By Patrina Pellett, PhD

What is the most dreaded word for every job searcher, PhD, MD, PharmD, and just humans in general?

Networking.

You know you need to network but it is so awful! It's hard. It's awkward. What if you get rejected. You'll have to talk to strangers, and then probably get rejected by strangers. Your anxiety will go through the roof. The reality though is that networking is the best possible thing you can do for your professional and personal goals. The value of having a strong network is astronomical. You have to do it, so you might as well make it effective and actually get real relationships out of it. This article has you covered! Here is an easy trick to network and build meaningful relationships.

Easy Trick to Network and Build Meaningful Relationships: Offer Help

If you want to start a relationship the best way is to offer a lot of value to that person. They need to know what's in it for them. When you help someone, they remember it forever. This is why offering help is an easy and effective way to network and build meaningful relationships.

The Right Way to Offer Help

Don't just go off and start offering a gazillion people on LinkedIn help. You need to be strategic about it. If you ask someone how you can help, most people won't know or won't want to think of a way.

The best way to approach offering help is to have suggestions ready. Research this person thoroughly and then write down 2-3 ways you may be able to help. When you do your outreach to this person, weave in one of the ways you can help. Then later when you meet, weave in your other suggestions.

Example of How to Offer Help to Network and Build Meaningful Relationships

If your target has a social media/online presence you are in luck. Figuring out what their motivations are a lot easier. Here are 3 ways you can potentially help them:

1. Offer to share their content (people aren't posting online so that no one looks at it!)
2. Send them relevant content ("Great posts on XYZ. I thought you might like [related thing]")
3. Read/listen to everything they are posting to find a challenge they may having and offer something related to that ("You mentioned X. Would Y be useful?")

If your target does not have an online presence, it's trickier. My advice here is to think about the goals folks in their position/role generally have. If they have publications, read those and comment/share. Over time as you try offering different things you will start to get a feel for how you can help them. Remember this and start making a list.

Conclusions

So few people offer genuine help to others! A lot of times when an Aspiring MSL or PhDs wanting to break into industry reach out to me asking for help, they make it all about them. They send a huge message about all the things they have done and that they want to get a job. For the ones who have clearly done their homework and have a genuine interest in me, I try to move mountains for them.

Offering help is a super easy trick to network and build meaningful relationships. Try it out and message me on LinkedIn to tell me about it.

Follow the MSL Mastery LinkedIn page!

Additional Resources Networking Resources

MSL Talk Episode 154: The DO's and DON'Ts of Networking for MSLs with Kirsten Gurtowsky

MSL Talk Episode 1: The Importance of Networking for MSLs with Amy Misnik

Need some additional networking help on your journey to become an MSL?

Check out the Aspire MSL program. You will find an incredible community of people to help support you and keep you motivated in your MSL job search.