Hi, welcome back to Eat Your Cress Podcast. I'm Crystal.
I'm Jisu. I'm Harpreet.
Welcome Harpreet to the podcast. Before we get to our topic at hand, we have a fun slang word to
talk about. The word is puky and it's also sometimes used as puky bear. I think this word is really
funny because it sounds like what it is a pet name for someone you care about or love and it's
pretty funny because the way it's used as slang is kind of ironically or poking fun at the usage of
these kinds of sometimes silly pet names. I've actually first seen it from the NBA or a lot of
fans like to call their favorite players puky especially in moments where they're praising them
or admiring them. So I have like a personal theory on why this has research lately because the word
puky and that term specifically is not new but there's some sort of couple on tiktok that blew up
and they live this like very lavish lifestyle. They're very very affectionate to each other
and it's to the point where their skits and tiktok almost feel scripted. So that couple, I think
the guy's name is like jet or something and the girl's name is puky. The couple they narrate their
videos so the guy's like oh today puky and I went to go do this like blah blah blah. So then I feel
like it became a meme of this is like a very publicly affectionate couple who love posting their
like affectionate pet names for each other. So let's kind of take the puky meme and roll with it
essentially. Wow I had no idea that that couple existed. I didn't know that people were using it
in the media just for terms of endearment for random people I guess but I might start using that
just for my friends. So I mentioned that I see this a lot in sports. So one funny example I can think
of is in my fantasy league with a couple of my high school friends. One of the people one of the
teams they have LeBron and they named their fantasy team my glorious puky vener. LeBron is like
the perfect I guess victim of this puky meme because there was this one dinner where James and I
were talking with Eddie or friend. I had mentioned something about like oh LeBron is so funny I'm in
my LeBron era. I love his whatever blah blah. Afterwards Eddie texted me a compilation video of
LeBron highlights and then he was like puky and I just laughed so hard when I saw it. It's like
you're fucking right this is puky. I think it's also funny because it's mostly men using this to call
other men puky which for some reason just kind of adds to the hilarity and kind of the charm of it all.
This is a great term of endearment. I'm gonna call Jason that as soon as he gets back.
Dude I could totally see you calling Jason. I feel like the gender stuff actually does kind of
make sense because maybe a bunch of episodes ago we talked about how people called male celebrities.
He's in his baby girl era or he's so baby girl coded but I felt like that was always a woman saying
that about a man but I feel like puky is very much so like a man calling a man that and that's
where the humor comes from. So men and he might listening out there. Go call your friends puky.
You know I've heard of the baby girl era either honestly. When I talk about women I guess I
have been saying like boss lady and whatnot but I also know that I tend to be like a few months
behind her and so it doesn't surprise me. This is also interesting to me because I feel like I've
been seeing some sort of wave of men being more expressive and accepting of being pampered so
you know baby girl era kind of plays into this where men are like you know what actually it
is really nice to be pampered. Like I do want to be passenger princess once in a while that kind
of stuff and I think puky kind of plays a role in this wave too where it's an opportunity for men
to really admire each other or kind of share that love for each other in a funny way that's not
too serious and I think everyone just enjoys it and can laugh about it. They're like I love my
bro so much but how do I make it funny? True. I wonder if that's why I've had the urge to get my
eyebrows threaded recently and I talk about life. You might be in your baby girl era. Yeah I must be
my baby girl era. Hey man everyone has a right to be in their baby girl era. All in all though I
think puky is such a funny slang word that is super popular right now and I feel like it's a very
good vibes kind of everyone's gonna laugh about it and I personally find it really entertaining
when I'm scrolling through you know TikTok or comments or whatever. Yeah definitely. Puky bear
aside. Today we do have a pretty interesting topic. We wanted to talk a little bit about networking
and really building rapport and building out connections with people sometimes in a professional
way or sometimes just in a casual and social manner but I feel like networking is one of those
buzzwords that low key I used to hear about a lot more back in college because I feel like post
college when you're actually working people aren't constantly talking about like oh we need a
network or maybe that's just the industry I'm in. That's true I don't really know work in my job
either to be honest but yeah maybe that's industry related or you know the nature of my job
but I do remember networking was kind of big because of job fairs and stuff from college but to be
honest I didn't really attend those either. In all honesty I feel like it was very weird I'm
a ride turned it one at the end of you know end of our senior year and I was like I just have
like a folder of my resume that basically had nothing on it and I'm just like going around to
people and handing it out and trying to sell them on this weird me like that doesn't even know what
job they have that I'm applying to yeah I definitely feel like I would not want to go to another
job fair after that experience. Yeah I think I went to maybe one job fair at most in college and
I'm not sure if it was that helpful for me honestly I mean maybe I just was bad at networking
but I think the end result with most of these companies that I chatted with was just oh you can go
back and go to our web page and find a job and apply there so ultimately it didn't really feel
super helpful but I do think some of my friends who are more in STEM or like CS had a better
experience because I know sometimes they did literally interviews on site at those job fairs
but in my experience in my limited job fair experience it wasn't super helpful personally.
