AartiGadhia

[Music] you enjoy networking do you enjoy networking I don't it depends on the crowd yes not really sometimes I do want to run away I don't do it too much I know I should but I would love the opportunity to what is networking

here we're going to

so some of the key takeaways you walk out of his with are why networking is vital to build your personal Network how to get comfortable and reduce some of that anxiety that you might feel with preparing to a networking event or any event um and some views and does of networking remotely or in

person

person

okay

I

all right and uh my little introduction is that I'm a mom I'm an ex conservice I'm the president of L but uh we these sisters cre cyber security um businesss now so I'm here to serve and and my saying is do your very best wherever you are because that will Propel you and everything else oh all right

whoops answer question is why

is

and [Music]

and whatever it is all right just to step back a little bit well what is now worth so a couple definitions one is it's use in under an individual company financi Health alternatively investing in your own network equals guaranteed return so this may come as you know fut opportunities your next job um building on whatever your personal purposes is to build a network and in increase or share um your values you can do that with more people that know what your Fus value is all

[Laughter]

right

and what's

WR

um no I'll save my story for a little bit

later

first let's talk about I think our images are yeah how

[Music]

many area

I

remember but

again

so

we um so self profess introvert as well um it's not easy originally wasn't easy going out and to events and certain conversations um my story uh back over 20 years ago was I graduated from University I was working in not this industry a different industry uh but decided to go back to school to reschool or re-educate myself 9mon intensive program um and this was just around the dot. boom and bust so at the end of uh the N9 month it was just spiral spiraling it was a bus nobody everybody's getting laid off nobody was getting jobs and um I was attending my first formal networking event specifically to meet with hiring um companies organizations and let me tell you going

into that with 100 people I was nervous um never gone to a formal networking event and um I I did some things that helped me prepare I'm not sure a little the rest of my story a couple couple tips

later a number I don't know how

um yeah I don't know how to network so coming to an event like this uh just opens your eyes to some of the things that others um have experienced and other thing um tips and tricks that others have um have worked out for themselves um I don't know how to know netw work so um one of the things oh and we the barrier yeah move okay connecting through a common passion so in yesterday's King with Michael falling he mentioned what are your other interests um is was Lego and Star Trek um so there's opportunities for I mean everybody has other interests other than cyber security right I hope so um and so there are meetup groups um on online

there's you know essentially a meetup group for everything so that's an opportunity to go out and and meet people and follow your passion and who knows there's there may be a connection or U an opportunity in those routes um

what

something

find that question online

okay okay uh there was an image here barrier number three Was Fear just fear of networking um who in the room fears just having to approach yeah I think I think everybody to some extent um you're of rejection right you go up to somebody and they don't want to talk to you um so is a real a real fear our tip for this is to prepare an event um Ry has an amazing story which I heard and I I would say that very brave I'm GNA let you showare your story and then we'll go into a couple other things where you can prepare in

a

so

but

I

for

they were it was

great

okay okay no worries okay I guess I'll just okay um so prepare in advance um what I've done is I'll always have a couple questions in my back pocket so I can start a conversation as as simple as um the keynote speaker um what what event or what session are you look looking most forward to or has been the best attended and you know it's something you learned so just having those questions ready poet easy conversation starters um the other thing I'll do as a self challenge is for any event um like my purpose there is Network make connections so I'll see to myself give myself I'm gonna try to meet two or three people um I don't numb know for the sake

connecting and I don't even know your name can connect what's your name who are you what are you about let have a little conversation before you try to connect otherwise I

will

sh uh and being inclusive so one thing um I'll do when I come to a conference or an event if I see someone standing by themselves I'm sure they're going to welcome somebody coming up to them and starting a conversation so I'll just say hey you know what brought you to this event or how did you hear about this event I'm always curious about how people hear about events because we we try to promote our events through um women in cyber security so I'm always curious how people find out about events either it's of mouth maybe it's Eventbrite maybe it's an instructor uh at State who knew about our event and is sharing our event so that's a great

