Career Services
General Networking Tips
General Networking Tips
The Art of Networking
(adapted from Yale Undergraduate Career Services)
Networking. Informational interviews. The very concept reduces some people to nervous explanations of why they can’t do it. Those who have developed professional and social networks, however, benefit from the relationships for years to come and sometimes even find the process enjoyable!
The Basics
Whether your goal is to find a job, explore career possibilities through informational interviews, take the next step in your career, make professional or social contacts in a new city, or change careers, networking can be the most effective tool to use. Opportunities for networking range from contacting strangers who might have career information you need to asking a second year M.P.H. student where to find the best gym in town. Networking is something most of you already know how to do. It’s how you met your friends, selected your classes, chose your concentration, decided where to go during spring breaks. Learning, doing research, and developing relationships are all skills that each of you utilized and developed while at Yale.
Meeting people can be intimidating for some. If that describes you, think of networking as a research project. The answers, however, are not in the library or on the internet but are known among the folks working in the career area or social setting of your choice. Since you don’t know who has the information that will be most beneficial, your task is to contact enough people so that you eventually find the person who has the answer most appropriate to your situation. You can correspond with people through the mail, email, telephone, or face-to-face meetings.
Networking for Career Advice
The first step in career networking is to clarify your career goals or focus on one obtainable goal of several (for example, finding a position in healthcare administration in Philadelphia). Be sure you understand what a particular career field or specific position entails.
Next, do plenty of research to identify the organizations that hire people for such positions. (Some of this research may result in finding actual job openings!) Don’t forget to look beyond the obvious. There are not only opportunities in healthcare administration with in hospitals, but other related organizations may have opportunities as well. Remember to look in both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors. As you prepare a list of organizations, try to identify specific people (including the spellings of their names and their job titles) who might be helpful to you. In addition to this research, ask everyone you know if they might know of someone who could provide advice. Sometimes the person most helpful to you is someone you see every day but didn’t know had a perfect connection for you!
As you compile a list of people to contact, prepare questions to ask to solicit helpful advice. For an informational interview, keep the questions general to the career field and not specific to a job search. Include questions about the background and career path of the people you contact. (For example, “How did you learn about the best hospitals in Philadelphia?” “What would you do differently if you could do it again?” “Are there professional associations that I might join in the area?”)
When you contact people to see if they might be able to offer some advice in person or in a telephone conversation, be gracious and diplomatic. Be flexible regarding time and location. Some people will not be interested and may even be annoyed. Others may say they are willing to meet but not have the time. Others will be glad to meet but may want you to further define the purpose of the meeting. If you have made it clear that you are seeking general advice about how to learn about a specific career field in a specific location, you may be able to avoid responses such as “We don’t have any openings right now so please don’t bother me.” Alumni have too often been asked to provide job leads by demanding students or recent graduates who don’t appreciate the etiquette of networking. Many Yale alums are willing to assist as long as you make it clear that advice is what you’re seeking. It is inappropriate to expect them to do your work for you as you seek job openings.
Why would anyone agree to an informational interview or offer advice to a stranger? Networking benefits employers as well. Posting and advertising job openings, recruiting, reviewing resumes, and interviewing requires a great deal of time, energy, and money from employers. Those who provide informational interviews and assist newcomers to their career fields will often have a pool of talent at their fingertips. When an employee leaves, employers who are able to turn to their files of people who have come in for informational interviews and/or sent letters of inquiry may be able to skip the time-consuming step of advertising the position and wading through large stacks of applications.
Maintaining Your Professional Network
Some people in your network are or will become your friends and will continue to be in close contact with you. Others may talk with you only once. It is important that you express your appreciation through thank-you notes, that you respect the time someone made for you by not abusing it or sharing that person’s name inappropriately, and that you cultivate the relationship if you want it to continue. You may find a reason to ask for further advice as you continue your career, and you may find an opportunity to repay the favor. As a newly hired executive said in a Newsweek article, “You get jobs by keeping contact with absolutely everybody you’ve ever met” (Newsweek, 18 March, 2002, 38P).
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