Yeah and I think the really awkward thing about job fairs is for me as someone who has social
anxiety meeting someone one-on-one and like trying to have a meaningful conversation with them is
already kind of hard enough but you're doing that with like a line of 50 people behind you who
are waiting to have the same exact conversation with like slightly different nuances and details
with the interviewer so then I feel like it's just super awkward where you're like I feel like
these people can hear me so you're extra self-conscious and you also hear the interviewer or the
representative of the company giving the same 10 seconds feel you've heard 40 times in line already
I just remember being really anxious and after going to one I was like okay yeah I don't think I
could ever go to one ever again I don't know about you all but I feel like these networking events
feel kind of not genuine sometimes it feels like you know you're trying to say the right thing
or you know something that'll make you stand out to people and it just feels kind of like you
have a front up and it's not quite you out there true and I feel like just something about the
term networking makes me think there has to be an exchange sort of of like some sort of service
or like favor I feel like if it wasn't associated with the term networking and you might someone
know just be like oh it was like cool meeting this person but when the word networking gets involved
it feels a little bit transactional maybe and a little bit too professional and cold so I
remember feeling pretty intimidated by the word itself yeah it definitely feels like there's
like added pressure there to to somehow form a bond like you mentioned they're giving their
elevator pitch and you somehow have also three or elevator pitch out there and like crystal said
to going back to like the college reference from a few homes ago trying to stand out compared to
the 80 other kids that probably have the same exact resonance you yeah I totally agree with
with what you said g-sue that's a really good way of putting it it just feels very transactional
like this is stuff that I do and how does that relate to you and I feel like you can definitely
tell when people are more interested in you because of maybe your connections or your position
work I don't know they're like foaming at the mouth to like get your time it's flying me
I do think that certain industries probably rely a little bit more heavily on networking like
I can totally see how someone who's maybe in sales or finance or something like that like
something that requires a lot more social interaction maybe networking is a lot more helpful
I do remember actually going back to those dreaded job fairs seeing people with really good
elevator pitches and honestly just like a pretty personable warmth to them when they were talking
to the interviewer and being very impressed like I can't believe both of us are 21-22 but I'm here
like stuttering through my 10 second intro and they're here dapping up the interviewer basically
that's a good point I agree there's definitely positions out there like you said that
benefit a lot from networking luckily for me I'm not in one of those positions how about you all do
you think networking plays a role in your job or industry sadly I'm in biotech and so biotech
on its own and then specifically like a lot of the biotech companies are in south San Francisco
if you work here you're probably going to work at another company like literally down the street
or on the same exit and people are always just hopping around so it's sort of hard to not try to
at least have like that baseline networking then so all the fun small talk and leaving a good
rapport with people yeah I mean specifically for biotech it feels like you need to do it a little
bit because everyone somehow ends up knowing everybody or there's somebody from your company that
that's going to be at the next one you're going to apply to and it just always it always helps out
yeah I think I'm probably in a similar boat to heart-priate I think my job specifically isn't super
networking focused but the industry that I'm in is very small especially in the Bay Area so then
everyone knows each other through like one or two bridges max and it's very very common for new
people joining our company to already know like a handful of people who are at our company I feel like
it's not an explicit need like it is in some industries but it's definitely something where it's
almost more of like the oh don't burn any bridges kind of networking rather than oh this person
will be useful later on in my career kind of networking true can't be burning too many bridges out
there for now until you guys are boss ladies then it's over so I do want to kind of touch back on
I guess what I would consider success stories for networking I feel like networking to some extent
is a skill that you kind of learn and build upon I mean my personal approach to networking I feel
like I'm still fine-tuning but I have seen people do it really well so do you guys have any
examples of witnessing someone maybe build a connection with someone and being very impressed by how
naturally or easily they were able to do it I will say just to bring up j-sood again
touching back on this exactly what I thought of j-sood when you mentioned you're seeing somebody
like that up the interviewer when I hear j-sood interact with his colleagues it's like super
