Bridging the Gap!!!
For this activity, I went to the first CS lunch of the semester because it seemed like the easiest way to create a new connection. I met Hailey who was sitting right next to me. She is a senior double majoring in Computer Science and Biology. I then was catching up with Tony, my ML professor last semester. Since Hailey was there, I (sort of) introduced them together. I believe that the input was the situation I was in; eating lunch with Hailey - someone I just met when Tony asked to join us. The output was our interaction, specifically Tony and Hailey who had nver talked to each other before. My instruction set looked something like this:
Let the professor sit down and talk to me,
notice that Hailey was sitting there, not being a part of the conversation
try to pull her in by asking her questions so the professor would engage with her directly,
once that was settled, step back a bit but still occasionally shared my input if see the situation fit.
So, my job was not to be a "node" in this conversation but I was the bridge to put them together. I believe that most "expensive" steps for me are figuring out when to jump in to pull Hailey into the conversation, also reading the room, seeing if it was natural or seemed forced, and the hardest was how to end it without feeling too abrupt. Those took a lot more mental effort than the actual words I said.Â
The hardest part of this wasn't starting the conversation because Tony did that by asking to join us, it was figuring out when to insert myself to bring Hailey in, and later, how to wrap the conversation up naturally instead of it just trailing off awkwardly. If I'm being totally honest, this was not my intention; I was planning on talking to one of the guest speakers, but I saw the opportunity and decided to take it. Bridging two people turned out to be harder than just introducing myself to someone new, because I had to track two people's engagement instead of one, and I had to read the room for both of them at once. I got through it by watching for small openings like a pause or a question that Hailey could answer. My confidence in my ability to network professionally did shift a bit at the end; I realized I could "play" a role and treated it differently than situations where I'm the main communicator. But the challenge with jumping in and ending things hasn't fully resolved, so I still feel less confident about that specific piece than about starting or sustaining a conversation.