Speaker 1: Welcome back, today we're going to be diving into networking strategies that will turbocharge your career. Now more than ever, if you want to secure a job with your dream employer, you have to know someone to stand out. Lucky for you, college students have an advantage because it's in your favor to reach out and begin making these connections. After all, professionals have been in your shoes. They understand the feeling of being a student and stressing about where you're going to go with your career and what next steps you're going to take. They're here to help you succeed and these are going to be a few networking opportunities that can help you connect you with those exact professionals that are going to launch you into your career. First up, LinkedIn. It's not just a platform for browsing profiles. It's a goldmine for building your connections. It doesn't matter if you have 500 plus connections. In order to make those connections count, you actually have to reach out and begin building a relationship with those industry professionals instead of just making it another number on your profile. I suggest keeping the initial message very short and concise. Just let them know that you're a student interested in learning more about the industry and what they do at their position. Before you get started, I just want to let you know, not everybody's going to respond and that's okay. You have to think about it as a sales perspective. The more people you reach out to, the better chance you have of connecting with someone and actually getting that zoom meeting that you've been looking for. Once you do have the opportunity to set up a call with one of these professionals, make sure that you seem very genuinely interested in what they're having to say. Whether it's about their position, whether it's about the industry, you have to make sure that you are showing them that you really just want to learn more. What this does is it builds rapport by showing them that you're genuinely interested. They're going to be a lot more willing to help you because they're going to enjoy being able to talk about themselves and as human beings, we are just excited to be able to share what we've learned. At the end of each conversation, make sure that you are asking if there's anyone else in their industry or company that they could connect you with. This is going to help you continue building those relationships and once you get to the line where you are applying for those jobs, they're going to know your name because everybody in that department has talked with you. Being genuinely interested and asking for more connections is something you need to be doing through all of these networking opportunities to truly make them successful and make it a better chance of getting that next job. Next are career fairs. These are like speed dating for job seekers. When you attend these career fairs, there's a few things you need to take note of and that you need to be doing. First things first, once again, be genuinely interested. I don't care if it's a company you've never heard of or if it's a company that everybody knows about, you need to be genuinely interested in the person you're talking to and what roles they have open. Before you leave that table, make sure that you are collecting contact information, giving them a copy of your resume and you are setting up a time for you to continually meet with them after that. Whether it's for a job position they already have or whether it's just so they can know your name, it's going to be very important to actually make career fairs worth it. Take note that only some companies will have the position you're looking for and that's okay because building those connections with those companies means that once that position you're looking for actually opens up, you're going to be first in line because you took the effort to continue building those relationships and continuing to network with them so that when that position opens up, they're thinking of you. Joining organizations is another smart move. Getting involved in groups that are related to your industry or just have a long length of alumni is a great idea to continue building your connections. Being a part of these organizations not only help you build your industry acumen, but they also help you by connecting with alum as well as being able to go to events that have speakers that could initially land you your next job. I personally was in a fraternity as well as a marketing association at my college and both of these opened huge doors to be able to connect with speakers and alum. The best part about being in an organization is the fact that you're actually connected to people you don't even know yet. By simply just putting it on your resume, professionals from all over are instantly going to be able to see that you are an organization that they were into and it automatically makes them more comfortable and more desirable to want to actually sit down and talk to you. You have to remember that professionals are people too. They need to be comfortable with someone before they're willing to sit down and talk to them. Quick break guys. If you're enjoying this video so far and these tips are helping you, I would really really appreciate if you gave this video a like and also subscribe so that we're able to make sure that this video gets to as many students as possible to continue helping them build their professional skills. Thanks again and back to the video. School sponsored events are also another great way of networking. Why? Why not? Similar to career fairs, schools have set up these opportunities for you specifically in mind. They want to make sure that you have the opportunity to build connections outside of the classroom and this is where people that actually go to the events are setting themselves apart from other students. If it's a speaker event, go to these events very enthusiastically and ready to actually ask questions during the event as well as afterwards. If you're not talking to speakers after the event, then it's basically like you weren't there. Speaking of setting you apart from others, interviews and internships are a huge way to make connections and people usually don't treat it as a networking opportunity. I don't care at all if this is your dream job. You have to seize the opportunity to just build connections, network, and use the experience to your advantage. If you dig in enough during this internship or these interviews, they're going to help you a lot to be able to recognize who you're talking to and who they might know. Even if they don't have a job opportunity lined up for you afterwards or the position open at the moment, they could know somebody who does. And finally, don't forget about your professors. They're there for a reason. I've noticed that many of my professors have worked in the industry I'm trying to go into in similar jobs. The best part about this is they most likely still have connections, whether it's somebody that still works for that company or whether it's somebody who knows somebody that does. Professors are an easy open door for students for the reason that if they don't have an open door or if they don't know somebody that does, they'll be willing to put in the extra effort to make sure that you succeed by trying to find an open door for you. This is going to be a great opportunity for you to get valuable insights as to what they know, who they know, and what they might be able to do for you. So here you have it folks. Networking isn't all about collecting business cards. It's about building meaningful connections and relationships with industry professionals that's going to help you set you apart and your name is going to be at the top of the list when you're applying for jobs. So get out there, make connections, and watch your opportunities multiply. Thanks for watching and don't forget to like, subscribe, and hit that bell for more notifications for more career tips like this.