My First Time Networking at an HPI Event

One of the most crucial aspects of the professional life that I’ve learned is probably the importance of networking.

Despite its formal-sounding name, networking is really just a way of saying “making lots of acquaintances and friends”. Having more friends and connections means having more people to learn from, more professional opportunities and more people to boost our presence in the market through likes and recommendations. There’s a post on LinkedIn that I saw about how underestimated networking can be given that it can literally give us jobs and I honestly incline to agree.

The one problem that I have with that aspect is that my social relation skills is a bit… spotty. It’s not so bad that I have don’t any friends, but in addition to social anxiety and awkwardness, I find that maintaining conversation with people that I don’t necessarily “vibe” with is quite difficult to do. Unfortunately, I don’t “vibe” with a lot of people.

Nevertheless, if I want to take myself into the next level, this is something that I have to learn to do. Which is why I decided to attend the 50^th anniversary event of the Association of Indonesian Translator (or HPI) held some time ago. And so, today’s post will be me chronicling what happened during that day.

 

 

As I walked to the event’s venue, the one constant thought running through my head was more or less how all of this is a mistake and I should get out there right now. Even before I arrived at the venue, my fight-or-flight instinct already kicked in which is not exactly the most ideal way to start a day.

Being in an event full of people I am not familiar with is already anxiety-inducing enough, but that was also the first time that I go out of my way to attend something in order to meet and greet new people for the purpose of professional development (though it is not the first I attended a social event).

Despite my fear, I soldiered on through and finally arrived at the event. As I watched my fellow translators, would-be translators and/or language enthusiasts scattered about and mingled with one another, I thought to myself, “Is this what being adult feels like?” Granted, I’ve been out of university for almost four years now and I’ve been working in the professional world for more than two years, but even then, I still felt like a kid in a room full of adults.

My initial thought was to at least attend the event and see what happens as well as hoping to myself that someone would talk to me if I hang around long enough. The first part was accomplished, but I began to see that the second part was not going to happen. The problem with this is the fact I don’t like going out of my way to just introduce myself to people out of nowhere. I have reservations with this because I often feel weird if a stranger suddenly come up to me and then introduce themselves, and I project that feeling on to other people, thinking that they would feel weird if I suddenly introduce myself.

However, I thought to myself that since I was attending a social event, where mingling and interacting is the point, I feel like I could get a pass from just introducing myself. Because of that, I set a target for myself that I would at least introduce myself to a single person. I don’t have to be an instant friend with that person, but I wanted to at least let that person know who I am. I also set aside higher target of introducing myself to three people which include the head of association himself. However, my main priority was still to just introduce myself to a single person.

At first, I was waiting for an opportunity to just introduce myself to the person sitting next to me in the conference, but then I saw a senior member who often chat about video game (one of my favorite past times) arrived at the event. Given our similar interests, I felt that I can talk with him more easily and so, throwing caution to the wind, I introduced myself.

And it worked!

And it got better from there, because I managed to introduce myself to nine people, including a translator who used to work at my current company, a fresh graduate looking into breaking into the translator world that I quite enjoy talking with (probably because we both didn’t know anyone else in the event) and the head of the translator association himself!

After managing to accomplish that goal, I got a bit of power trip, thinking that I am ready to take on the world. But even then, there are also many things that I feel like I could’ve done better while I was in the event. Was I polite enough? Should I mention in the group chat how I was pleased to meet them after the event was over? Should I introduce myself to several more senior members? Should I stay and chat longer? Was coming up and saying hello a mistake to begin with? Even though I managed to somewhat accomplished my goal, it still feels like there are many things that could’ve gone better in my head.

Still, I do come away thinking to myself that I am glad that I attended the event. I don’t know if I can make greater accomplishment next time (or if there is going to be a next time), but I’ll take the small victory that I earned for now.