It is time again for Walkabout SG.
Here's some tips I gathered from my past Walkabout in 2012 and 2013:
- List down your Agenda
- Ask yourself what you want to achieve? No one knows better what you want for yourself.
- Knowledge, Network, Kaypo, Freebies or Food?
- If the latter 3, skip the following. Enjoy your excursion and see you at After Party. Take extra freebies for me hor =)
- Selecting which companies to visit
- Try going to those that will help you in your career, study or future startup.
- Those whom you already know or can easily connect anytime in Meetup, SKIP. Don't waste your time on them.
- List down all the companies you want to visit first. If your friend is joining you, plan together. My advice is to go alone or a small group of 2 or 3. Big group is strongly not advisable.
- Don't get upset when some companies limit the number of people visiting their office and you are not one of them. Just remember we are the customer, we are the one making the choices. We can live without their solution =)
- Plan your trip well
- Don't travel all over the place. You only have ONE day.
- Stay focused.
- A good way is to visit those which are close to each other: http://bit.ly/1IQhwPI
- Sacrifice has to be made at times. You might not finish visit all the selected companies. Get your priority right.
- BONUS: All companies participating will be at the After Party. Well... most of them. You can still network there but less productive =)
- Time your visit if you have many stops.
- I don't recommend staying for more than an hour unless there is an event or talk.
- Best keep it no more than 20min per company.
- Some companies need to walk quite a distance from the nearest MRT station.
- Some companies are in shophouses and there is no lift access.
- Make backup plans in case you can't hop on the free bus service.
- Talk to rival companies
- Look at each other offering and evaluate who can support or suit you better.
- Tell them what their rivals offered you. Sometimes they will try to match or offer better package to you outside what's already offered publicly.
- Even the rival companies might not reach your expectations, talking to them and understand the services they offered; make the company that support you nervous and you might get away with a better support.
- Don't be shy
- Best day to ask stupid questions and I mean really stupid ones. No one will laugh at you on this day
- Network
- Bring LOT of namecards.
- You can talk to this guy for hours and he might forget you the moment you turn around. A namecard is what's 'connecting' you to that person after the conversion.
- Always take the initiative to push namecard to others. It is consider rude if they didn't give you his or her namcard after accepting yours. Well... we do accept excuses like he/she ran out of namecard. No worries, you can always add them on Linkedin on the spot *evil* >)
- If you are looking for funding, job or internship
- Prepare your CV and portfolio
- Put your portfolio on your phone, tablet, laptop or anything that can be show to others in 5 sec.
- There are a lot of VCs, Head Hunters and bosses in the Walkabout. Some are participants like you too. So prepare your Elevator Pitch before your walk =)
I hope you can find these tips useful. Enjoy your walk and see you guys at After Party.
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