Wednesday 1st October 2025

Founder- Isabel Sachs

links: ilikenetworking.substack.com/workshop

When introducing herself, Isabel didn’t start with her accolades and job titles but instead with her hobbies and interests. I really liked this way of opening up the presentation because it’s true that we connect with people not roles. Especially in a space like animation where everyone’s passion is arts related.

This workshop spoke a lot about the importance of social media when it comes to networking. To be honest I’ve often found posting to social media particularly frustrating on platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and especially LinkedIn. I think the idea of having to ‘sell myself’ is something that I struggle with but the truth is no-one can hire you if they don’t know you exist.

Social media is a curated look at people’s lives, often this is brought up in negative way to emphasise the way in which we compare ourselves to others online, but it can also be a great tool for showing the best of yourself to prospective employers or people you want to work with.

• Social media- creating a curated version of yourself
  • Who is your audience?
  • Keywords
  • Keeping engaged with your circle

When it comes to social media, the main audience I post for it other people interested in art and animation. I’ve made an effort to try and separate posts about my personal life and art goings on, but in general I am slow to post and it’s something I’m aware of that I need to do more.

A lot of networking unfortunately requires the art of taking rejection and cold messaging which is a skill in itself. “No is feedback” was very important to hear.

Following this session, I started making a contact spreadsheet and I was surprised at how many names I could think of. When I sat down and made it, it made me realised that I am much more connected to people in the industry than I first thought. I also put down many of my fellow classmates down because I know that in the future they’ll be my peers in the industry and hopefully we’ll all give each other a leg up.

• That transactional feeling
  • Not selling/ pitching to people (unless they’re American)
• How to send a good message

Intro, context, connect, ask close. Always thank people for their time. Cold messaging is something that might help and is something you just need to get over.

• Practice practice practice
• No is feedback
• Personal stuff about missed opportunities

I’m glad I had this session at the start of my DPS year as it gave me the building blocks to start reaching out to people and establishing connections. I feel like in the past I’ve met people who are in the industry that I would have loved to connect with further but was too shy or awkward to do so, so hopefully that feeling becomes less and less. I know that it’s something I’m going to need to keep practicing so I hope that as I near the end of this year I’ll be a bit more confident when it comes to networking and meeting new people.