impressive it sounds like a super casual conversation like it just sounds like you talking to one of
us I guess it depends on what you define as like a successful networking like dogma but I think
everyone has their own way I personally think I always have to start with small talk and then
find a small nugget that they'll give me and then just try to really hammer it till I can
divulge the the conversation a little more and open it up and then try to connect on like a
personal level if there's anything to even connect on there are I feel like a lot of times where
you just don't vibe with the person it just doesn't work out I think definitely when I said
the dapping up story I was also kind of envisioning j-sood that is hilarious but actually I thought
harpy you would be such a good guest for this episode too because I consider you someone who is
very good at networking definitely someone who's really personable and kind of easy to get to know
I feel like that's sometimes the hard part right it's like especially in a professional setting
for example how do you mix being professional while also being yourself and I think getting a
good balance between those two is really where like the difficulty in the nuance lies this actually
makes me reflect on what networking means beyond just these events that we've kind of been talking
about like job fairs or you know networking specific events I'm starting to realize that the
connections we have in our office are also a part of networking you know building that relationship
with your co-workers or your stakeholders and people that you work with closely this I guess
would be your more immediate network and so building and maintaining those connections is just as
important maybe even more important in a lot of ways in this world of networking because you know
making sure that these relationships are healthy positive and functional ensures that working
every day is a lot easier than if these connections were not as developed yeah I feel like there's
definitely a lot of merit to doing that especially because these are the people you see the most
often and oftentimes people you have like a deeper connection with rather than a fleeting like moment
of networking can be bigger helps or can become longer and like closer connections later on in life too
yeah and honestly thinking about it now and reflecting I think I'm similar to you jisu how you
mentioned earlier that you kind of have a fear of the word networking I totally agree because I
think I always viewed it as something really uptight proper and like official but now that you know
we're talking it through and I made the realization earlier that you know connecting with your
co-workers is in a sense networking too it makes me feel a lot more comfortable with this word
and I kind of like this shifting slash reframing of the word networking it makes it feel much more
approachable and reasonable I guess I have two things to say about that I guess first one relating
it back to attaching pressure to the term networking when you guys first asked me about the topic
that was definitely a little nervous because like I don't know if like I think I'm decent at it
and I want to say thank you for saying that you you think I'm good at it because I'm not good at taking
compliments so I'm gonna take it as I'm in my baby girl era when you guys also mentioned like
networking slash like building rapport keeping an action from people that part definitely
ease my mind and I was like oh yeah it doesn't necessarily have to be in the professional setting
but on the flip side I feel like when I do sort of do that similar approach reaching back out to old
old managers or people in the industry that you've kept up with I feel like when I have done that
certain mentors I've had I feel like when I email them there's like what's up what do you need
so I feel like they sort of know it's like I'm at like a point in my life where I'm about to look
for a new job or a lost maybe I need to work on that I mean that's good though your mentors are so
ready and happy to help you out right away they're like hey what do you what do you need I'm here
that's correct this is also just how my mom picks up the phone on the daily when I call her
she's like what's wrong like mom I'm like your literal daughter I just want to chat
my mom will also do that and it really gives me so much anxiety
I'm like is there something wrong oh my god wait actually I think I pick up the phone from my mom
I pick up like oh what's wrong is there anything you need everyone just always concerned
you guys text your parents for a call in one I personally text my mom more
but my mom just responds with a K just literally K my mom actually also like sending
voice memos to me which honestly they're not bad but I feel like I'm listening to it and I'm
like why am I listening to a voice mill right now you're like this is worse than a text and worse
than a call yeah I think me and my mom texts a lot but phone calls I feel like are more up keep
me like once every two weeks or so I'm just generally terrible at texting as you guys probably know
now working on it always working on it but yeah I think my mom probably text me more than I
think so but I'll usually just if she texts me I'll just call her like what do you want oh my god
it's kind of the opposite for you to like usually parents respond to a text by calling but you
respond to your mom's text by calling yeah I'm a self-proclaimed woman well on the topic of
