The Power of a Single Handshake: How A College Student Landed Her Summer Internship

Recently, I was invited to attend a Leaders and Daughters event in San Francisco hosted by Stanford and EgonZehnder, the global executive search firm. The event brought together highly accomplished leaders, their daughters and mentees to discuss and address the opportunities, challenges, obstacles and ideals of women leaders with the ultimate goal of paving the path for the next generation of leaders. Basically, the event was a “two-fer” for attendees, offering: 1) the ability to network with amazing women leaders and 2) the opportunity to connect with the next generation of women leaders. I had to attend.

Upon arriving at the event, I decided to make my typical “handshake rounds.” I often share with emerging leaders that the handshake is an opening to a possibly larger opportunity. So it is important to seek opportunities that allow for a lot of handshaking, which simply translates into NETWORKING.

That night I shook the hands of many amazing women leaders of all ages and backgrounds. One of my handshakes introduced me to a young woman who simply commanded presence: Grace Donahoe, a Duke University student.

As she and I spoke, we realized that her interests aligned to my organization’s interests--the intersection of data x sports. Grace came across as smart, enthusiastic and an individual that could absolutely add value to the Intel Sports organization. Intel has a robust intern program and I suggested she send me her credentials and we could explore a possible internship. After speaking a bit more, she and I parted ways and I enjoyed the rest of the evening listening to and meeting various powerful leaders.

Grace followed up from that initial meeting, prompting me to send an email to my team to consider her for an internship. Fast forward to this past week: I received an email that she landed an internship within Intel Sports under Braxton Lathrop, Head of Intel Sports Pathfinding.  From his perspective, one of the critical areas of focus for an Innovation and Pathfinding team is to maintain a diversity of viewpoints and perspectives within the team. Innovation most often happens at the intersections of those differing viewpoints. This means having a diversity of individuals on the team across a range of axes. That includes experienced to inexperienced, male to female, a mix of ethnic backgrounds, a mix of technical skills, a mix of sexual orientations, etc. For Intel and innovation, therefore, it is essential to have women with strong technical backgrounds on the team(s). Upon speaking to Grace, Braxton jumped at the chance to provide Grace with the opportunity to join the team and partner with the Marketing team to drive collaboration and innovation between the two groups.

Grace’s story is important because it illustrates the power of networking. As part of the mentoring sessions I have with professional women, I am often discouraged by the limited amount of time professional women allocate to networking and the lack of breadth within their networks.

Networking is often misunderstood, viewed as futile or fruitless chitchat, and that could be true if you’re not strategic about networking. According to a study by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor: 2010 Women’s Report, men and women entrepreneurs with a larger and diverse network are able to expand their business much more than those who haven’t yet tapped the power of networking. Ultimately, there is significant value in networking if we take tips from our male counterparts.

Most men and women network differently. When men network they seek to build out their contacts and often have a clear objective whether it is finding a new career opportunity, helping with an introduction, seeking advice on investments and the like. When women network, we tend to focus on depth and developing a relationship with the other person. Women often spend time getting to know the other person, making efforts to understand how we can help each other and trying to become best friends. The article,“Women Network Differently than Men and it Hinders Our Advancement,” by Marilyn Nagel, highlights how “women in general tend to have smaller networks of deeper relationships, choosing to only have people in their network who share their value system as compared to men who see their network as a way to get ahead so are less concerned with a shared value system and more interested in what the relationship can yield.” While it may be beneficial for women to have some deep relationships cultivated throughout the course of their career, I suggest that women allocate more time to network focusing on clear objectives and driving towards breadth versus depth.

One can’t deny that networking opens up doors, creates opportunities, and enables one to progress in their respective careers. As for Grace, I was uniquely curious to hear her perspective about the event and her experience overall:

When I was home for spring break in March, my mom encouraged me to attend a neXXt generation event with her to hear from a panel of women and their mentors in the business world. My mom has always been a personal mentor for me and a lot of other women in this realm, working both with Duke Women’s Forum and the Harvard Business School Women’s Association, so I was excited by the opportunity to share the evening with her and to hear from other mentor/mentee pairs about their experiences. Before the event started, we were lucky enough to run into Sandra. While I was familiar with Intel, my conversation with Sandra was my first exposure to the fascinating work of Intel Sports. It immediately resonated with me given my interest in sports and data science. When I got home from the event I started to immerse myself in the work of Intel Sports, watching videos and reading articles to better understand the use of Intel True VR and Intel True View to enhance the fan experience. If only my Duke Blue Devils could have lasted one more round in the tournament so I could have been able to experience them in VR for the Final Four! 

I reached out to Sandra after the event hoping to grab coffee and chat more about Intel Sports and her path to get there. Unfortunately, we were unable to connect at the time, but I made sure to set up a phone call to keep her in my network. It was a few weeks later that I received an email from a data scientist on the Pathfinding team of the group. A phone call with her and two of the other team members established that I might not have the technical skills required for that particular position but left me even more fascinated with the transformative work of Intel in the area of professional sports. After hearing more about my skills and interests, I was connected with members of the Customer Marketing and Product Team. A phone call about measuring fan engagement and performing competitive market analysis left me very excited about the potential opportunities available at Intel Sports. After accepting an internship with the company I have been doing everything I can to become versed in the world of VR, attending a conference at Stanford, reading “Experience on Demand”, a book about it’s potential applications, and talking to executives of the SF Giants about their experience with the technology at a pre-game event.

What left the biggest impact on me is that at an event about women and their mentors in business, it is one handshake, and one brief conversation, that led not only to an incredibly exciting summer internship, but also to a new mentor of my own as I join Intel Sports and the larger business world. Stories like this serve as a friendly reminder that networking is essential for one’s professional development. That one handshake will open unexpected doors and send you on a journey that one perhaps did not anticipate.

Thank you, EgonZehnder, for the amazing event that opened the door for a future corporate leader. Did Grace expect to be working for Intel Sports this summer? Probably not, but that one handshake landed her closer to realizing her career aspirations.

#Mentorship #Leadership #CareerAdvancement