“It’s not what you know but who you know!”

How often have you heard that phrase? Well, who do you know? More importantly, who do you know who can assist you in graduating, finding work, entering your career path or introducing you to others who can? If no one comes to mind then you need to get networking!

Set Your Objectives

Before you begin you need to decide what sort of people you want, and need, to meet. Business leaders yes, but in what industry and at what level?

For example, if you are studying accountancy then ask the local CPA office when they hold networking events. If you are 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 so your task is an easy one.

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 your contacts, as you never know where future opportunities may come from!

Choose your 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 your career.

Types of Networking Events

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

When you are new to networking ‘speed networking’ is an excellent way to start. Everyone at such an event is there specifically to meet people, and like you they are as nervous as hell.

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 you can easily collect a dozen business cards and several useful contacts.

Before attending such a function it is critical that you have your own ‘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.”

I also recommend that you take plenty of business cards with you. Business cards? For a student? Absolutely!

Something simple with your name, phone number, email address and “Undergraduate in Management (Marketing) at UniSA” or whatever is relevant to you. You must have cards, for in order to receive you must first give! And besides, how are they going to contact you with that brilliant job offer?

You can get around 200 business cards for around $60, so they are not too expensive.

Follow-up

After every networking event go through all of the business cards you collected and send every one of them a follow-up letter or email, whether you think they are a useful contact or a complete waste of time. Again, you never know who they may be able to introduce you to!

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

Happy networking!