texting versus calling how do you reach out to old co-workers or old connections do you call
them text them email them usually email and then I always say like I'd love to set up a call
or be in person coffee whatever I can't say I've really reached out to like old co-workers or
anything like that but the times that I have interacted with old co-workers it's always been text
I feel like email might feel a little bit too working professional girly vibes
that's true I think I can agree email definitely feels like super proper
I think the way that I've hit up old co-workers sometimes we bump into each other in the hall at
work so we kind of have like drive by highs you know to each other but from there that kind of
sparks the conversation like oh I'll find some time on your calendar and we just send a calendar
invite no email maybe like a work DM so that's usually what I do for old co-workers who are still
at the company maybe for people who aren't at the same company anymore I would maybe send an
email like a lighthearted email or if I have their number I could try texting so what I find
really interesting that I've experienced at this company is like you know how people do good
buy emails to the company when they leave I always found it interesting that a lot of my ex-corkers
will be like oh like hoping keep in touch here's my email either linked in our phone number and
then here's my Instagram oh I'm like dude Instagram is like yeah wow at first I was working like
you know linked in phone number yeah that's all normal but then you said Instagram I was like wait
what dude so I do have a lot of ex-corkers like we keep up over IGDMs
oh interesting what is the general age of your co-workers if you don't mind me asking
I mean that's a fair question like a lot of my co-workers tend to be plus or minus 10 to 15
years or so and then women so then you know our generation we love our Instagram whatever so it
does feel a little bit less like invasion of privacy and more like oh here's my casual Instagram
oh my god it's just so funny thinking about IGDMs also being networking oh my god imagine Gen Z is
like hey here's my snapchat no god what do your co-workers post on Instagram I think a lot of it
is just like oh here's my family here's my hobby I like to cook like kind of standard stuff but
sometimes people post like kind of political stuff on their Instagram story too and I always find
that interesting it's never anything outlandish or nothing that makes me feel weird considering the
demographics of where we live I feel like people lean a certain way there's like a certain standard
that you are used to but yeah I just could never imagine sending like a to all like to literally
every single person in the company here's my Instagram you know what I mean I mean imagine the CEOC's
but maybe that is a way to keep that feeling a little bit less formal and more casual
because like we talked about email sometimes does feel very professional but through Instagram I
feel like once you see someone's family or something you just feel like you know them so much more
or like so much deeper even if you haven't really talked about it directly or have never met their
family like you still kind of get a better sense of what this person's life is like and I feel like
it's definitely a sign of like true connection there's this one time at work where there's an event
and I was you know really starting to bond with one of my co-workers we kept DMing each other
through work chat and then at one point she was just like oh here like this is actually my phone
number you know I don't always respond right away to my work DMs just message me here I'll respond
a lot faster and I was like oh my god like I'm so honored to have you know it was a very exciting
moment and I really felt much more connected do you draw fine line though with the people you'd
want to text because I definitely feel like there are certain co-workers where even if they give
me their number there's no shot I want to like break that personal barrier of like hey it's okay
to text me at any time of the day yeah that's definitely true luckily though I have a work phone
number that most people at work have access to and you know that is specifically for work and I
guess it's a lot more rare for me to actually share my personal number with co-workers okay that's
fair there was a particular instance when I did get a call from my VP because like something
was happening at the company and I was like fully in the shower and I saw it like call from maybe
you know your VP and I was just like I was like oh no I was like when am I getting fired I was like
what is happening but yeah it was nothing it was nothing terrible that's good we also don't have
that they recently have been offering us like a work phone if we want it for security purposes but
at this job in my last job it's just been like our actual phones that you see right away under
your contact information there well one potential worker on this is you can maybe get like a virtual
number through Google voice and then treat that as your work phone number and like pass it out to
people okay I might I might need to do that yeah I think that's actually how our work phone number
works so even if you don't have like a physical work phone you can just use the like Google voice
virtual number okay I think I might need to do that because the only co-workers I've given my
number to that actually is the ones that I will you know hang out with outside of work pretty much
