Networking for Students

How to Create Great Networking Contacts

Oct 25, 2009 Craig Pickering

Networking for students may seem irrelevant, and yet knowing where and how to network, how to follow-up and the skills of speed networking are essential.

The more networking events university students can attend prior to graduating, the more opportunities they create for themselves when looking for that first critical job in their career path. Every networking event provides new contacts that can be followed-up to become essential business contacts.

An often touted phrase is “It’s not what you know but who you know!” For a tertiary studen, this statement may seem unsavoury, and yet networking is the lifeblood of most businesses. It is extremely important to establish and cultivate contacts that can assist in graduating, finding work, entering a career path or introducing oneself to others.

Setting Networking Objectives

Before establishing connections, students need to decide what sort of people they want, and need, to meet. Business leaders yes, but in what industry and at what level?

For example, if they are studying accountancy, then ask the local CPA office when they hold networking events. If studying Marketing or Management, then contact either the Institute of Marketing or the Australian Institute of Management. Most of these organisations list their events online.

There are also general networking events held by organisations such as in-business and Business SA where people from any industry can, and do, attend. These events are excellent for broadening contacts, as no one can ever know where future opportunities may come from!

Choose networking events wisely. Attending an event of the "Impoverished Students Getting Drunk Association" (the well known ISGDA) may be enjoyable, but is extremely unlikely to be of any use to a student's career.

Types of Networking Events

There are business breakfasts, networking lunches, industry functions and even "speed networking".

Most students are new to networking, so speed networking is suggested as an excellent way to start. Everyone at such an event is there specifically to meet people, and have one thing in common – they are all nervous!

The idea behind speed networking comes from speed dating, and involves a facilitator organising attendees into groups of usually 2-4 people who do not know each other. Each person then has one minute to tell the other three people in the group who they are and what they do. After 5-10 minutes a bell is rung and everyone must find other people they do not know, and so on.

These events normally last for around 40 minutes, in which time a dozen business cards can easily be collected and several useful contacts made.

Before attending such a function, it is critical to have a "30 second elevator speech" ready. Something like “Hi my name is Craig, and I am an undergraduate student at UniSA in Management and Marketing, looking to connect with people I can learn from and who can possibly provide me with some work experience.”

It is also recommend to have on hand plenty of business cards. Business cards? For a student? Absolutely!

Something simple will suffice that includes name, phone number, email address and “Undergraduate in Management (Marketing) at UniSA” or whatever is relevant. Cards are essential, for in order to receive one must first give! And besides, how else are they going to maintain contact and perhaps offer that brilliant job?

Business cards can be purchased for around $60 for 200 cards, so they are not too expensive.

Follow-Up on Networking Efforts

After every networking event, go through all of the business cards collected and send every one of them a follow-up letter or email, whether they are a useful contact or a complete waste of time. A meaningless contact may know someone of extreme interest and influence.

An example would be; “Hi Craig. We met at the networking event yesterday at Business SA, and I would like to take this opportunity to remind you of the services/products/skills/job I can provide/am looking for.” After listing these, sign off with “I enjoyed meeting you and hope to see you at another event soon.”

After attending several such events, it will no longer be a case of “Who do you know?” but “Who don’t you know!”

The copyright of the article Networking for Students in Career Advice is owned by Craig Pickering. Permission to republish Networking for Students in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Student Networking

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