Whether you are an undergraduate social sciences major, an MBA candidate, or a doctorate engineer, it is never too early to start networking. Many students spend too much time focused on the present: whether it’s homework assignments, working a part time job, or looking forward to the weekend. While those may be important, being a college student also means learning skills and gaining experiences that will help you launch your career upon graduation.
To begin your career, you need to land an initial job. Thus, you will be sending out many applications to potential employers hoping to land one or more positions. However, if you have only a limited number of connections, you might be no more than a name on a piece of paper. To combat this, you should start building your network as early as possible so that you can increase your chances of landing your dream job without undue stress.
While there are multiple blogs on networking tips and tricks to help you build your late-stage network (right before applying to jobs), there are steps you can take early in college that will ease the networking process. These steps include utilizing existing family connections, leveraging faculty members, and attending company information sessions. I have personally used all three of these and I will share how each has succeeded.
1. Start with Family Connections
If your great uncle twice removed is a consultant at BCG, then obviously he might be able to help you land an internship. However, most students do not have those level of connections. On the other hand, most students do have family members who can help grow your network early on in school. Start by creating a LinkedIn account and adding close family members. As you connect with more and more people, you will start to see possible connections at their companies. Maybe ask a family member to connect you with a co-worker, you never know who they might be able to introduce you to!
If you are looking for an internship, maybe write a post about it to your newfound connections. If a family member likes or comments on it, it will then appear on their page where their connections can see it. Like a snowball gathering mass as it rolls downhill, each person who engages with your post will attract additional traffic, and you might even hear back from one or two companies.
When I was looking for my first internship, a coworker of my mother came across my post, and shared it with her husband. He was looking for an engineering intern for his company, and we promptly connected. I interviewed and was then offered the position. A successful outcome, all as a result from utilizing my existing family connections to start building my network!
2. Leverage Faculty Members
While at university, students have access to hundreds of exceptional faculty members with existing connections and colleagues. This does not mean you should go up to your Microeconomics professor day one of class and ask for a referral for an internship. You should first look for a class you enjoy and find success in. Maybe serve as a teaching assistant in the course or conduct an independent research project on a topic you learned about within the course. Then approach the task of looking for an internship or a full-time role. If the faculty member recognizes your contributions and efforts, they just might have a connection or two for you!
Do not expect professors to have recruiters for your dream firm on speed dial. Instead, they might give you a name or email address of a former student, a research collaborator, or old friend. It is then your job to ask the professor to send an initial email connecting the two of you or you need to carefully craft a good introductory email mentioning the professor’s name. This one connection might not pan out, so it is good to identify 2-3 faculty members and ask for 2-3 names each, so that you have a few options available.
During the first year of my Ph.D., I used my advisor’s list of collaborators to secure offers from turbomachinery companies Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce. Simply applying to their internship programs might not have worked, but emailing two managers in the companies and mentioning my advisor helped grab their attention. As a result, I completed an invaluable internship in the Aeromechanics Group at Rolls-Royce in Indianapolis!
3. Attend Company Information Sessions (Early!)
It is common sense to attend information sessions and recruiting events during the semester in which you are applying for jobs, but did you think about attending them sooner? These sessions are a great chance to get to know employees, the company culture, and the expectations of working there. If you attend early, you can decide if it is a good fit for you, rather than feeling forced to apply at each session you attend.
So why attend early? You likely have to register for these events, so you will get your name and email into the company’s database. Often, they will also ask for a resume, which is an easy way to get your information to them. You can also network with the presenters by following up with them by email or on LinkedIn. Sometimes these connections will lead to a later discussion, sometimes not; but at least getting your information to them is key.
I attended a virtual information session during my third year of graduate school, way before I was applying to companies. In registering for the event, I was able to submit my resume. Four months later, I received an email from an employee at the firm interested in chatting with me about the experiences on my resume. Two phone calls and a video chat later, I am in the stages of a final round interview. I had not even officially applied to the firm, but I networked my way in, simply by attending an informational event early in my career.
Bonus Tip: Update Your Resume Monthly!
Every month you should update your resume with relevant skills, experiences, and information. You should not wait until you apply for a job to do a major overhaul; it should always be ready to go. The opportunity to send your resume to someone can appear instantly, through your LinkedIn connections or from a company information session. However, you should not cold email your resume to anyone. You should focus on building a connection first, then supplying the resume when asked. Thus, you should always be polishing and improving your resume, having it locked and loaded, but waiting for the right moment to fire.
Ricky Hollenbach is a third year Ph.D. student at Duke University in Mechanical Engineering, studying unsteady aerodynamics and mechanical vibrations in jet engines and turbomachinery. He aspires to become a management consultant in the aerospace and defense fields.
Image: Pixabay
🔴 Interested in consulting?