Outreach_Networking_Plan.md

Outreach & Networking Plan

As we've discussed, meeting people, forming relationships, and having conversations are the key pieces to getting your foot in the door at any company. It's important to be proactive in your approach to outreach and networking, so it's necessary to make a plan for what you'll try to further your networking.

Identify a contact you will reach out to by the end of this module. This could be a mentor, alum, or anyone from your current network. Describe:

Who your contact is, why you want to connect with them, and what you want to talk about

I've reached out to Tyler Merry at Motley Fool. He's an old family friend from high school who had been working in the industry out here for some time. I want to talk to him about the different positions he's held at different companies and what has made each position or company great or lacking.

When you will contact them by and how you plan to meet

I contacted him on Thursday and we met up for a drink Sunday. We are going to meet up for a more social, less networking, hang the last week of this mod with our significant others.

What your follow-up will look like once you've met with them

I really enjoy and trust Tyler and feel comfortable being vulnerable around him as I go through this process. I think I can ask more direct questions and use him as a sounding board to practice discussions that I will be having with people I'm trying to network with who I don't have a past relationship with.

What other steps will you take to start building a stronger network in the tech community?

I want to cold outreach some mentors and start getting practice having these awkward meet ups so they don't feel so awkward after a while. I plan to reach out to alum Tiffany Bachmann after hearing some great things about her from another alum I know. The challenging part of outreach is clearing indicated what I want to gain from them - figuring that out is hard, communicating it is hard. At this point, I'm not looking for an 'in' with any job or company as much as I want to connect with and learn from as many people working in the industry as I can. I want to hear their stories and understand what they do, and how they talk about it.

I've reached out to a friend of a friend who is a recruiter and will be going to some social events with that friend group so I can get to know her better and make that connection.

I have a few former hotel guests who I really enjoyed that I will be connecting with on linkedIn. I'm not sure what their exact roles and industries are but they already think highly of me as a manager/worker so if they have connections to tech I feel they could be great assets to my network.

I want to be better about immediately reaching out to connect with anyone I meet at a lunch panel or in passing at Turing. A tenuous connection can go a really long way.