“What are some ways I can get in con­tact with peo­ple whose careers I’m inter­ested in?”
– Chengcheng Gui ‘14

Great ques­tion Chengcheng! I think it’s great that you are already think­ing about how to net­work and make con­nec­tions with peo­ple of inter­est in the pro­fes­sional world. As a junior, you are mak­ing the right strides towards devel­op­ing and build­ing your pro­fes­sional con­tacts. Here are my quick tips on how you can find and make last­ing con­nec­tions with those in careers that are of inter­est to you.

1. Ask peo­ple you know to refer you.  One of the best start­ing points for any net­work­ing endeavor is by ask­ing peo­ple you know to con­nect you. Try ask­ing fam­ily mem­bers, close friends, or cowork­ers if they know any­one in the field or pro­fes­sion that might be will­ing to talk to you. Get­ting per­sonal refer­rals is always a ben­e­fit when mak­ing con­nec­tions. Be spe­cific about the kind of con­tacts you are look­ing for. You might be sur­prised to see how many peo­ple you are already con­nected to.
2. Reach out to Prince­ton Alumni. Prince­ton alumni are always will­ing to help fel­low tigers! The Prince­ton Alumni Careers Net­work is  a great way to find con­tacts in careers that are of inter­est to you. Through Tiger­net, you can access the alumni direc­tory and find poten­tial con­nec­tions. Use the “cus­tom search” tool to search for employ­ment infor­ma­tion. Or, use the advanced search fea­tures in LinkedIn to iden­tify Prince­ton alumni work­ing at par­tic­u­lar organizations
3. Try set­ting up infor­ma­tional inter­views at orga­ni­za­tions in your field of inter­est. Most pro­fes­sion­als love to talk about their career paths. If you don’t have a con­tact, look for one via search­ing by com­pany name in the advanced search sec­tion of LinkedIn. Or, visit com­pany web­sites or per­haps call com­pa­nies directly to ask for the con­tact infor­ma­tion of some­one in the role or depart­ment you might be inter­ested in. Explain that you are a col­lege stu­dent who is look­ing to find out more about career paths in the field and that you would like to sched­ule an infor­ma­tional inter­view.  Be flex­i­ble, accom­mo­dat­ing, and most of all, respect­ful of the individual’s time. Inter­views can be held in per­son, on the phone, or via e-mail or Skype! Pre­pare a list of ques­tions in advance. Don’t try to sell your­self or ask for a job dur­ing this meet­ing. Instead, focus on learn­ing more about the indi­vid­ual and their field. After­wards, be sure to send a thank you note and men­tion one or two spe­cific pieces of advice you were given and how you will act upon those in the imme­di­ate future. One tip for mak­ing sure the rela­tion­ship moves for­ward is to men­tion that you will be sure to keep in touch regard­ing your progress.
4. Fol­low and Engage with pro­fes­sion­als on social media. Social media is a great way to con­nect with peo­ple that you want to get to know. For exam­ple, you might want to fol­low indus­try lead­ers and pro­fes­sion­als on Twit­ter and engage with them, too. You’ll be sur­prised by what hap­pens. Let’s say they post a really great arti­cle. I rec­om­mend reply­ing to his/her tweet with a per­sonal response.  You might say “Thanks for shar­ing this. As some­one who is really inter­ested in this field it was good to learn some­thing new!” Or, you might as a spe­cific follow-up ques­tion such as “What did you think about _______(be spe­cific if you can)?” is a great con­ver­sa­tion starter.  Finally, why not men­tion this per­son in your own per­sonal tweet. Once, on Twit­ter, I men­tioned a par­tic­u­lar com­pany in a tweet and the CEO responded to me ask­ing to know more about what I had learned about the com­pany. I fol­lowed him and thanked him for his response. He ended up fol­low­ing me back! Other great sites to uti­lize are Face­book and Linkedin! Great net­work­ing con­tacts are avail­able on social media so make sure you are uti­liz­ing it to your advan­tage. Check out this advice about using social media to make pro­fes­sional connections.
5. Attend career fairs and employer pre­sen­ta­tions. Career fairs are great ways to con­nect with recruiters, hir­ing man­agers, and already-established pro­fes­sion­als in dif­fer­ent indus­tries. When brows­ing booths, make sure to get the con­tact infor­ma­tion from recruiters and make sure to reach out to them after the fair! Employer pre­sen­ta­tions and infor­ma­tion ses­sions are also great ways to make con­nec­tions. Not only do you get to learn more about an orga­ni­za­tion of inter­est, but you get to per­son­ally meet those who work there. Again, always do your home­work in advance and come pre­pared with questions!
6. Join pro­fes­sional orga­ni­za­tions.  Most careers and indus­tries have one, so make sure to do your research and try join­ing one today. Many of them offer men­tor­ing pro­grams, con­fer­ences, job boards, and other resources for their mem­bers. Plus, some even have spe­cial mem­ber­ship rates for stu­dents. For a list by indus­try, visit the “online resources” page.

Chengcheng, I hope this infor­ma­tion was use­ful to you. There are so many ways that you can con­nect with indi­vid­u­als in careers that inter­est you. It’s all about keep­ing your options open, being cre­ative, and doing the nec­es­sary leg­work that is required to start build­ing those rela­tion­ships. For more advice, check out the Net­work­ing sec­tion in Career Ser­vices’ Career Plan­ning Guide!