thing for me to know um and and I think when you're um when you're standing and having a conversation and you see someone that's walking alone um or standing there by themselves it's it's really great just to bring them into the conversation hey do you want to join your conversation just as simply as that and they'll appreciate it anybody would appreciate appreciate that I think right yeah the authentic part again same thing so I uh don't drink much so I'm not the person who's it's sometimes so much easier that you all go to the bar and you're all talking about drinks and all that right I don't so I'm not going to fake it and go there and do that

because that's just not me right so be yourself and be comfortable being yourself right and Back Again M brought a very important point which is about being inclusive you will see others who are similar to you uh who may not be at the bar go walk up to them right next one ah I don't have time oh my gosh this was my number one everybody brought this up I don't have time we've got so many things on our plate I even talked about it last night when I went to uh an event with all my teammates and I said hey maybe you should do this this this

about what you can do a tip is you have to invest in yourself because if you don't invest in yourself nobody's going to invest in you you you'll be lucky to have some good sponsors some good mentors but the only way you're going to find a good Mentor or a good sponsor is by networking so nobody's going to invest in you until you've got to invest in yourself first all it takes literally all it takes is dedicate 30 minutes that's it 30 minutes how many people are doing that 30 minutes a month one yeah two yes yeah awesome gu like guaranteed 30 minutes and make it repetitive don't just do okay yeah I'm fresh out of this conference I'm going

to network and then guess what life hits It's hard and i' i' I've been one of those where suddenly I'm like oh my gosh this month I haven't done my 30 minutes so make make it to Habit and all it takes is 30 minutes and network network within um your Community Network outside but I'm going to pause so that Mana can add a little bit more um one of the tips here too is you know if um if it doesn't come naturally to you or there are no events that come up put in your calendar maybe um it's as again I'm going to just refer back to our keynote speaker of yesterday um where he found um eating so having a

lunch but connecting with somebody during that time instead of sitting in front of your screen and just continuing to work or watching whatever videos on YouTube make that make that a conscious decision to connect with somebody and you're eating so there's there's distraction you're eating and have some of that conversation is not like face to face the whole time um yeah and so if you don't schedule it it it doesn't happen right okay um right next oh okay so things to avoid um all right blank connections so this is one of my pit peeves um I'll get a connection request but I haven't met you um we don't know each other and I just get a connection

request no introduction no message I I don't know who you are so I'm not going to respond um so I'd just like to say if you are reaching out and this has happened to me um I've reached out to individuals um in my previous role uh in business development and um there was no connection there was no response so sending out a blank connection doesn't work by chance it might but I would say in general uh it doesn't work uh lack of communications so this is where you've been somebody has met has met me they've um tolded a potential employer that I'm uh a referral um that I I would refer them so I get a call but

you haven't you haven't communic with me that I'm a referral for you I have no idea what to say I'm not prepared um I'm just it's fairly awkward and it looks bad for you um next is uh limiting to one community so if you think that you only need to network within uh the cyber security industry you're really limiting yourself because you never know where your connections are going to come from it could be your existing Community your existing family sorry your family um your not a new family but um your your family your existing Community you know where you live where you um go to church if you go to church um if you go to

Community Center whatever it is um you have networks there um and and don't forget your existing where you're where you current L working where you're currently going to school there's always Network um networks and connections to me made there um the last my last four um last four companies I've worked at it hasn't I haven't had to apply um it was all through connections I made in those prior companies um so similarly since I'm since 2013 I haven't had to apply for a job um okay avoid it being a one time thing so it's not a onetime transaction if you reach out and ask can you help me get a job am I I'm not a recruiting

service uh I'm not a hiring body so don't make it a transaction it's about a relationship right and so this leads to point number five um again avoid having it as a one-way relationship what can what can you do for me think about what I could do for you you could do for me so it's a two-way street anything to add Ry I actually experimented this because as I was doing this talk and preparing for this a few years ago I've done this talk before um I experimented the first one blank connections I went and I sent it to a a certain number of connections uh and didn't put anything at all and it was a 50% accepted rate uh uh rate only

