🎒 Microlesson

🪞 Reflect

How do you expand your professional network when working remotely?

💡 Concept

We know from research that connecting with other people makes us feel more satisfied in general, both in life and at work, and that nurturing professional connections is linked to more job opportunities.

So how can you develop these vital connections when you are working remotely?

There are three ways to make connections in a virtual environment:

Directly: Ask people to connect with you or request a personal introduction.

Serendipitously: Connect with people by chance, like at meetings or events.

Passively: Wait for people to reach out to you to connect.

In an office environment, you can more easily rely on serendipity to provide opportunities to meet people. In a virtual environment, however, you need to be more intentional in your efforts. You can expand your network by

1. making outreach a regular habit

2. finding and creating opportunities for serendipity

3. developing a personal brand that inspires others to want to connect with you

In future microlessons, we’ll dive into numbers two and three. For today, we’ll focus on number one: making outreach a regular habit.

Start by setting a goal for growing your network—what are your professional goals for the near future? How will professional connections help you achieve those goals?

Next, examine your current network to see who among your connections may be able to help you achieve your goals, or connect you to other people who can. In this examination, identify any gaps you may have—for instance, if you’re exploring a career change into customer success, and your personal network is lacking in this area, filling this gap would be a priority for you.

If there are people you would like to learn more about and from, you’ll want to schedule informational interviews, which are structured conversations that help you learn about people in roles, companies, or industries that interest you.

Finally, make a monthly or weekly plan for direct outreach, such as reaching out to 4 new people a month, or scheduling one informational interview per week. Add these tasks to whatever tool you use for task management to make sure you set aside time for your regular outreach.

🎬 Take Action

Follow these steps to reach out to someone new today:

1. Identify and research the person you want to connect with to find their LinkedIn profile or email address.

2. Send a message requesting to connect (or if you know of a mutual connection that could personally introduce you, ask them to do so). In your message, include information about who you are and why you want to connect and, if applicable, request an informational interview.

3. If they agree, make sure to thank them!

✅ Check In

🧠 Keep Learning

Learn more about how to develop social capital across distance, including how to conduct informational interviews, in our Growplaceless course.

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