Have you been wondering why others have been able to get the “perfect” job that you wanted, even though they may not look as credible as you are or as smart as you are whereas you don’t seem to be able to get those dream jobs, no matter how many jobs applications you have sent to companies. Is this a familiar scenario to you?

If it is so, I believe that you have missed out on something really important. Based on statistics, over 60% of eventual job offers are not from posts advertised in any form of advertisement. Moreover, for those 40% or so of the job offers that are advertised, not all jobs are offered to those that apply through formal applications.

The missing link is networking! It is a very powerful instrument that could potentially lead you up to fantastic job offers. With this in mind, you may be wondering how you can start networking and when you should start networking. My answer would be to start from now onwards, and it is very easy to start networking.

First steps…your friends!
First and foremost, start from where you are. Your friends are a great source of networking. If you have been known to your friends as a credible person, with great potential, your friends could ultimately be your leads or the persons that recommend jobs for you from their personal network. The greater the network that you are in, the better position you are in.

Affiliations?
The second source of network would be through your affiliations. Universities, colleges or high schools that you were at would be a great place to start. For example, say if you are a student or an alumni of Cornell University, you’ll stand a better chance of getting a job, if you are being recommended by your friends or seniors that have worked at some companies, or known someone at some companies. You can also gradually build up your network through your professors as well, as they often know a lot of top level executives in the industry.

More lectures…?
In addition, the opportunities to attend public lectures, career fair, networking dinner, or even recruitment and information sessions, are great networking opportunities. Start early, as you gradually build up your networks. For instance, say you are now a first-year student, and you’ve attended a public lecture given by Bill Gates, and one day if you are attending an interview by Microsoft, you would definitely have an edge, if you could quote what Bill Gates mentioned a few years ago and the fact that you have met him. If possible, try to talk to the speakers after the talk. Often, 98% of students would leave the hall the moment those speakers finish their talk. Try to ask questions during the talk too, so as to highlight yourself. Remember to introduce yourself too when you ask your questions and ask intelligent questions.

Friendships…
Your network will not only help in your future careers, these people are also your source of friendship, as well as source of advice. Be genuine in your friendship, and try to keep up with them, perhaps through a greeting email/card during festive season etc. Attending conferences in your field of interest or other types of conferences would help you build up your network too. The people who normally attend conferences are often the ones that are very forward-looking and visionary, so these are the source of people that could share information with you. Try to take the initiative to share information with others, and build up that sharing culture among others, and soon you will get tons of information about stuff that is potentially useful to you.

Be personal…
Another tip for your networking efforts would be to try and search online (Google is a great source) about the background of the people that you are going to meet. For example, say I am going to meet Jeff Immelt. I would go online and search about his background, where he graduated from, what is his career path, what are his life principles etc. Knowing more about him would enable you greater opportunities to ask something pertinent about him, rather than a general question. That would set you apart from the rest of cohort and give you unfair advantage.

Be unique…
Build up your sustainable competitive advantages too. No one is perfect, but you need to strike out to others as someone with some unique characteristics in some aspects. You could strike others as a very determined person, or as a person that is perfectly responsible. Being noted for a quality would lead to people remembering you better and thus when they think of someone with such qualities, the first person they think of would be YOU!

Organizations…
Try to join some professional organizations, in your field of interest or in the area of your affiliations. For instance if you are someone with interest in Electrical Engineering, IEEE would seem to be a good start. Say you are a Malaysian student studying abroad, The Worldwide Malaysian Students Network (www.recom.org) would seem a good source of information for you. These networks would enable you to know others with similar interests as you, as well as build up your credentials.

And organizing events…
Have a hand in organizing the networking sessions for your university clubs & societies! Imagine a scenario that it is a career fair. If you are a recruiter there, would you be more likely to choose one of those 200 people that give you résumé, or the one or few students that organize a career fair, that brings in 100 companies. These are the opportunities that you could make a huge difference between being visible or not. By organizing the career fair or other events involving corporate people, you have the advantage of being the first one to contact them, and hence they know you even before they are on campus.

All in all, I hope these tips on networking could help fellow readers of Internship Asia a little bit. If you have anything to share, please feel free to contact us at IA! Good Luck!

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.

Powered by AkoComment 1.0 beta 2!