Digital Networking for Dummies

July 2022

If you’re in high school or even younger, reaching out to people on the internet is one of the highest ROI things you can do. It doesn’t take a lot of time, can lead to cool opportunities, and allows you to build your network with intention.

Being a (high school) student, your social circle is pre-determined by a few major institutions (i.e. your family, school, place of work, etc.) Pre-prescribed relationships with the absence of choice are often a matter of convenience; outreach allows you to regain will in who you interact with.

Actively choosing to broaden my social horizons has led to finding some of the most valuable experiences and meeting some amazing, interesting people I wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. I strongly believe more young people (13-17) should put effort into networking as daunting as it may seem.

Networking itself is highly valuable for building personally-rewarding relationships and professional advancement. Networking virtually gives you access to pretty much anyone you want to get in contact with and is more time-efficient.

One may argue that trying to develop yourself professionally as a teenager isn’t worthwhile. I somewhat grapple with this myself, but I’ve come to the consensus that it’s still net positive, even if you supposedly fail.

Regardless, it’s quite hypocritical of me to not acknowledge the psych barriers I’ve faced by taking this on myself. Here’s a thought that I had frequently when starting cold outreach.

For example, suppose I meet someone very impressive as a teenager. Instead of them knowing me when I’ve become academically and socially “competent” self, they meet my awkward teenage self bound to make mistakes. Their impression of me never changes and now I’ve severed a relationship forever…

Although I’m still in the not-so-socially competent stage of life, I can hope that most people (even the “impressive” ones)

  1. Won’t remember their brief (digital) interaction(s) with you
  2. Won’t hold it against you that you weren’t at 100% social competency in your teens

So, I suppose if you’re still reading this, you’re interested in learning how to actually start networking. So here’s some advice…

Networking with Intention

Although, I generally lean toward not optimizing my social (virtual) interactions for personal gain. Sending cold-outreach messages requires succinctness that can only be found if you’re pretty clear with what you hope to get out of said interaction.

How to Do It

Basic Rules of Thumb (Please don’t be offended if this is common sense to you)

  1. If you’re using Linkedin, Twitter, etc. – optimize your profile. Having a profile picture, bio, and list of your past experiences is generally good. Arguably, the bio is less important if your past experiences point to your interests and skills and are more important if they don’t.
  2. Have good grammar. Coming off as authentic is an important task – but don’t sacrifice grammar in the process. Instead, get a free account and ask someone to proofread your emails if you’re especially concerned about accomplishing this.
  3. Express your ‘want’ within the first three sentences of your email – this is a general benchmark. Getting to the point helps the recipient save time learning how they can help you. Note: Be wary of asking for advice on things/seeking answers that you could easily retrieve on your own with some internet digging.
    Note: Booking a coffee chat is a highly-valuable ‘want’! is a great tool for booking them
  4. Send links. Links are optional but are (hopefully) highly informative and awesome. Working on a project? Create a doc outlining what you’re working on – even better, make a landing page. I would attribute most of my outreach success to sending documents alongside a message. Why?
  5. Don’t Spam. If someone hasn’t responded to your email, they probably haven’t because they’re: too busy, not interested in responding, don’t check their email often or for another pragmatic reason. Depending on the basis for reaching out (i.e. for a research/internship opportunity), it may be valuable to send a follow-up email, especially if the person gets a high frequency of messages.
  6. Reaching out to a person >>> Reaching out to an institution (find people on Twitter, About Us pages, LinkedIn, etc.)

Here’s an example follow-up message:

> Hello, > I’m {Name} a student at New University. I reached out to you earlier about {Project Link} project I was working on and was wondering if you would be interested in chatting about {Current Situation} problem I was having. I value your time and completely understand if you’re too busy, however, if you knew someone else who would be helpful, please feel free to share the doc that I’ve attached. > Have a great rest of your week, > {Name}

Overcoming Self-Doubt

The worst thing that can happen is someone doesn’t respond, nay, they respond with something hurtful. In that case, give yourself the benefit of the doubt that you didn’t do anything wrong. The chances of this happening if you’re polite is relatively low, as being mean requires more energy than people are willing to expend through email. I would generally argue that you should lower your threshold for reaching out to people as long as your perceived expected value from each outreach attempt doesn’t decrease. If you’re especially young (i.e. 13-17), you should be keen to reach out to people. People tend to be generally more impressed with seemingly basic attempts at initiative within this age group – warranting kinder, more frequent responses. Imposter syndrome can still be a barrier to cold outreach, but here’s an excerpt from a blog post by Chris Olah that explains how I feel at the moment on the topic. > Adjust for Impostor Syndrome? My personal experience is that I both get lots of blatant spam emails (eg. “do my homework for me”) and find out that many people who I’d really want to email me (eg. seriously thought about one of my papers and want to talk) are hesitant to do so. I’ve particularly noticed that the average quality of emails from junior women is much higher than the average, and suspect that they are typically applying a much higher threshold for reaching out. I don’t know how to help you adjust for this, but if you’re worrying about reaching out you should probably update positively that it’s more likely you should. **Notes**
  1. If you feel like reaching out, I highly recommend that you do.
  2. Reach out with a purpose – the clearer your intentions, the more effective your attempt(s) will be.
  3. Don’t take anything personally – people are busy, and chances are it’s not your fault if an interaction doesn’t go the way you like.