Tag Archives: introverts

Networking for Introverts

My personality type, according to Myers-Briggs, is INTJ. This means that I’m introverted. When I tell people that I just meet that I’m an introvert, they usually don’t believe me. I’m pretty friendly when you first meet me, I love public speaking. That’s the common misconception about introverts– that we’re all a pack of antisocial outcasts that can’t hold a conversation. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

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I actually love people; it’s just that when I interact with large droves of them, it drains me. Because of this, networking for many introverts is a nightmare. However, as a business student, networking is vital for finding a job and then excelling at it.

I’ve learned that networking doesn’t have to be draining. Here’s a couple of tips of how I do it:

  1. Don’t try to talk to everyone at once.
    Seriously, you don’t have to talk to everyone at the event.  Instead, choose a couple of people that you can relate to and concentrate all of your energy on them. This is great because you make a more memorable connection with someone AND you don’t get drained by attempting to talk to EVERYONE at once.
  2. People at networking events want to meet you.
    A lot of my introverted friends are too terrified of talking to anyone at the event because they don’t know what they’re going to say. Don’t be scared. Most people want to talk to you. They want to tell you about their jobs. They want to meet you. Just ask them a question about themselves or the company and the conversation will eventually flow naturally.

Remember, you don’t have to be an extrovert to be good at networking. If you’ve been avoiding networking events because your introvert– stop. You can do it!