During their college experience, students will have several networking opportunities. Networking is one of the most important things one can do for their career, so how do we make the most of these opportunities? Well, Mitch Seigal and Manal Richa from Break-Through Networking were invited by the Society for Advancement of Management to come speak with students last week about this very topic
Seigal and Richa started off the presentation by asking students what is networking? Many people take “networking” to mean collecting business contacts, but it’s more than that. Networking is about building mutually beneficial relationships, and about being a helpful resource to others. Giving referrals, and reciprocating referrals. For example, a person with 600 friends on Facebook is not actually friends with these 600 people. Having 600 cards in your rolodex does not mean that you do business with 600 people. The truth is people want to do business with a familiar face, someone they know and trust. Networking events are not about you, they are about the people you are meeting. If you get to know people and their goals then you can better establish yourself as a resource to them.
An elevator pitch is a 30-second professional description of yourself: Name (who am I), profession (what do I do), PAR (how do I do it), goals (what am I looking for), and repeat name. Seigal used the metaphor of an Oreo cookie to describe it. The two chocolate ends are your name, and the stuffing is your PAR story and your goals. PAR stands for Problem-Action-Result. In an elevator pitch, it is a success story about how you handled a situation and exemplifies your competence. At a networking event, you move from one group to another, meeting new people and giving your elevator pitch. However, sometimes you end up in a group with people you have already met so you need to have another story or PAR to substitute. Preparation is fundamental to networking; know what you are going to say and practice it. “The Definition of luck,” explains Seigal, “is when preparedness meets opportunity.”
After the event, it is wise to put everyone’s information into some kind of database. Everyone is different; so it’s important that your notes include how you met, what you learned about the person, and what your connection was. Mitch told the audience a story about a doctor who he hadn’t seen in some time, but remembered detailed information about their last conversation because he had written it down in his file. The doctor did this with his patients to help them feel comfortable, and it worked.
