​Networking can be overwhelming – You’re not alone

At one of our Signature Career Fair events last week, I was having a conversation with one of the recruiters participating in the event.  He prefaced our conversation with, "This is likely to be the most millennial thing you'll hear all day."  Of course, this peaked my interest and I had to hear more.  
 
For a little bit of context, there were roughly 20 companies with 2-4 recruiters per company present and roughly 100 job seekers all in the same room as we were talking. There was a networking are near the food and beverage along with tables for each of the companies participating.   
 
As we chatted, he seemed a bit overwhelmed with that many people in the room and was in need of a break.  So we stepped into the hallway to talk some more.  He mentioned that as a recruiter, most of his job is done via LinkedIn Messenger, replying to emails and sending text messages to his perspective candidates.  Every once in a while he would have a phone conversation, but most of the time the hiring manager would actually be doing the phone outreach.  It had been some time since he participated in a face-to-face event and the large group of candidates in front of him came across as a bit daunting to communicate with.  

As with all of our events, my main goal is to be sure we can have real connections with real people.  
 
Through our conversation we were able to talk about some best practices in conversation starters along with some best practices in self-care while participating in events that may be overwhelming. 
 
Some of the tips we talked about were:

• Introduce yourself / Give Context to the Conversation
  • Provide your name and role
  • Provide some base information about the company
  • Provide some base information about your role
• Ask permission to chat with folks
  • It’s ok if candidates say no to communicating
  • It’s ok if candidates say yes to communicating
• Provide a timeline of the length of your conversation
• Have your conversation
• Ask if it’s ok to follow up with them and write down their contact info (name, email, Instagram handle, phone, whatever they would like to provide for contact)
• Once you’re done with one short conversation, take a break
• Take 30 seconds to 2 minutes to step away from the networking area and make some notes. Name of person, what chatted about.
• Take a deep breath
• Jump back into your next 5 minute conversation

 
Once we talked about some of these points, we rehearsed them together.  I would do a base introduction and then have him repeat it back to me. 
 
“Hi my name is Chris and I’m the founder of Chaleur Creative.  Would you like to talk together for 5 minutes?”
 
“Hi my name is Chris and I’d love to hear about your experiences. As someone who is the founder of a company that specializes in real connections with real people, I’d love to have a conversation with you and see what Chaleur Creative can do to support your career path.”
 
“Hi my name is Chris and I’d love to hear about what brought you here tonight.  Would you like to chat briefly together about that?”
 
After the recruiter and I rehearsed some, we both took a deep breath and went back into the room and started having short conversations. That brief moment together in the hallway made it possible for him to continue with the conversations that evening.  
 
All of us are equipped to have in-person conversations.  Some of us have a limited quantity of time that we are able to do this.  If you’re attending a networking event or a situation where you could possible be in a large group that causes you some anxiety or can be overwhelming, remember there are steps you can take to have some self-care in the moment. 
 
If this sounds like you, you’re not alone.  We are in this together and you are valued, seen and appreciated. 
 
Chaleur Creative has a mission of making real connections with real people. We accomplish this by connecting digitally and in-person with folks through networking events, educational events and career fairs. 
 
Did you know?  You can now follow Chaleur Creative on LinkedIn to keep up to date on our educational, networking and career fair events.  Our main priority is real connections with real people.