50% accepted so I was lucky I guess but when I look at what when I personalized it to that there was a 98% acceptance from that and remember like in LinkedIn you sent that you can't go back and resend it because it's pending and that person's just ignored you and moved on so you don't have two chances or a second shot so blank connections just don't do that because we get tons and many of us also get tons we don't know um and then again same thing um with limiting it to one Community I'm in cyber security I'm not just limiting it to cyber security Community uh I I have a purpose and my purpose is yes bring

more Women Within cyber security but also because I'm expanding my network outside of cyber security there's so much that I'm learning I did this presentation as a result um to the accounting Community um I learned a lot about that and I was invited to go and talk to the community and that's how I started building that um Dentistry is another um group of people that I started going out to so so go outside because there's so I learned from other industries that we can apply here into cyber security yes and then yeah I don't know if you were there earlier on is f yes so earlier on one of the tip I provided was uh about finding something common uh

with that individual so think of why you want to connect with that individual right in my case I wanted to learn what was going on in the accounting world uh from A diversity perspective because they have more women than we do but they have the challenge of not having enough partners for a female and that was something I learned so again it was think of that common purpose so I was reaching out to CFOs uh asking them I wanted to connect personally because this is what I'm trying to learn a little bit more about and then I learned a lot about them so yeah but again start start with why do you want to connect with that person

think about why you want to connect with that person find a mentor be someone uh I for for me one of my mentors is not even in cyber security my mentor is someone who has founded a company and it's amazing how much I'm learning because that person's just not in cyber security you know we'll stop for we'll do questions um we just need to do the group exercise because I really want to make sure we do the group exercise and we'll have questions okay so just to uh finish off my personal story um on networking so I had shared that I'd gone back to school I'd quit my job gone back to school full-time um graduating when um the

dotcom bust was happening so nobody was hiring people were laying off um I was at this formal um grad networking event 100 people really nervous and what I did was I prepared questions and I knew all of my fellow grads were also buying for jobs and um so what did I do I when I went into that uh that networking session I knew I needed to be myself and to connect authentically with not everybody but individuals um that I felt a A vibe with um that I felt the same energy it ended up that I made one key connection a couple key connections but one that led to an interview uh at the bank of Mel I didn't

get the job um but because this individual said um I actually don't think this is the career for you and directed me to the other stream that uh our program offered and so the one program was programming the other was business analysis I ended up being a business anal a business analyst for 20 years um and that skill and so that was pivotal for me having that individual that connected with me saw my potential and directed me in a different direction um so yeah that that is it okay so now we're going to move into our speed networking exercise so for the second half of this uh session what we've done is we've structured um an opportunity for

everybody here to meet at least three maybe four people make that connection so what what it is uh what we're going to do are we gonna set this up if you for to 10 years go this side you been um for new from zero to two years come this side students that grueser uh

students

yes

you can go in that you're good cyber okay okay all right everybody thank you thank

you start pairing if seven of you come this andeven MD

start and similar here here so find somebody in the opposite did you say did you say 2 to1 No 2 to1 was the yeah just find somebody on that

side hang on could I have your attention wow and you and you all said that you didn't like networking wow okay so here's the first thing we're going to do in the next three minutes is your question with your current pair and we're going to deal with you shortly um is cover within the first three minutes an ice breaker right which is your favorite food and what platforms you use to build your Network online share any tips on how you're building one tip I would give you is get this right off at the start because we're building your Network online as you're connecting with that individual is pull up your LinkedIn and share your connection because now

you've got a new connection just make sure whoever you're connected to is not someone you know so if you know somebody come here in the middle if you're car someone you know come here in the middle and a Qui as a quick tip for LinkedIn QR code when you search for somebody at the end of that bar you'll see a QR code that's where your QR code is

