: “This reminded me of what you said about X, sharing in case it’s useful. No reply needed.” And yes, this will still feel mildly cringe. Not humiliating cringe, just baseline cringe of being a human trying to contact another human. A lot of “good networkers” aren’t even that charismatic. They’re consistent. They’re willing to be briefly cringe in exchange for a life that’s easier later. Meanwhile awkward people are trying to avoid cringe so hard that we inadvertently choose isolation. Networking for awkward people isn’t “become an extrovert. It’s: be specific, make the ask small, follow up like a person, and let repetition do the work your personality shouldn’t have to.

Networking feels awkward because you’re doing it wrong. You don’t need to master small talk or attend every event. You need to be genuine. Here’s what actually works: 1/ Comment thoughtfully on posts before sending connection requests 2/ Share valuable resources with no strings attached 3/ Follow up after conversations (most people don’t) 4/ Ask questions and actually listen to answers 5/ Offer help before asking for favors 6/ Connect people who should know each other 7/ Show up consistently, not when you need something 8/Send voice notes or quick videos instead of formal emails 9/ Remember details about people’s lives and projects One genuine connection beats 100 superficial ones. Quality always wins over quantity.

A healthcare company recently asked me an interesting question: "how would you teach sellers to social sell with LinkedIn?" Here's a summary of my thinking: 1) Get into the habit of posting. Share your perspectives from conversations with buyers. Share what you're seeing. Mistakes being made. Cool things you're seeing teams do. ... this will feed into point 3 2) Be a "reply guy" Who are the big names in your space? (With a bajillion followers posting insightful stuff) Comment on their posts. They have the visibility - use it. Who are folks posting about topics connected to what you do? They don't need to be big names. Comment on their posts too! This will be more natural because the connection to "your thing" will be easier. Thoughtfully respond to their posts with your own perspective. Not AI generated summaries. Not "agree" slop. Like actually sit and have a POV. Disagree even! You job is to add to the conversation with either humor... or helpfulness. 3) As you do outbound to your prospects via other channels, connect with them on LinkedIn. Send a thoughtful note w the connect that connects back to why you reached out to them via other channels. Note that you're reaching out via other channels. When they connect - the social feeds will prioritize your content as a new connection. This adds surround sound to your outreach by putting your thinking in their feed > their inbox. 4) Once they've connected... don't aggressively pitch. Yes... if your thing is just sooo relevant and the timing is just perfect... sure. But remember. Social media isn't a direct response engine. It's a place for making connection. Your sales job will extend beyond your current role. You want to build network > being another seller annoying them in another channel. Seek to learn, and help them learn as well (and no... they don't want to check out your post/webinar/etc.... this is weird behavior) 5) Don't overdo it If they're not responding.. that's ok. Last thing you want is to have your connection removed. Keep posting content. These 5 steps do something simple: 1) They show you're a real person with something to bring to the table 2) It creates an opportunity to nurture 3) It gives a lower pressure way to engage with you 4) It amplifies your other outreach to say "I really am a person and I wanna talk to you" I'm certainly not the "expert" here... I look to people like Darren McKee who are phenomenal about nurturing the folks that engage and humanizing outreach with 1:1 techniques like selfie videos. But, thought this could be helpful as you consider leaning into LinkedIn beyond another place to spam people.