A Conversation with Miri Rodriguez, Head of Global Internship Program at Microsoft: Part II
Key Insights
When you reach out to someone, even if it's through email, it's likely they'll be looking at LinkedIn, so make sure you're active on the platform and sprucing up your profile.
When looking for mentorship, enter with grace and politeness. Be understanding of other people's time -- if they say they're busy, a thoughtful response from you may be "Could I just ask you one question over email?" with that one question being the most pertinent.
People do want to help and invest in others for the most part, so go out there and present your best self.
Get out of the mindset of just connect with recruiters on LinkedIn; connect with people in industries you're interested in and start a conversation.
Be empathetic when connecting; come from an authentic human perspective. Ask yourself -- What can this person teach me? What about their experience is valuable?
Don't just storyboard yourself -- also storyboard companies! Storyboarding a company will help you see whether your own attributes align with the values of the company.
Be a creator and producer, not just a consumer.
Transcript
Grace Hong (BT): Welcome back to part two of our interview with Miri Rodriguez, Head of Global Internship Program at Microsoft. We’re here to talk about best practices for connecting with potential mentors on LinkedIn, and how you can use storyboarding to build your personal brand.
Miri Rodriguez (MR): One of the things I recommend, before you actually go and reach out to potential new mentors or people you want to connect to for new roles in positions [or] places you desire to go, is to first polish your LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn right truly is the digital resume of the day, if you will. If you reach out to a mentor or a possible mentor, for example, they may look at your profile, even if you reach out via email. If the profile is not complete, or it doesn’t look like a real person who has a lot going on in terms of their profile, they think it’s spam. Really take the time to fill that profile to the top and really truly spend time telling your story there – there are so many creative ways people are thinking of using the space right now, using video, using the About page to talk about themselves, not just their resume. Think about that, and if you’re reaching out to people you want to become mentors, [LinkedIn is] important, in fact. A lot of people who become [your] mentors sometimes can hire you at the end if they’re within the space looking to hire.
There’s a lot of opportunities for reaching out to mentors, or people who will guide you through [your] career journey. Just go out and ask and do it with grace, in the sense don’t just come in and say, “Hey I would like for you to be my mentor,” or “Hey I would like for your recommendation.” Really come out from a space of learning – I want to learn more about you; I want to learn more about the company you work for; I want to learn more about your career path. It’s really more engaging when somebody comes up to me, as opposed to “Hey, can you refer me to this job?” You want to show up again with grace; you want to show up almost giving back and saying “I’m understanding of your time, I know you’re busy.” Maybe offer one time mentorship: “Hey can I steal thirty or fifty minutes of your day for one time mentorship?” I’ve had mentors say to me, “I’m sorry, I’m too busy,” and I say, “Okay, I understand. Can I just ask you one question via email?” Just one question – so I get one question out of the way, and that’s the most pertinent question that I needed. There’s many ways to get creative to get a lot of people to help you. People do want to help and they do want to invest in others for the most part. It’s more of the approach of how you [network]. Put yourself out there, present your best self, and then go out and start requesting people.
I would suggest to [do this] not only in recruiting. In fact, get away from the idea of just connecting with recruiters. Go in and actually request people that are in the field that you are aspiring to – marketing, engineering, whatever it may be. You can type in [LinkedIn]: Google engineer, engineering at Amazon, there’s a lot of people that will come up. You can look at their profile, just connect, and start a conversation.
BT: Can you talk a bit more about the role of empathy in reaching out to people? Especially during a time where lots of companies are undergoing their own sorts of challenges or difficulties? How should students prevent coming across as out of touch, and why would empathy play a role in that?
MR: The role of empathy is huge in this space right now. It always has been, but I think more now. We don’t want to appear self-serving. We’re in a moment that provokes self-reflection; it’s provoking humanity; it’s provoking us to think bigger than ourselves. Truth be told, COVID has taught us that we are human, and we are not exempt, no matter where we come from, with something that touches our humanity. We are interconnected, and that is the truth. What I do will impact someone else. And so, with those two things that are top of mind today, I believe it’s a great moment to approach someone, whether you are seeking a job, looking for mentorship, or wanting to connect to gain insight from someone, to not appear self-serving. Empathy serves for you to reflect on your own emotions and show up as relatable. You can connect with someone and say “Hi I saw your profile, and I saw what you wrote on LinkedIn, and I really connected with that. I would love to know more about how you came up with that perspective. Begin to come to that conversation with a true human perspective, not just saying, “Hi I’m looking for a job – could you please recommend me?” Ultimately, we know that everyone has an agenda. We connect to people during networking to see what opportunities come from that, but I think if you come from connecting at a true level, people will receive that and feel that and those opportunities will come at the end. I actually connected with many people who I didn’t know who ended up becoming an opportunity. It just did – five or ten years later because I was truly seeking them from a human level. If we take time to reflect and connect on an emotional level, empathy is for us to step back, get away from our own selves and agendas, and step back and say: “What could this person mean in this industry? What could this person teach me? What can I learn from them? What are they saying out there and how can I connect to make them feel that what they said was so valuable that I wanted to connect?” With that approach, you will have more success more organically and authentically, instead of showing up as self-serving.