I wanted to introduce with someone she's a student and she's

a c most of the stuff make her work in volunteer stuff

I don't do it [Music]

myself

so

I and then I us

if I want to say online can I ask online people how they can connect so would they listen would they be okay online if you can hear me my task hopefully you can hear me I don't know can someone can do a thumbs up I can't see them okay so for online just a quick thing can anyone respond in the chat that you can hear me those who are online could we type can you hear us can you hear Arty so for those who are online if you're comfortable if you're comfortable share your LinkedIn on the chat LinkedIn link on the chat so if we get 10 people who share it pick someone there yes you can

perfect pick someone uh if you start sharing a LinkedIn link pick someone who has shared that and connect with each other right make sure you in there I met I'm I'm doing the exercise so somebody can accept right away when you see this on the chat and connect with each other offline and maybe just chat via LinkedIn so who's who's our first taker who's gonna join who's gonna share your

LinkedIn yeah okay finish

yeah need your attention you know this is I've done this at so many events and it's so hard like beginning I have so so many hands up don't like networking but it sounds like it's hard for me to get you all to stop talking uh one conference I actually ended up playing really loud music that didn't help um we have only 3 minutes left and we would have loved to continue this but this doesn't stop because now even as you go outside if you want to connect with somebody else right pick a topic or pick something and say hey I just went to this networking experience and here we go right this is what I learned out

of it so maybe if we can get everyone to sit back was it fun I know I know we needed more

time yes definitely I've seen your name yes I know you definitely perfect good to me okay everyone sit down we're lifing up because we've only got two minutes I would like to get everyone quickly sitting please can we have everyone's attention see it gets so hard right so quiet in the beginning nobody wants to keep quiet okay just put up the second take it so if you want to take great man has this if you want to take this out um this is the second question so you can continue on as you leave this is this is the Icebreaker that you can continue on uh sorry could we please have your attention I need two people

who can share a little bit about how the experience was anyone any takers who wants to yeah how was the experience go for it the exercise how do you

feel

did it feel uncomfortable in the beginning or not at all yeah no now you've got a theme you've got a topic you've got that you've prepared right uh at the

back okay

M yeah it's not easy trust me it is not easy I mean I I shared the story in the beginning that uh I'm an introvert and I find it really hard but it takes practice practice practice and you know what you may not connect straight away with the first person keep going on to the next one to the next one you never know until you find that person who could end up being your Mentor who could end up being your sponsor you you never know who you connect with but the only way is by reaching out um and to your point about doing this multiple times a day I was exhausted by the end of yesterday I

needed a bath um I needed my own time it was it's exhausting but if you know what you're coming for um and again beginning of the presentation was come with the intention of maybe meeting two people right and having a real conversation and but also end it if you're not connecting like if there's nothing more there just in the conversation you don't have to have a whole hour conversation with somebody that you're not connecting with that's okay exactly so as we wrap up we'll go all the way to the end because I know it's um the next session that's going to come in um here's a couple of things right you can connect with us um so feel free to reach out to

us if you have uh anything want to ask us personally if uh if there's experiences you didn't enjoy experiences that you enjoyed reach out to us right yes um so whis pronounced uh Weis as we sisters um western Canada affiliate we started a couple years ago um our our mission um Wiis Global is to recruit retain and Advance women in the field of cyber security we at um the Western Canada affiliate we want to build community Through events because we feel like that is the most tactile way and real way um to build connections we had online events through um the pandemic uh but now that we're back in person um we've been holding events all

year um Vancouver Calgary Edmonton we're looking for um more active participants um in Saskatchewan Manitoba we also represent Yukon in the Northwest Territories so if you're interested in um out of our next event please follow us on LinkedIn that is our QR code to a landing page there you'll find our LinkedIn YouTube and Instagram appreciate

your one thing I did say is just

find doesn't it's okay there's so many there's so many others many times I've

gone We're Not Gonna I'm not gonna be so we have that expectation um I

knowk awesome thank you so [Music] much