Why Networking Matters

The thought of networking can be draining for many students, which makes the act of networking consume a ton of their energy. When something is that daunting, you have to have a good reason to do it. A purpose. And that purpose is usually to find a job. 

But how does networking fit in the job search? Has anyone really connected the dots for you, explaining why networking is a MUST for your job hunt?

Universities will talk non-stop about networking and encourage their students to participate in their events, but I have yet to see someone paint a clear picture of why networking is that important. I want to give it a try here. 

At school (before college), you were either picked for a team (sports or otherwise) or you weren’t. In some classes, the teacher liked you more than others, and sometimes they didn’t. Certain students were your friends, others weren’t. Some were acquaintances (people you are friendly with, but don’t necessarily hang out with) and some you simply couldn’t stand (or they couldn’t stand you). 

Life outside of school is no different in that regard. People will be people. They have their biases, they like who they like, and feel neutral toward or dislike others. None of these emotions are based on intentional decision making. It’s all irrational and based on feelings. 

With university applications, there is a more defined process for selecting which students get in and which don’t. Universities liking or disliking you plays a very small role in your getting accepted. A big selection criterion is academic performance, your grades. Why? Because the university wants to ensure that by accepting you, you will actually succeed and graduate from their program. In other words, grades are a strong indicator of your graduating potential. 

At work, there are ZERO guarantees you will succeed at a company in a particular team or role. Grades have very little correlation with a student’s ability to succeed, and the CEO, VPs, Directors, Managers and HR team all know that. This forces companies to come up with other selection criteria, where grades play a small part of what is assessed, and which ultimately leads to a lot of subjectivity in the selection process. So yes, there is a lot of luck involved in your finding a role. You need all of the following things to happen at the same time for success:

1. The company needs to have open roles
2. You need to apply and hope they see your application
3. Your resume must check green flags (good GPA, major is in line with role) and the person or machine that reads your resume must select your application for the interview stage. If it’s a person - Who are they? What’s their mood when reading your resume? Are they able to remove biases as they read through it? Does their style match your style based on what you’ve written? 
4. You must jive with the person interviewing you. Same challenges persist - they have their biases, and as much as they try to minimize them, they are only human in the end
5. And if you've made it this far, a few people at the company will compare your application with other candidates they liked and narrow the selection to make final offers 

There are additional uninfluenceable factors that impact the above process, such as how many applicants the company gets for that role, how severe or lax the deadline is for filling that role, etc. You can say damn if you want to! Odds of getting a particular job are slim. Universities try hard to help you through this process by getting you job hunting resources, connecting you with recruiters (sometimes hiring managers) at career fairs, giving you a degree which is a pre-qualification for a job, etc. But that doesn’t reduce the complexity or difficulty for students. Job hunting is really a journey that plays out differently for each person.  

So, what can you control to improve your odds of success in this journey? 

Start by working hard to get a good GPA. Apply to a ton of jobs, through career fairs and online. AND take advantage of there being subjectivity in how companies select candidates for roles. While on the surface subjectivity may seem unfair, you can (and SHOULD) turn it to your advantage. 

Let’s go back to the discussion about people being people . . .

In school, when your teacher liked you, or when your friend picked you to be on their team, it was because of their biases (they didn’t make an intentional decision to like you, they were emotionally inclined towards you). You actually influenced them in one way or another to like you, even if you were not aware of doing it. Something about you jived with them. There is also an element of familiarity that’s important. Sometimes, you may bump into someone who you knew from school, outside of school. Either at the mall or even later at university (where you discover you both have gone to the same university). You two are familiar to each other, so there is a natural inclination for you to try to connect in unfamiliar environments. Familiarity (or similarity) matters. Likability matters. And since finding a job is not just correlated to grades, and is influenced by subjectivity, likability and relatability matter, just like they did in school. Don’t be fooled to think otherwise, this happens ALL THE TIME.

Many people don’t get their jobs from simple merit (being qualified for them), rather because of connections. That is what networking is supposed to do, it’s about establishing connections. More importantly, for finding a job, it’s about establishing connections in the search for advocates. Advocates are people who would say, “Yes, I vouch for this person, I think they would make a good addition to the team”. Since no company really knows the perfect formula for determining if a student will succeed in a role, when someone in the company vouches for a student, that goes a very long way in giving the company more faith they will succeed. 

There are varying degrees of how someone can vouch for you. As an example, I refer people to roles all the time. People I know well and people I met recently (that have worked to network with me, that have done a good enough job of building rapport with me, and that are qualified for the role they are interested in). For the people I think are superstars, whether I know them well or not (could even be strangers, but they impressed me based on how they conducted themselves in as little as two phone conversations), I will usually print their resume and drop it on the desk of a hiring manager, adding a note this person is looking for a job and that I think the hiring manager will love them! It makes me look good for referring quality people, and if the hiring manager hires them, and the student turns out to be great (like I expected), I would have done them both a great favor. 

Finding advocates is how you improve the odds of finding a co-op//internship or full-time role. Practicing networking is important now and even more important later in your career, as advocates will progressively be key to advancing your career. The earlier you start, the more career success you can expect now and down the road.

Challenge 28

Your Objective: Reach out to 10 strangers per week for informational interviews. Optimally, these would be people who currently work full time at companies you would consider working for. Talk to two per week, 20-30 min conversations each. Do this for 14 weeks straight.  

Between the research to find contacts (~2hrs), sending out 10 notes asking for time to meet (~30mins), chatting to two people (~1hr), this is no more than a 4-hour commitment per week.

Being a university student is a once in a lifetime legitimate excuse to reach out to anyone for any information (that supports your academic or career pursuit). Use the tips in the International Student Handbook to come up with a plan and an approach. Reach out via LinkedIn, connect with someone from a career fair or a professional who gave a talk at your school. It doesn’t matter where or how you met them. Get your two, one on one conversations, done per week. 

Let us know how you did by using #InternationalStudentHandbook #challenge28 #InternationalStudents.

Keep a lookout for more job hunting advice by following us on LinkedIn, or by checking out our International Student Handbook

Good luck with your job hunt!