# Networking Log — 5 points **Running Week 10 → Week 15 · Due Friday, December 4** **Submit: the log (spreadsheet or PDF) + evidence of event attendance** --- ## The reframe **Networking is not asking people for jobs.** It's making yourself a known quantity before there is an opening. Most junior roles in this region are filled off a shortlist that existed before the posting went up. Somebody thought of a name, or somebody got asked "know anybody?" The entire practical goal is to be the name that gets thought of. That's a slowly-built asset, which is why this starts in October and not in May. ## What to log | Name | Org | Where / when we met | What they said | What I owe them | Next touch | |---|---|---|---|---|---| **Minimum by Week 15:** - **10 entries** - **3 follow-ups sent** — and logged, with dates - **1 qualifying live event attended**, from the list below ### Qualifying events — any one of these | Event | When | Cost | |---|---|---| | **Guest Speaker Series** — Frisco or Wylie | Sep, Oct, or Nov evenings | Free | | **Industry Insights** (ABOSG) — Dallas College Brookhaven, sometimes Collin Plano | Monthly Saturdays, 11a–1p | **Free** | | **Society of Play** meetup or game jam — North Dallas | Twice monthly | Free | | **Tech Arts Meetup** — UT Dallas | Third Thursday monthly | Free | | **IGDA Dallas** meetup | Varies | Usually free | | **Industry Giants** — UT Dallas | **Sat, Oct 3** | Ticketed *(also extra credit)* | | Anything else industry-related | — | Clear it with me **beforehand** | Everything except Industry Giants is free. If a weeknight drive is the obstacle, **Industry Insights is a free Saturday daytime option** — take it. **Entries from before Week 10 count.** If you went to Industry Giants on October 3, that's your event; just log it properly. Tell me *before* the last chance passes if none of these will work for you, not in December. ## Who counts **All three circles count, and you need entries from at least two.** 1. **Peers** — your own cohort, and students a year on either side. Counterintuitively the highest-value circle over ten years, because these are the people who'll be hiring, subcontracting, and recommending. Nearly everyone underinvests here because peers seem to have nothing to offer. They have everything to offer; they're just early. 2. **Practitioners two to six years ahead** — the workhorse circle. They answer messages, they remember being where you are, they know which teams are quietly hiring, and there's no power imbalance in the conversation. Most of your useful information comes from here. 3. **Decision-makers** — leads, art directors, recruiters. Lowest response rate, highest leverage. You reach this circle *through* the other two. Never open cold. ## Where to go See the **DFW Industry Map** in the Reference module for the full list. Start with: - **Guest Speaker Series** — Sep, Oct, Nov at Frisco or Wylie. Nearest, cheapest, most ignored. One is required. - **Society of Play** *(formerly Dallas Society of Play)* — North Dallas non-profit game dev community, twice-monthly meetups plus jams and mini-cons. Explicitly for every level, students included. **If the idea of walking into a room of strangers makes you want to skip this assignment, start here.** Go once, talk to two people, leave. That's a complete first attempt. - **Tech Arts Meetup** — third Thursday monthly, free, at UT Dallas. Riggers, sim artists, shader artists, pipeline developers — and "tech artists in-the-making," which is the category you're in. Houdini, Maya, Python, Unreal, Unity. You do not have to be a UTD student to attend. - **IGDA Dallas** — the region's game development chapter. Entry-level friendly by design. - **Industry Giants** — **Sat, Oct 3, UT Dallas.** 20th annual, 400+ artists, five speakers, **live portfolio reviews**, artist alley. The highest-density day in North Texas for exactly this cohort. Ticketed; register with your `.edu` email. - **Industry Insights** — the same organization's **free** monthly Saturday talks, 11a–1p, usually at Dallas College Brookhaven. Working professionals walking through actual project pipelines — recent ones have included a Director of Pipeline from DreamWorks Animation and the team at 900 lbs of Creative. Two hours, free, daytime. Probably the best value on this whole list. - **Game jams** — the fastest way to convert strangers into people who have shipped something with you, which is a much stronger relationship than having met someone. - **Discord** — where referrals actually get passed. Lurking is not networking; answering somebody else's technical question is. - **Adjacent professional communities** — motion design, agency creative, arch viz, medical illustration. Dramatically less crowded than the games queue. ## The mechanics **The ask.** Fifteen minutes, one specific question, explicitly no job request. > ✗ "Can I pick your brain?" > ✓ "You shipped the environment work on X — how did your team handle modular kit budgets?" Specificity is the whole thing. Then ask what they'd want to see in a portfolio for a role like theirs, and actually do it. **The follow-up.** Thank-you within 24 hours, naming one thing you're changing because of what they said. Then a **90-day touch** — a finished piece that exists because of their advice. That second contact is where the relationship actually forms. It is also where almost everyone quits. ## When you have nothing to offer You think you have nothing to trade, so you only ever ask. You actually have three things: 1. **You show up reliably.** Rarer than you'd believe. 2. **You can amplify other people's work** honestly and publicly. 3. **You can do the small unglamorous jobs** — jam volunteer, event photographer, Discord mod, note-taker, setup crew. Society of Play's touring arcade cabinet is a live example: submitting a game costs nothing, and helping run the cab at a festival puts you next to organizers for a whole day. This is how a junior converts presence into relationships, and it works precisely because so few people do it. ## The 20-second introduction Three parts: what you make, one specific recent piece, what you're looking for. Rehearse it until it stops sounding rehearsed. **The failure mode to kill:** *"I do a little of everything."* It sounds versatile and lands as unformed. A specialist who mentions a second skill reads as range. A generalist who mentions no specialty reads as undecided. ## Etiquette - Don't lead with an unsolicited portfolio link - Don't ask a stranger to get you a job - Don't send the same message to forty people — they talk to each other - Don't argue with feedback you asked for. Write it down, say thank you, decide later. - **Do** follow up - **Do** tell people when their advice worked - Don't disappear the second you get what you needed ## Rubric | | Points | |---|---| | 10 or more entries, complete columns, entries from at least two circles | 1 | | 3 follow-ups sent and logged with dates | 1 | | One qualifying live event attended, with evidence | 1 | | Log shows real conversations — what they said is specific, not "was nice" | 1 | | At least one 90-day touch scheduled with a date and a stated reason to reach out | 1 | ## Related - Week 10 page — the networking session - **Professional Identity Kit** (Week 8) — your Target List feeds this - DFW Industry Map (Reference module)