Networking is a valuable skill that can help you find new opportunities, advance your career, and learn from others. What are your tips for networking?
Help the community by answering the question:
How do you network?
At an event should you ask someone where they work?
Should you be ready with any sort of structured questions about their job?
Should you be ready with any sort of structured questions about their approach to testing?
How do you take a more structured approach to events where networking is a goal?
How do you best take advantage of a yearly conference that has so many brilliant people all at once?
Itās implied in the question if that helps - āHow do you network?ā. If you donāt then the answer would be"I donāt network", and hopefully people that do not currently network can learn something from the community and thread.
I donāt network:
I find too many people under-prepared for professional testing work and have no patience to undo their wrong learnings.
I am on the spectrum so avoid talking to people in general.
I tried in the past with several conferences and meetups. I just felt too depressed.
Iām curious - do people find it easier to network online, or in person?
Iāve attended webinars and conferences online (not Test Bash unfortunately) and find potential for casual conversation is limited, or maybe itās me!
In answer to the original question though - if Iām online then I donāt understand how to approach other people who may simply be a random name on a list of attendees. Versus if I was sat next to someone in a conference centre, I would say hello.
If you have an opinion, Share it!
Liked a talk, share your feedback!
Something resonated, Talk about it!
If something doesnāt feel so good, Share constructive feedbackā¦
Thank you for sharing.
Do you have any tips or wish list of what would be an ideal scenario/environment for a meetup for you, or a conference?
You might be surprised how many people feel the same way, or also on the spectrum but they have different experiences.
I most certainly do network! Online and in person!
I find that by putting stuff out there, like LinkedIn posts, talks, blogs, MoT content and content with other providers that I will get people coming to me to ask about testing things. Thatās usually a foot in the door for follow up conversations and building relationships.
At meetups and conferences, I come knowing that I want to engage and network so will try to seem approachable and engage in conversations (I prefer one on ones).
I try not to rush away following talks so that I can be available to chat to people at the socials (except for one TestBash where I had an impacted tooth and wasnāt very personable lol).
I follow up by continuing to talk to awesome people on slack / in coffee chats and wherever really, sometimes about testing and sometimes JUST ABOUT LIFE. Like with my teams, I like to be human with other testers heh.
If people want to come and talk at me to explain how something Iāve said is so totally wrong and want to explain how it doesnāt work in their contextā¦ they get a bit of polite listening but Iām not obliged to give them hours of my time
Personally I never have a set of anything structured planned to talk about, but thatās me. I like a more off the cuff chat about topics that we organically find interesting (maybe even not testing). I find that this makes me seem more authentic and engaging.
However, Iām very used to talking about testing topics so donāt need all that much preparation to have a chat about a lot of topics. Plus Iām always happy to say when I donāt know somethingā¦ so your experiences may differ.
