One of the most common questions I’ve fielded over my career is: How do I get better at networking? As a woman of color from a low-income, blue-collar family, I thought networking was collecting as many business cards as possible from influential people. After almost a decade in tech, I’ve realized that successful networking doesn’t feel like a business transaction; successful networking is knowing why someone does the job they do, the scope and impact of their work, and the work-life balance they’ve set up to sustainably do their job. In simpler terms, successful networking is the same thing as making friends. This talk is about how we get better at making friends, especially in a mostly now-remote tech industry.