BT: How do you think, and why do you think, students should integrate vulnerability into how they’re presenting themselves, especially as they’re talking about their own story in the age of coronavirus?
MR: I often talk about something I learned myself because I discovered I wasn’t empathetic. Empathy is a learned soft skill; it isn’t something we’re all born with. While I was learning about this for myself, I learned there’s three levels of empathy: cognitive, emotional, and compassionate. Compassionate empathy serves in the space around vulnerability. Compassionate empathy starts with you being compassionate with yourself: taking time to actually deeply respect your own emotions, not pretending that they’re not there when you’re feeling frustrated or anxious about what’s going to be happening next and we don’t know. Taking the time to just recognize that those emotions are there and present. Not necessarily doing anything about it, but just calling [your emotions out]. If you’re feeling anxious, recognize that you’re feeling anxious. With that, you’re becoming more empathetic to yourself, and you become more vulnerable because you’re allowing yourself to draw from those emotions.
Vulnerability plays a part here especially as you’re seeking for jobs and connecting with other people. You are allowing yourself to be human and not necessarily going in 100% put together – we are not. If you come from a place, where you’re thinking, “I’m coming from a place where I’m seeking a job, but I’m not sure what my future looks like. I’m lost; I need some guidance. That’s vulnerable.” It’s not showing up, saying, “Hey, hire me! Your company needs me right now.” The platform has changed for us to go from a learning, humble, and vulnerable perspective.
BT: Now students have a lot of free time: we’re home from college, and some students are working remotely. It’s a great time to explore building a brand, but where should students start? Do you have any tips for people who are just starting from scratch?
MR: To build your origin story, there are many ways you can start. One of the more fun ways is through storyboarding. Ask yourself three questions: 1) how can I tell my story without speaking it, 2) how can I describe my story in a color, 3) and how does my story smell? You can take six blank sheets of paper, put them on your room or wall, and take a blank of paper—not part of the rest—and begin to draw points on your story from the day you were born. What is the next memory I have, and the next, until you reach the present. The flat lines will be all kinds of things – this is your timeline of your life; these are moments that shaped who you are. When you have that timeline, then you can actually translate that into the six panels. You are not allowed to put words on the storyboard, but you can write on the timeline, including when it happened or how did that event transform you. In the six panels, you are going to translate those data points using colors or paint – but you cannot use words. It’s supposed to tell your whole story. This exercise allows you to start thinking reflectively about your story. That will translate into your brand story; that is your brand story. That is your lived experience. You’re going to come out of it without lots of moments you may not have previously remembered that are parts of who you are and even more – passions, ideas, core values, stances. These will create your attributes of who you are, and then you can create your own aspirational attributes. The practical things include: having a mission for your brand. It could be targeting your audience, which may be a company, for instance. If a company is your audience, get to know that company as a brand. Each brand has a message, core values; they were born on a day and have a mission. Align your core values to [those of] the company. Companies eventually hire people who fit into their culture. This is a great way to also see if your values do align with the company – otherwise, why would you want to work there? It’s almost a mutual approach because it aligns yourself with companies by core values. Set out to use those data points to find out what you really are passionate about – if it’s music, you can seek out companies in the music industry. That makes it very authentic, and you can brand yourself – or target yourself – towards that company.
BT: Are there any additional pieces of advice to talk about?
MR: You do have time this summer. Be a producer, not a consumer. We can choose to consume a lot of stuff that’s happening that’s out there; we can choose to watch a lot of TV; we can choose to read a lot of books. It’s all good – it’s not bad, but if you take the time that is almost gifted to us and putting us on hold, take that time to produce something. Take this time to create something that will leave your legacy. What that is – I don’t know. You know your passions; you may not know your passions – take time to discover them. Produce something this summer that will be remembered in history. We will remember this moment; it has changed our world. What you did during this time will also talk about who you are: entrepreneurs, freelancers, innovators are all thinking about not what’s happening now, but what will happen next and how do I contribute. That’s where I believe the value is – not where you are right now, not the frustrations. Use this moment of crisis. Our brain is wired to fight or flight during this moment. Will you just flight – just hunker down and say there’s nothing for me to do and just get frustrated? Or will you use that same energy to go and fight and create and do something and become a producer of the story that is your life. You can talk to companies [later]: “I was locked up for six weeks like everybody else, but I came up with a new idea – here it is. I started coding – here it is. I started learning a new instrument – here it is.” If you have the time, go ahead and produce, not just consume.