right it is kind of interesting talking about giving out personal phone numbers and whatnot though
because I totally agree that is very much like breaking a certain boundary or like barrier almost
once you start to be comfortable texting this person instead of work slack and etc but the
question is like how do you break that boundary you know like I feel like it's easy enough when
someone else broaches that for you but if you have someone that you want to become better friends
with and not just oh slack during work hours friends with then how would you personally go about that
honestly I think I just wait for the other person to give me their number
yeah same honestly I think it's either happened for the other person saying it or I got
thrown into like a group text and they already had those people's numbers I think there was one
other time where one of those co-workers that I was like okay to be friends with they were going
to New York or visiting somewhere and I'm like oh I have like a list of wrecks if you want it so
they're just like I just feel free to text it to a nice easy way to do that you're like are we
friends now yeah we're all just shy we are although I will say I have you know initiated like the
number exchange a couple times yeah I mean part of it is the paranoia because I feel like when
you communicate on work platforms like I don't always want to share everything about my life on a
work platform so then maybe if we're gonna go out later or something like that I'm like oh yeah
like what's your number and then we'll just casually exchange it I think you just have to have a
couple of good conversations and then it's okay to broach that boundary a couple of non-small talk
exchanges and then you're qualified to exchange phone numbers I wonder too though maybe it's a
little harder or less common for us personally to initiate this exchanging phone numbers because
nowadays we're so connected like you know work chat slack whatever we get the notifications on
our phone and it's pretty close to having someone's number maybe that's like another factor that
slows us down from sharing our personal number with our coworkers yeah that's a good point maybe
also because we are younger and maybe like earlier in our careers because I remember seeing my
dad's address book you know how back then it used to be like a journal almost and you would like
handwrite the address book and I remember like all of them were past colleagues or associates
because once you move companies or the longer you work more and more people jump to different
companies so my dad would just keep all of their phone numbers and like emails for us we're probably
at the first couple companies you know maybe we're only like five years deep into our career so
less of a need for that yet and writing something is crazy yeah I think the other day my coworker
was like do we even use paper anymore and I was like oh shoot I think I do sometimes I still handwrite
my notes of it I prefer that and I definitely like retain things a lot better if I do that but I
don't feel like I have the time to anymore but it was it was really funny I had been taking some
notes on some stuff that I saw and lab like put on my desk and one of those coworkers that I'm
close to walk by she was just like is that your handwriting I thought I was going to be a doctor
so I was practicing to have chicken scratch no it's so true though because I feel like in high school
I know how all of my close friends handwriting looks like but the people that I met post
high school like even college friends like I have no idea what their handwriting looks like
because we didn't really handwrite shit oh my god that's so true yeah like before we could just
recognize our like closest friends handwriting so true well besides our already formed connections
like our old coworkers or current coworkers have you ever successfully followed up with someone
after meeting them for the first time at like a networking event or wherever I did meet someone it
wasn't necessarily a networking event but it was back in college I went to like a resume workshop
and the people who were reviewing your resume for you were working professionals so then this
person who worked at some sort of bank or something like that reviewed my resume gave me a couple
pointers and was like well actually like I'm intrigued by some of the stuff that you worked on
in your classes here's my business card feel free to like shoot me a note if you want some sort of
like summer job and yeah so I got the business card I was like whoa what the fuck and then I like
thought about it for a little bit and then I was like okay I'm gonna email this person so I emailed
him and I was like hey like it was so nice meeting you thanks for the pointers well law we'd love to
know what the opportunities are you know something generic email and then I sent it and then we had
a couple of exchanges like back and forth I think like the logistics of where the location of the
job and stuff didn't end up working out but I was still like I can't believe these things happen
where someone is just like oh this is pretty cool like do you want a job because I felt like it was
such a like I mean I guess not that big of a deal but for me it felt like a very big deal and like a
movie moment almost no dude that's definitely a big deal that's so cool that was you making it
that's the American dream
great job yeah do you see just let her her resume be talking for her we're out there in the corner
