Networking Basics

So, you’re looking for a summer internship or part-time job, or you’re a senior and you are facing the prospect of graduation and want to begin your career. The local newspaper hasn’t listed anything of interest. What is your next step?

Start NETWORKING!

Networking means meeting and talking to people with the intent of gaining information about the job market, advice about your career, expanding your number of contacts, and discovering unpublished job openings.

What can Networking do for you? Aside from making contacts, other benefits include:

• A vital way to access this “hidden job market”.
• Getting the word out about your qualifications and availability.
• Learning about target markets, thus enlarging your options.
• Increasing your chances of finding a “best fit” and job satisfaction.
• Keeping you current with market trends, terminology and information.
• Improving your decision-making ability using knowledge as a foundation.
• Boosting your self-esteem as your knowledge base.
• Improving your interviewing and research skills, developing perseverance.
• Uncovering a job!

70%-80% of job openings never reach the
want ads or recruiters!

Be Prepared! Know Yourself!
You will need to formulate a professional response to the question, "Tell me about yourself". Answering this question will require some internal dialogue about your past, your accomplishments and skills and some forethought about the professional direction you see yourself going.

1.  How I got where I am today:
2.  What I have to offer:
3.  Where I want to go:
          Why am I interested in this job?:
          The career decision I am considering:

Where can I network?

Follow the Networking - Where do I begin? strategies and use the Networking Worksheet to aid you in developing your network/contact list.

Once you have developed your list, you can concentrate on setting up your contact meetings.

Networking Meetings
Networking meetings are formal appointments set up by you and the new contact and last about 30 minutes.  Wear either a business suit or dressy casual attire, bring pens, a notepad with prepared questions, and your resume. 

What to do:  The Networking Meeting
1. Call the contact (never email) and introduce yourself.  Inform them of the person who referred you to him or her and briefly why you called, i.e. to gain some career advice.  Ask to set up an appointment to meet him or her.

2. Prepare some questions to ask at the meeting. What can you offer that contact? An article about the career field, or information about a problem in the industry, or your qualifications? 

The questions you ask and what you offer should reflect the goal of the meeting.  Are you interested in getting contact names, career information, or details about specific jobs within an industry?

• For contacts:  Research other companies or agencies that are similar to the contact’s organization.  You do not want the entire meeting to be about what the contact’s company or agency does - you want to gather additional professional contacts.  Tell the contact why you feel these new contacts would be interested in speaking to you.

• For career information:  Research as much as you can about a particular career field, you can visit the Career Center for resources.  Ask the contact about how he or she got into the field.  What paths can you take to get in a similar career position? Again, ask for additional contacts that you might follow-up with. 

• For job information:  Research the company or agency you are visiting along with information about the career field.  Tell the contact that you are in an active job search and would like information about how to break into this career.  Know your qualifications and your career path - and steer the conversation to how you will benefit a similar company or even that particular company.  Bring your resume, but do not show the resume until the end of the meeting since you do not want the entire meeting to be a resume critique.  Ask for additional contacts and have him or her keep a copy of your resume in case he or she hears of a job opening.

Following Up
• Send a follow-up email or letter.  In the follow-up, thank your contact and mention specific things you had spoken about during the meeting. 

• Let the contact know what you are planning to do with the information you gathered from the meeting.  Are you going to follow-up with the people the contact referred?  Are you going to email him or her an article?  Are you going to forward your resume to another individual at that company?  Give the time frame that you will accomplish these things. 

• Always keep in touch with the contact, once every couple of weeks if you are in the job search, or every month if you are not actively seeking a job.  Let him or her know what you are doing and what progress you have made.

Networking may sound a bit scary and intimidating. It doesn’t have to be. Armed with information and tools for success, making career connections is easy!