Networking Etiquette for the Modern Games Industry Professional

[Music] I'd like to welcome you all here we're gonna talk about networking networking etiquette some things that you can do to improve networking and just how it helps you connect with people excuse me my name is jarred Huntley I'm a game developer from Cleveland Ohio I own a small studio called poly tundra we make mobile games and do console ports all right all right who feels that next networking professional networking is or will be a necessary part of their career yep yep sounds about right all right who feels that they could improve their networking skills you see this this is my hand included the thing about networking is this always something that you can improve on is always something that you can learn something new you can learn how to connect with people more and this is these are some of the things that we're

going to talk about today all right so what we'll be covering together is what is networking we'll talk about what is the term and look at it a little bit closer and hopefully learn something about it the different types of networking there's different types of networking that are appropriate for different places different times and then finally practical networking etiquette tips for the modern games industry professional cool all right so what is networking so I like to look at the definitions and kind of break them down so if you look at the definition it is really small from over here and doesn't show up big on my screen okay the exchange of information or services among individuals or institutions specifically the cultivation of productive thank you for employers or business sorry I didn't realize it would show up over there not over here but the

thing and you know there's a computer networking I hope nobody's a computer here but we're not going to talk about that so let's break this down the exchange of information or services among individuals groups or insta tuitions the thing I want to point out here is networking is an exchange it means it's a two-way transaction when you're networking with people you're giving something out and you're getting something back you always want to make sure there's equivalent exchange you always want to make sure that you're listening as much as you're talking and that you have an equal relationship with whoever you're chatting with with whoever you know you're sitting next to things like that next it's among individuals groups or institutions the thing I want to highlight here is the individuals whenever you're networking it doesn't matter you know if you're trying to get a job it doesn't matter if you're you know trying to meet a specific employee for a organization you're always meeting

with the person and this is pretty much the most important thing about networking is to remember you're always networking with individuals people have their own feelings people have their own thoughts and you want to make sure that you're being considerate and thinking about the person you're chatting with it's not you know a machine it's not you know a transaction and it's not guaranteed and so when you're thinking about the person that can make you more empathetic and can really help you connect with people all right so some general talking tips that go along with those when you're talking with somebody don't hog the conversation make sure that you're listening as much as you're talking I like to try to listen more than I'm talking I have something to learn from you know students up to you know veterans of the industry and I think that when we're listening it puts our minds and you know our hearts in the right area to to connect with people also you know remember the individuals that's what we just spoke about

listen exchange information so if you know somebody's giving you cool tips you try to give some cool tips back and that continues that conversation and it becomes more of a back-and-forth rapport the other thing is don't assume anything when you meet with somebody you know don't assume you know certain genders have certain roles or certain people might be in certain you know positions you just want to have an open whenever you meet anybody you always want to start from a blank slate and let them fill it in as you are talking with them and then lastly always be authentic sometimes we have this pressure we're like oh I need to look so cool or I need to make sure you know I don't mess up it's fine to be you know worried and anxious and I get that as well too but the thing is you want to be your true self you don't want to you know put on a face for this person and then turn around and you know hang out with your buddies and that person is like you know is that the same person you want to make sure that you know you're being authentic you're being true and that you're connecting with people with who

you are all right the different types of networking so we're gonna dive into a little bit of science and talk about something interesting name so there is a sociologist named Mark Granovetter and he did a he wrote an academic journal called the strength of weak ties and in this he talks about strong ties versus weak ties and I take a sip of water and so this is an example of strong ties versus weak ties strong ties are basically your core group the people around you so you know your best friends maybe the people in your cohort in school maybe the people in your animation department those are the people that you know you have a daily rapport with those are you know your your close core network but weak ties in this paper and then I'll kind of you know riad rest those terms or the type

of people you know you you chat with occasionally maybe they're your Twitter Mutual's or friends on Facebook somebody's business card somebody that you've spoken with but you don't necessarily have a close relationship with the important thing to think about is it's not like strong ties are better than week's highs because in his paper he actually you can you know this is freely available online you can actually but he he makes the point that you're much more likely to get a job through random acquaintances than with your close friends so both of these types of people are extremely useful in your life in your career and you know people moving back back and forth through weak ties and strong ties and I like to just think about it you know your close friends the people you chat with you know regularly and you know the people who you know you you maybe chat with through online and they're absolutely both a valuable and you want to make sure you're networking with both and kind of you know keep those equal alright enough science so like I mentioned you always want to keep the individuals in mind so remembering the people so also you need to be really

