Waldron Career Insights: Networking Prep Session with NCA
Cassie Petoskey:
Welcome to the Weinberg in the World Podcast, where we bring you stories of interdisciplinary thinking in today's complex world. This episode is brought to you by the Waldron Student-Alumni Connections Program, a resource in Weinberg College where we help current students explore career options through making connections with alumni. In today's episode, we're excited to feature a prep session for the Weinberg College Career Summit. Whether you're coming to the career summit to build your network because you already have a job, or maybe you want to just come to listen to alumni from different fields share their stories because you're still undecided in what you want to do after graduation, this episode will help you prepare for the event. Also, this is a great overview of networking in general, so this information will be helpful to review before any future alumni event you register for. We hope you appreciate the resource.
Jeff Jenkins:
Welcome to Networking for the Career Summit, brought to you by The Austin J. Waldron Student-Alumni Connections Program and Northwestern Career Advancement. I'm Jeff Jenkins, and this episode was written by Jose Santos and myself. In this episode, we will define networking, why it's important. You're going to learn how to prepare for the career summit event and what to do before, as well as what to do during the event, and how to follow up after the networking event. So, let's begin. What is networking? Well, for some of you, this isn't a very comfortable topic to be able to discuss, but we're hoping to help you out and make you a confident networker. And for those of you who are confident networkers, you're going to do all that much better. Now, networking is about meeting people to make connections and develop professional relationships. These connections can provide you with advice and contacts, which can help you make informed career decisions.
So, why network? Well, it's really all about helping you to develop a group of people that you can connect with and turn to for help and advice. It also helps you to acquire information and knowledge. Maybe you want to access the hidden job market and learn about new internship and job opportunities. Maybe you want to be able to identify career options available to you or learn a bit more about others' experiences. Either way, let's prepare you for that now. So, before the event, it's going to be important for you to know what you want to get out of the career summit. Know what your personal goals are in networking with others. Whether it is to learn more about a job or an internship or widening your professional circle, either way, it's going to help you to stay focused throughout the event. Some example goals could be to acquire basic information and knowledge about work responsibilities, working conditions, education and experience necessary to enter entry level roles.
Either way, this is going to help you to improve your conversations. Maybe you want to find out what are current trends in the industry, or maybe just to find out a bit more about what are the common jobs and internships in this particular industry, but what do you want from this particular meeting? It's also important for you to be prepared. You'll be able to see the list of alumni speakers in advance. So, research the alum. Look at what company are they at. What is their position? Try to get a baseline of some knowledge going in. You'll not be able to turn in a resume prior to the event, however you can turn in that resume after the event. Other things to do before the event, really know yourself, and what do we mean by this? Well, review your resume. Start thinking about what you've done so far while at NU.
What is one standout story you'd like to share? You can identify and be able to talk about your own career interests. What have you been doing in and out of the classroom to help you to explore these interests? And what are the skills you've been developing? So, think about what are you becoming good at. It also is important to prepare a list of questions to be able to ask, and this list is really one or two, that's ideal. Now, you should note that you're not asking for favors or for a job or internship at this point, and certainly not questions about salary right now. So, what would these questions look like? Well, it really depends on where are you coming from in terms of what you want to get out of this meeting? So, are you thinking about, for example, exploring career fit within the industry?
Then maybe you want to ask, how did you decide on this career? Or what are the main duties of your job? Or what skills are most important to success? Perhaps you want to prepare for a career in the industry, and you might ask, how did your time at NU prepare you for this profession? Or what experiences should I engage in to better be prepared for this industry? Or how is the field and industry changing? Perhaps you want to learn more about a specific company or organization. Great. You could ask, it seems that every organization has its own personality. How would you characterize yours or what do you like most or least about working for this company? Finally, if your strategy is to understand and learn a bit more about particular internships and jobs and search strategies, then maybe you'll ask, what are methods or resources for getting internships or jobs in this industry or company, or what resources would you recommend I use to learn more about an internship or job in this industry?
Either way, understanding what you want to get out of the event and having a question that stems from that need is important. Now, what do we do during the event? Well, believe or not, you're going to have to introduce yourself and have a small story to share. It's really important. So, being able to provide a bit of a brief summary of yourself to be able to share your strengths and career goals is important for the other person to be able to hear, here's a snapshot of who you are. Sometimes you have heard of this as the elevator pitch, and what are some important components to this? Well, it's simply understanding a bit about who you are, what you do, and how you do it. So, you might start out simply with, here's my name, year and major, and then think about that one solid story that you're generating when you reviewed your resume.
