Important note: I would highly recommend reading the previous post Writing networking emails: The basic formula first.

There are 3 main ways that I receive requests for networking chats: email, LinkedIn, and slack (my company’s main internal communication channel). I’ll break down how I consider each modality.

Very likely other people will approach this differently, but I hope this at least gives some insight into what it’s like on the other side to receive networking chat requests.

Email

First of all, I’ll admit that there are only 2 ways to find my email, which is on my personal website embedded in the email icon in the footer and in my resume contact info which is only hosted on my personal website. This is intentional. My website is easily accessible (e.g., via Google search, LinkedIn, Google Scholar), but it’s a couple extra steps to locate my email. Therefore, anyone who reaches out to me via email, I hope has likely already looked at my LinkedIn and read through my website to find my email. This makes me more hopeful that our conversation will not be generic and that they are reaching out for a specific reason.

(Sometimes, when I participate in speaking events about my transition from academia to industry or to interns within my company, I think that my work email is given out.)

Even then, there are reasons that I am less motivated to respond to an email:

  • Subject line is generic and uninformative. (See bad and better examples in section How to write the first email: Crafting your subject line in Writing networking emails: The basic formula)
  • Request is unclear. There’s no specific request of what you want to talk about (topics or questions) or no specific scheduling request.
  • Multiple substantial back-and-forth emails. Personally, I will always find it more efficient to hop on a video call and answer questions in one go. If we’ve already video called once and you have more questions but not enough for a second call, save them up until you do. I’m happy to chat again in a couple months if it’d be productive but I’m very unlikely to spend time writing long email responses.
    • Notable exception: If you have a follow-up question that’s quick for me to answer (most commonly, introducing you to another connection), that’s ok!

Note about personal introductions from friends

If someone is personally connected to a friend of mine, I find that often this is normally the sequence of events: my friends texts me and asks if they can introduce me/pass along my contact to a connection of theirs > I give my friend permission to pass along my work email > connection reaches out

There are 2 important things to take away from this:

  1. Make it clear that you connected to my personal friend when you reach out! 100% of the time, I’ll respond to your email and set up some time.
  2. After we connect and chat, I’ll likely tell my friend how our chat went. Here’s an except from the previous post Networking misconceptions:
    • If you are introduced to that person’s connection, don’t be an ass - this happens more often than one would think
      • We all have a certain amount of social capital, and it hurts that person if they connect you with a personal connection and the interaction is bad. It’s ok if you’re awkward. But if you are fine talking with that person but suddenly have bad social graces with their connections, that’s a red flag.
      • Again, see misconception #4 (“Don’t argue with them”), which is the most common reason that a networking interaction goes poorly.

LinkedIn

🔥 Hot take: I don’t accept connection requests from people that I don’t personally know and who don’t include a message as to why they would like to connect. I might be too rigid/harsh in this and may change my mind later on.

  • I do accept connection requests from people who write a short message as to why they would like to connect or how they know me (e.g., from a prior speaking event, friend of friend, alumni from a similar scientific background).
  • I do accept networking chat requests people who do the above AND explicitly ask to schedule a networking chat. Usually I then provide my work email so that we can schedule an exact time/date there. If you don’t explicitly ask to schedule a call, I assume that you’re just saying hi.

Slack

If you reach out through slack because you’re already in our company’s internal communication channel (as an intern, contractor, or full-timer), I will 100% respond and set up time in our work calendars to chat.

Here’s an except from section Network during the internship in Doing industry internships during your PhD:

There are also 2 main timepoints to actively put yourself out there:

  • At the beginning of the internship — Let others know that you are there! Otherwise, the reality is that no one will know that you exist.
  • Towards the end of the internship — Let others know when your internship is ending and what your target timeline is for starting a full-time job. Again, remind people that you are on the job market.

And another from the section Find out best communication methods in It’s all about luck, but there are ways to make yourself luckier:

For internships, how do you stay in the default company communication channel after the official work period ends? Normally, you’re added to company communication channel as an intern, contractor, or via a guest account. This guest account is very important for PhD students.

Bad, realistic scenario for PhD students: Once you finish a summer internship, you stop working > you stop being paid > you stop having access to e.g., slack > you stop hearing about potential opportunities because you are now outside the system and the barrier for contacting you is much higher than before

Better, realistic alternative: Once you finish a summer internship, offer to continue collaborating (this usually means working for free, which is obviously not ideal) > you stop being paid, but you remain as a “guest” in the company’s communication system > you can continue asking people for networking chats, have access to guest resources, and hear about company updates (which gives you clues about fiscal cycles for headcount budgeting) > people can then ping you whenever they hear about relevant opportunities

AI was not used to write, edit, or brainstorm this post. All mistakes and em dashes are my own.