When I was attending the University of British Columbia as a student, I was in the Faculty of Arts studying sociology and math. (Yep, math was part of my B.A. program.) I feel that one of the areas in life that school never teaches us, but is so essential to develop career and business success, is our ability to professionally network with other people.
While I was grinding out hours of proofs and studying Marxist theory, I should have been spending some of that time to go out and professionally network.
I still did network with other groups. I was part of a fraternity, and joined several school clubs. Which was valuable in helping me develop social skills and working with others on teams. But the trouble was that I ended up joining groups that weren’t applicable to my future.
I want to share with you, now looking back, some of the lessons and mistakes that I made when networking when I was in university.
Lesson 1: Not Knowing Who My Target Network Group Was
One of the mistakes I made back at university was that I would join social clubs that were a lot of fun and added to my social life. But I didn’t join any professional clubs that would help with my future career. And I never joined groups that would help me meet with industry leaders to help me understand potential careers in the fields I studied.
That was my mistake. I didn’t think far enough into the future. I figured that by getting a degree that it would separate me from the crowd. But the truth was that by the time the people in my class all graduated, we would all have the same academic credentials. I was arrogant in thinking that a double major would help me find the careers I wanted.
My recommendation: If you’re in join at least one organization where you get a chance to meet other industry professionals.
Lesson 2: Not Starting Early Enough
It’s never too early to start networking. No matter what your age is. And the good news is that it’s also never too late. The big mistake that I made was that I waited until after university to take my networking more seriously.
By then it was hard to have the same level of access to industry professionals that I did back at university. Looking back I had the opportunity to engage myself with people doing the graduate studies, and their PhD’s to find out how they landed their careers and to build strong relationships with them.
My recommendation: Start networking as soon as possible. If you happen to be a university student in your first year, use that first year to learn how to network. If your faculty doesn’t provide those services then find out what the business clubs are at your college or university. They generally have a high concentration of “how to network” events.
Lesson 3: Not feeling I Had Anything to Offer
This was one of my strongest beliefs I held during university. I truly believed that as a university student I didn’t have much to offer. I was being bombarded with messages that it took a degree to be a person of interest to others.
As I started doing more presentations for my alma mater about networking and conversation success, I noticed that I was surrounded by so many youth leaders.
The students I ran into were articulate. They were thirsting to know more and do more with their life. They had direction. I even took on two university to my interns for Conversation Arts, and they were able to sell courses to people on my behalf. The interns were invaluable to me.
I wish I felt more confident when I was in university. Now I know better and feel that I have something to offer to every person that I meet.
My recommendation: No matter where you are in life, you will always be able to offer something of value to every person. This could be time, or your effort, or the expertise you already have. Never feel that you have nothing to offer.
Lesson 4: Thinking That the Specific Person You Helped will Help You Back
This was a hard lesson for me to learn during networking. Just because you’re willing to help a person, this doesn’t mean that the same person is willing to help you back. But the interesting thing is this, the people that you least expect to help you may be willing to help you out.
Someone had contacted me from LinkedIn and asked me for an interview about how the coaching business was. When I e-mailed her months later asking for whether she knew someone at a certain company, I received no response. I was a little disappointed as she didn’t get back to me.
I posted a message on Facebook about needing a contact from within the company on the “status line,” and a person I had not talked to for three years was willing to help me out did his best to find a contact. I was grateful for that small act of kindness.
The important thing is not to be attached to expecting a reciprocal return. Instead think of it this way. What you give back will eventually return to you. If you offer people a lot of help, if you help people get what they want, you will eventually meet people who will do the same for you. Yes some people may take advantage of you, but you will soon realize that those are not the people you will want to connect with in the future.
My recommendation: Help out as many high quality people as you can. Don’t worry about if that person will help you back, because I guarantee someone will if you have an outstanding character.
Those are the top 4 lesson that I learned about professional networking shortly after I graduated from university. I hope these tips will help out those that are returning to school.
What do you believe are some great networking tips that you can offer to people?
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