being shy and she's just she's just getting all the jobs seriously I mean I feel like if I were in
that position I would think about it and I would ponder and like you know kind of go back and forth
and I'd be like oh fuck it like I'm too shy I know exactly what you're talking about though because
I remember feeling that way too and it's almost backwards because it's like oh this person was the
one who thought my resume was kind of interesting so he was like let me know if you want me to help
you with something right but then I'm the one who felt the pressure of like oh I now I feel like
I can't let this person down or like you know like let this guy for like 20 minutes one day and I
just felt all this like weird pressure for myself so I think that's the thing about networking there's
just so much pressure for no reason for sure I guess this kind of just goes to show that it's kind
of cliche to say but like you know there's no loss in trying like the worst that can happen is this
guy says uh actually no sorry we ended up not having positions but that is like very minimal loss
compared to the potential gain that you could have had you know he did have opportunities and you
got to talk more about it and you almost got a job out of it too so I think I've been kind of
noticing that in just like day to day life too not just networking things or work related stuff
so I think that's definitely a good philosophy to keep in mind yeah I fully super resonate with
that piece of advice because I maybe not in my personal life but in my professional life I
hammer that so hard because most of the time or maybe I've just realized I don't have much to lose
if you're just sending an email like that or asking a question and so I'm like instilled in my
brain that like literally the worst thing that's going to happen is they're going to say no and
cuff shit you know like I can move on with my life if that's the answer so it's not that big of a deal
yeah definitely easier in a professional setting for me for some reason to sort of have that mindset
rather than a personal setting that's like goals honestly I don't know what it is for me but
there's been times where people are like oh I applied to this job at your company like can we chat
or can you give me a referral you know even people in college reaching out and be like oh can you
review my resume blah blah and every time that comes in I'm like oh that's like cool that they
would ask me like of course I'm more than happy to do it all like give them long paragraphs of
advice and like spend a lot of time on it whatever but when it comes time for me to maybe ask for
the reverse I'm like I don't want to like bother this person I don't want to be a burden and despite
me having received those exact same requests and not feeling like they were a burden at all I think
my brain just reverse engineers it and I'm like I'm a burden on this person so I think what both
of you said is super important to keep in mind it's like fuck it like why not kind of a mentality
for sure and honestly I feel like this is super applicable to work too and I'm still working on
this for sure but basically you know asking for help or asking clarifying questions yeah and I
feel like it's totally possible that someone else is wondering the same thing and you know you ask
this clarifying question and now you understand it better you'll be able to do your project better
and you know other people who are also curious or didn't quite grasp what was happening get a
refresher too so I feel like it's definitely something that's really beneficial in the long run
and overall that's what I'm still working on too it's like you know they say there's no stupid
questions but there's definitely some some stupid questions out there going back to how crystal
asked about following up with connections that you've made I was trying to think about it and
the only times I've been in a position or I have to do that not not like G.C. where she just got
offered a job close but I feel like it's through family friends or friends of friends that
I ended up meeting where like you guys said they'll offer to like connect with you again and so
it's never been through a number directly I think both times it's happened it's been straight
through LinkedIn and then we eventually we'll just set up a call.
Damn I totally forgot that interacting with your family friends could also be networking
because oftentimes at least in our parents generation I feel like those family friends are
in higher up positions or at least have way more experience working in a certain industry than you
so at the very least they will have tons of advice but also just objectively they could also be
good connections. So true actually my brother had a friend who studied what my dad works in which
is double E and I remember one time my dad was hiring so he actually asked my brother he was like
hey if you have any classmates or friends who you think are pretty hardworking and smart tell
them they should apply for this position that I'm hiring for and so my brother told his friend to
apply and you know they went through the interview and everything and my dad ended up really loving
his application and interview and you know once he got hired my dad was like dude this guy's
such a great worker I'm so glad that you told him to apply he's like one of my one of my best
employees at the moment so definitely some valuable connections from family friends.