It's also really important to let the listener have an opportunity to speak. So, the alum also wants to share some information and talk a bit about themselves. Now, I know this could be hard on Zoom, but try to make good eye contact and use those active listening skills by paying attention and using your non-verbals, maybe a head nod or a uh-huh. This will help them to know you're interested in their company and what they have to say, and it's also good to pay close attention to names and information that they're sharing. This can really help display some interest and sincerity as a listener, and that'll go a long way in making this connection. Now, this also might be that time where you ask that particular question, and so maybe that's the time to ask a bit about their career path like, I see you work at McKinsey.
Tell me a bit more about how you got into this particular career, or what made you choose this field when you were at NU? So, remembering that list that I shared a little bit earlier or these questions, but this is a good time to continue the conversation. And then, we now have to allow some time to wrap up. And one thing that's important in this wrap up is to have some actionable items to end with. Now, this is going to allow you some tasks to complete and a way to follow up with your contact after the meeting. So, for instance, you might say, I just want to say thank you for providing me information about your career. I am aspiring to be a marketing associate as well and have been involved in, and think about some activities or academics here that you can insert, and then could you provide me with three things that I can do that will allow me to become a better candidate for this field?
Now, let's pivot to after the meeting. Following up, now that you've spent this time and made this great connection, consider reaching out to them a few days after the event. And what we're talking about here is 28 or 48 hour period. And this is going to be thanking them and also giving an example of something that you enjoyed about their conversation so that you can connect it back to the event and what you were talking about. So, it's important then to be thinking about reiterating one key part of the conversation. Let that stand out, that moment that really resonated with you, and then you want to be able to follow up and take note of the three things that they suggested that you do as actionable items. Now, not only is this going to help make you a better candidate because this is going to allow you some actionable items to engage in, but it's also going to give you at least three more points of contact to build a stronger relationship with your alumni host.
As you accomplish one of the three tasks, then make sure to reach out to them and let them know, here's how this really helped you in your career development. We have a few other things here. Now, I know networking can be a bit of a daunting task for some of you, especially introverts. So, I have a few tips for introverts. Now, remember that some difficulties in networking for introverts really stem from, I'm not sure what to say to people when I'm in the room with them or virtually online. Sometimes it also might be just having the confidence to say and speak to alum because it's putting you out of your comfort zone. So, let's think about three different ideas to help boost your confidence. So, the first tip is in a way to boost your confidence is believe in your own talents. If you don't know what to say about yourself to people, consider what are you good at?
What makes you, you? Everybody has something that they're good at. So, believe in what you're good at. As an example, maybe you had a leadership role in a student organization and you have excellent leadership skills. Go ahead and share that. Or you love organizing things and are detail-oriented, you're great at paying attention to details or meeting deadlines. And then, finally, knowing what you are good at will make you connect more confidently with other people. Let's think about tip number two in ways to boost your confidence.
Before going into the event, observe confident people in action. Take note of their verbal and nonverbal behaviors. See, most confident people speak with enthusiasm. They're also active listeners, and they figure out ways to make a connection with the other person. So, how does someone who is great at networking use icebreakers to start a conversation as an example? Well, perhaps you're going to speak about a big student event that's happened over the academic year or could be happening this month. Maybe it's about what bands are attending Dillo Day, or when is the last time that the alum visited campus? Speak to some of the changes to campus over the past few years. Then we have tip number three in boosting your confidence. So, in no way are introverts ill-equipped for meeting and connecting with new people. They just prefer to do it a little bit differently.
So, leverage your preferences and play to your strengths. Maybe connecting virtually is one of your strengths, and this allows you ahead of the meeting an opportunity to gather your thoughts rather than doing it on the fly, let's say as an in-person event. So, play to that strength, or maybe you are better one-on-one with people rather than being in a group. And so, play to that strength in terms of that one-on-one conversation, and think about, again, what makes you unique? Consider a story that you want to be able to share, and then have a question to ask. And there you have it. We hope you have a successful time with the career summit networking event. For more information on networking or to practice, book an appointment with NCA through Handshake and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook Meta. Thanks for listening and have a great day.
Cassie Petoskey:
Thanks for listening. For more information about the Waldron Student-Alumni Connections Program and this podcast, visit weinberg.northwestern.edu and search for Waldron. As always, we'd love to hear your feedback. Please reach out with your thoughts on the program. We hope to hear from you and or see you at an upcoming Waldron connections program event. Thanks.