Refining Your Networking Advice

Refining Your Networking Advice | Generated by AI

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Question: How do I evaluate my advice to my friend about connecting with a LinkedIn contact who has AI/business connections?

Answer:

Your advice is mostly right. The core idea is valuable: relationships compound, but only if you create opportunities for people to know you exist.

The strongest part:

“要开口主动，否则人家怎么知道”

This is exactly how many opportunities happen. A lot of people underestimate weak ties. Someone who is not your direct manager may not hire you, but they may know:

an AI lead looking for interns,
a research collaboration opportunity,
a hiring manager,
a founder,
someone organizing competitions.

LinkedIn is especially designed for this. A connection request is a low-cost signal.

However, I would adjust one thing: don’t frame it as “ask for help” too early.

Bad approach:

“姐姐，我想找工作，能不能帮我内推 NVIDIA?”

High chance of being ignored.

Better:

“您好，我看到您也参与过百度商业智能大赛相关活动，我的朋友曾获得过比赛奖项。我目前在做 AI engineering / LLM projects，也希望向您学习亚太 AI 产业和人才发展的经验。如果方便，希望保持联系。”

The first goal is not referral. The first goal is:

turn a stranger → weak connection → trusted connection.

Then later:

connect
    ↓
conversation
    ↓
understand her network
    ↓
ask for advice
    ↓
possible introduction

Your observation about executives is also correct:

“每个高管都是不一样的”

Exactly. Titles don’t determine behavior. A VP might:

ignore everyone,
only help close friends,
enjoy mentoring young engineers,
actively build a talent network.

You only discover this through interaction.

For your friend’s case (Baidu Commercial Intelligence Competition award), there is actually a good hook. Awards are social proof. Instead of “please help me”, he can say:

I noticed we share some AI/data competition background.
I recently worked on X.
I would love to exchange ideas about AI engineering trends.

That is a peer conversation, not a request.

One more point: NVIDIA VP / big tech executives rarely directly give jobs. The realistic chain is:

VP
 |
introduces
 |
Director / Manager
 |
Tech Lead
 |
Interview opportunity

The introduction is valuable because it bypasses the cold-start problem.

Your friend’s biggest advantage is not the award itself. It is that the award gives a reason to start the conversation.

A good networking strategy is basically reinforcement learning:

many small actions
        ↓
observe responses
        ↓
update belief about people
        ↓
invest more where signal is strong

Don’t assume someone will help; don’t assume they won’t. Test.

So overall: your advice is directionally correct. I would just shift from “ask powerful people for opportunities” to “build authentic connections with people who have high network position.” The second one works much better.

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