Yeah I feel like basically one of those two times I've been able to connect the family friend
through my parents surprisingly. Just like what Jesus said he just happened to be like I think he
was like a CSO like a biotech company and first my friends like oh this guy works in bioly you should
just meet him because they don't really know what I do and sometimes I don't know what I do
but yeah it just happened to me that he actually works for like a pretty a pretty cool company that
does similar stuff to what I work on it's this sort of worked out then he was like a just
super personable guy so even though he had like that like a level of expertise or he was like
a higher up it was pretty chill. That's awesome. Do you guys actually have any like do's and don'ts
in regards to networking though? What kind of immediately comes to mind for me is a big don't
don't hold email people asking for referrals. I think it's kind of off-putting if you ask someone
who has no clue who you are for a referral into their company you know they don't know anything
about you your work ethic who you are what you're good at past projects any of that kind of stuff
so I feel like you know definitely don't cold call or email straight into a referral. I think
it's important to kind of build the rapport up first. Yeah I think a do from my experience would be
to somewhat leverage your close friends and like people in your immediate network first even if
you don't directly know someone who maybe works in the company that you want to go to one of your
close friends might have a connection and even if it doesn't lead to like a referral at least have
a conversation with someone could always be like super illuminating and helpful. I feel like a
don't is don't talk to that person and then like only ask stuff that might feel too pointed or
like selfish almost like you I think you want to get to know the job in the company but also that
person and what they do so not just being like oh can you give me info about ABCDE like T.Y. by
you know being a little bit more personable I think is super important. Totally agree with
both if you're a do's and don'ts and yeah I think my do's are just the opposite of what
Crystal said not to do so like you just said if I don't know anyone like in my direct network
that you know works at a particular place that I'm looking at or like is in the same position
that I'm trying to get into going back like two years when I was looking for a job I basically
find jobs that were just posted at companies that I liked reach out to a senior level at that company
of that position and just sort of like you guys said like hey just just looking at Chad I'm like a
early professional and I you know I'd love to know what you did to get to your position
blah blah blah I think I only did it like four or five times but of all those times those people
have like been more than happy to refer me like right after that. Bell matches feel like
are you looking for a job it's like oh maybe like are you offering one?
if you insist. But yeah I feel like more often than not people are definitely very willing
to help out. One of the things that I remember so clearly is I think this was back in 2017 or
2018 when subtle Asian traits was still really big and people used Facebook a decent amount still
there was this kind of like spin-off of subtle Asian traits it was subtle Asian dating and
this one girl she took advantage of that and she posted herself and she said hey forget about
dating I'm looking for like job referrals and she kind of like you know described herself and she
was like hey if anyone is interested in giving me a job referral then let's connect and let's chat
a bit and you know ultimately it's beneficial for both parties because the girl ends up getting
a referral to a great tech company and then you know if the referral does go through usually there's
some sort of incentive on the other side for the person who did the referring and you know it all
worked out I'm like she got a lot of comments and a lot of people were really more than happy to
chat with her and talk about her work and all that. She changed the meta.
Yeah I mean yeah I think it just ties about to the reaching out worst thing they can say is no
and I think we're eventually gonna get there but yeah it's just people are more than more than
happy to help most of the time yeah I feel like both top that's had before or all three I've had
has been through people that I talked to you before and then they happen to know somebody at the
company or whatever and then I would always name drop them basically throughout all my interviews.
Well thank you so much Harpreet for joining us today. I feel like our conversation really helped me
kind of shift my perspective on networking. As I mentioned earlier in the episode I you know
was kind of afraid of the word and I always associated it with kind of like what Jesus said transactions
and super proper super professional environments but you know after we talked through it I'm realizing
that networking can also be much more casual and comfortable. So for our listeners out there if
you have any networking do's or don't feel free to share with us we have social media at Eat Your
CrossPod and we also have email eatyourcrustpod at gmail.com and if you'd like to catch our other
episodes then don't forget to follow us on Spotify Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts
we upload new episodes every Wednesday morning. Thanks for listening.
