Bio ✍️ Day 5 - Networking Advent Calendar
The Networking Advent Calendar is a 24-day long training program to build your networking muscles (and your network)! Not sure why you should do this or missed Day 1, read here; to read Day 6, go here.
Day 5: (Re)write your bio
There’s this image of networking that it’s people exchanging business cards in a conference room… Bios are the business cards of the internet.
This is something that you’ll have to do sooner or later when networking — introduce yourself in a short amount of time. And this skill can also be used directly in the job application process (elevator pitch, mission statement, quick introduction, everything)!
A lot of the times I read or hear people introduce themselves by their current job title and their company name. This is limiting because you’re most likely unders
elling yourself and not showing your full potential.
I also see bios that say “looking for new opportunities in software engineering”. There might be different opinions, but personally I don’t recommend writing this. It doesn’t tell me anything about you, your capabilities or achievements. And if I’m hiring, I’d be looking for reasons to be interested in your profile.
Therefore, today’s task of (re)writing your bio comes with a few rules:
Don’t use your job title
Don’t include your company’s name
Don’t (only) mention you’re looking for a job
Example: my old Twitter bio simply said
Startup recruiter & job search coach. She/her
Nothing too interesting. I then updated my bio and included my newsletter link, now it says
When I realized people don’t know how to apply to jobs, I wrote this - anniecoaching.substack.com. Recruiter & PM @ACELR8. “Annie is a Don.” - @Rachel_grrr
Including the link to my side project was surprisingly effective! I followed someone a few weeks back, they read my profile, checked out the newsletter, and DMed me about a job opportunity 🤯 Promoting your work is just as important as doing it!
Are you excited to see how you can exercise your networking muscle? Any feedback for me? Looking forward to hearing from you!