careful about subscribing to you know adding value to people oh this person is more valuable to talk with with that person or you know I don't need to spend my time with that person's that's completely false and also like I said that paper to proves the opposite the people who you don't know can actually connect you to those other strong networks because everybody has those strong core networks and having those you know those different friends that you know you chat with occasionally can connect you to those strong networks and what that does is that expands your network so you want to make sure that there's you you remember that there's value in each and every conversation you can chat with somebody and it might lead to a conversation two years down the road but if you just kind of brush them off and say oh well you know they're not in you know you know 3d modeling or they're not in you know advanced you know graphics programming which is what I want to get into so you know maybe I don't want to spend my time

talking with them that's not something you want to do you want to chat with everybody and just keep you know people in your network keep up with them occasionally and you never know where those connections might lead all right so when you're networking one of the things that you know with me surveying people and experiencing myself is feeling comfortable me I'm an extrovert and so I like talking with people I like you know being around with people interacting with people but a lot of my friends actually I think most of my friends and games identify as introverts so one thing you can do when you're going around networking is if you have an extroverted friend is go you know with the buddy system you know ask your friend you know hey do you mind if I tag along and you know we go to this party we go to this networking event it can help both people the you know more extroverted person can do the introductions the introvert person doesn't necessarily need to overextend themselves and you kind of tag-team also you know as you're both networking you both have different core networks and so with those you know

kind of with those powers combined you're like a super networker I guess so you know the buddy system works really well you know when you're networking with people you also want to try to avoid in jokes you know or inside jokes those are things that can kind of you know squash the conversation you know you and your friends start laughing and everybody else is standing there like you know what's going on am I supposed to laugh I don't know anything about this so you want to try to avoid in jokes make sure that you're being inclusive and that everybody feels accepted so another really cool thing and I had kind of realized this myself and then in doing research I found a name for it but there's something called the pacman rule by Eric hole sure and basically what the pac-man rule is if you're networking with people if you're chatting and you're standing in circle always leave one slice of that pizza pie or one slice of that pac-man open and that does a couple of things one it lets people feel like they're able to walk up and join that circle so it makes it inclusive it makes it not like somebody has to break the barrier to try to just you know make eye to eye contact with

somebody oops so when you have you know the pac-man rule it allows you know somebody to feel open to approach that conversation and allows you to talk with people who might not you know haven't felt comfortable approaching that group before also the other thing about the pac-man rule is it allows somebody to quietly excuse themselves you know I've had this as well you know you're you're networking with people when you just feel like you know that anxiety building up you're like I need to steal away for a minute or you know you have a phone call and you don't want to you know interrupt a good conversation if you have that slice always open and you know you're opening it when you know people are coming in and joining your circle it allows somebody to just slip out easily and it just lets everybody feel more comfortable so as you're doing that you know make sure you know all you need to do is just take a small step to the right or left and leave a slice for a person to hop in and then the last tip is make sure you take the time you need it I especially felt this you know like with my first GDC I felt like I need to network that connect or network I need

to meet all these people and then at the end of the day you're just like dead it's okay to steal away for a minute it's okay to take time to yourself you don't need to you know have permission and you're not gonna miss out on anything because if you're overextending yourself you're not gonna be the best to you you know you might be a little bit grumpy you might not you know be able to answer questions as adequately so you want to make sure that you know when you need it you're taking time away for yourself and the other thing is it's not a race or a marathon it's your career so this one networking event is a series of networking events that will happen throughout your career so if you need to take half a day you know for self-care to just you know stay in your bunk and just you know play switch or something like that absolutely do that that will keep you refreshed for the next day and make you and keep yourself you know healthy ongoing alright starting or joining a conversation so this is one that you know I also spoke with a lot of people and you know a lot of people you know have anxiety about or you know feel

uncomfortable one of the easiest ways to just start a conversation is you know just make eye contact and say hi you know if somebody looks like they're open for conversation if you know somebody you know is you know off in a corner on their cell phone you want to make sure you're respectful and you don't want to interrupt them or you know you don't want to hover right next to them but it's okay to just say hi to somebody and see what the response is and the response usually is a really good gauge on you know how they're feeling and you know whether they're open for conversation the other really important thing is you know if the person doesn't seem receptive it's nothing against you it's you know it's really easy to feel like oh you know I should have been standing over here or I should have you know said it this way you know I just kind of blew it but you want to make sure that you're not reflecting back on yourself you know maybe the person was having a bad day maybe you know they had a whole host of things bothering them you don't want to have that reflect on yourself and take that further if you know you join a circle and you don't know where to start you know ask a question you can ask you know so what

are you excited about you know at this conference or you know are there any talks you're looking forward to going to and those are you know unconventional questions to start the conversation going then you know inevitably inevitably that will lead into you know questions about what the person is you know studying or what they practice in the workplace and you can kind of continue the conversation from there another way to start or you know join a conversation is if there's some people talking you know politely walking up and say hey do you mind if I join your conversation that's probably one of the best ways to just join a conversation you know whether it be with strangers or people you don't really know well you know if they're having you know a specific conversation you know they might say oh not right now you know maybe come around in five minutes or something or you know the the best weasel is oh yeah come you know we're talking about X or Y and you know just being polite and approaching people direct I think it's one of the best ways to join a conversation and to connect with different people alright so another

one that that you know kind of goes along with the things we were just talking about is making mistakes we're all human we all make mistakes we all you know accidentally say the wrong thing you know it might come across the wrong way you know we might say you know something we're embarrassed about but if you say something and you think somebody you know might be offended just apologize I'm sorry you know I didn't mean for that to come out the wrong way or you know I'm sorry I shouldn't have said that and just leave it at that you know make sure when you're apologizing you don't use the word if that makes it conditional which is not a real apology so don't say oh I'm sorry if you were offended I'm sorry you were offended I'm sorry that I said that make sure you put yourself in the apology and let the other person know so you know whether it's you know you say something rude you you misgender somebody that the next

thing to do is just don't dwell on it you know the last thing you do is you know if everybody's a little bit embarrassed in whatnot is to keep on apologizing you don't want to keep on apologizing throughout the whole conversation just that one apology is absolutely fine you can kind of move on and go from there and you know the person if you you know give a heartfelt apology they'll feel that and you know continue on and it's not like you know you make one mistake and you're kicked out or anything like that it's you know we're all human we make mistakes and you know empathy when you're really connecting with people and like I said earlier being you know genuine excuse me will help those those conversations and in those situations all right reaching out so a lot of times when we're networking we have specific we might have a specific goal or a specific intent that we're you know looking forward to if there's anybody you know you are interested in talking with for advice input you know material review

whether a portfolio you know your your demo reel or something like that the most important thing to do is just ask a lot of times were like oh you know it'd be so cool if I could talk with so-and-so about my portfolio or this or that and if you just ask a lot of times people are receptive to that so you want to reach out through whatever channels you have available you know to connect with this person that might be emails that might be a DM or like we were talking about before it might be that extended network you know you have your core network here everybody else has their you know core networks and if you're interacting with people you might say hey do you know how to get in contact with so-and-so I was interested in talking with them about X or Y or something like that that kind of goes with the next thing you want to be respectful of others types so you know if there's a you know a dev you know that you know is prolific and you're really looking forward to chatting with you want to make sure that you you keep

it short so you know a perfect introduction is you know like we said you know walk up say hi hey I'd like to introduce myself I'm so-and-so I really enjoyed your game you know X and influenced by design and thank you so much for working on it and you know it's nice chatting with you and that's a complete conversation in one that's a really quick way to engage with people and the nice thing about it is if that person is feeling receptive they can continue that conversation and if not they'll say hey thanks so much for talking and like I said earlier you know it's not reflecting on yourself they might have a business meeting they're going to or something like that so that's always a really good way to connect with people after you meet with people you want to make sure you follow up email is probably the best because of the the permanence of it when you send an email that sticks around forever you know slack things get lost Twitter dm's things get lost and email people can refer back to especially if you know

they're busy it's easier for them to go back and find it so always prefer email also whenever you're asking someone for advice on something make sure you tell them what you're looking for advice for so hey I'd like to talk to you about 3d modeling and if you don't hear back you know maybe reach out in a week or two and do one follow up email that's absolutely appropriate but when you mention what you are looking for feedback for that makes it easier for that person to plan and engage with maybe they have a roundtable or something like that all right so kind of wrapping things up remember you're networking with people every single conversation you have whether it be professional whether it be you know a casual conversation they're all people of different backgrounds different than this method Nissa these different genders you want to make sure that you're thinking about the people you're talking with and making sure that everybody's comfortable in those conversations meeting people from your extended network is the way to meet others so as you're networking with

people you're growing that extended network and if you have something you need and you're genuinely connecting with people it's okay to reach out and ask and say hey you know I was looking to see if I could connect with somebody from X company or I could connect with this developer to talk about this very specific design goal or something like that and the people the more people you meet the stronger your network becomes like I said this network is part of your career and it's not something that you know you need to get all the networking in at this Expo and you never have any networking time ever it's you have this networking opportunity and that networking opportunity and the next networking opportunity and each time your network grows and gets stronger so remember have fun and connect with people and continue to network all right thank you you