The Value of Networking
How to Start Networking
Using OCS to Find Contacts for Networking
Connecting with Your Contacts
The Value of Networking
- 85% of jobs are found through Networking (U.S. Bureau of Labor & Statistics)
- 70% of jobs are not posted (Business Insider)
- Employee referrals are 4x more likely to be hired (LinkedIn)
Learning how to network and build a strong base of professional connections is essential to a successful career search. Through networking, you can gather information about careers and hone in on options that fit with your interests, skills and values. You can identify various roles within organizations. Networking can also uncover opportunities which are not advertised and allows you to be on someone else’s radar when an opportunity crosses his or her desk. The immediate goal of networking is not to get a job. It is about establishing professional relationships with people who can give you information and advice and create loose bonds with their contacts that may help you with your current search and future career.
Informational Interviews are one of the most powerful networking tools you can use in the Networking Process. Read OCS’ page on Informational Interviews for advice on how to set them up, sample emails to request an informational interview, sample questions to ask and more.
How to Start Networking
Read OCS’ Creating a Target Employer List which allows you to reflect on what kinds of companies you would be interested in and provides a road map as you begin your employer research and outreach efforts. When beginning the process of networking, individuals often prefer to start by thinking about their own contacts and who may be helpful to speak to.
- Family & Friends – Reaching out to your own network can be beneficial. Go beyond thinking of your direct contacts but also asking them if they know anyone who is working in a particular industry or job function is a way to extend your network. This can include extended family members, high school friends or teachers, and college friends. Consider asking upperclassmen as they may know recent alumni to recommend you speak to. Sometimes student organizations also have alumni lists so it’s worth asking about those as well.
- Professors – Yale Faculty have done incredible things both within academia and outside. They also know other professionals and academics who could be helpful. Attend their office hours to explain your areas of interest and see if they have any ideas or people they suggest you reach out to.
- Past Jobs/Internships – Consider reaching out to previous supervisors or colleagues and sharing your career interests to see if they have ideas or contacts.
Using OCS to Find Contacts for Networking
After starting with your own personal network, OCS encourages you to utilize the plethora of resources available to you as a Yale student and alumni. Below are some resources to get you started.
- OCS Peer Networking Lists – allow you to contact recent Yale College graduates and current Yale College students to discuss their post-graduate roles and summer employment experiences. The lists contain recent alumni’s non-Yale email addresses, country, state, city, graduate school, employer name, industry, job function and major. They are open to all students in Yale College, Yale Graduate School of Arts & Science and the Yale Postdocs.
- Yale Alumni LinkedIn Page – shows anyone who graduated from Yale and has a LinkedIn Account. You can filter by companies, location, industry, skills and more. Read OCS’ Building Your LinkedIn Profile to make sure that your profile is complete before starting to reach out to alumni.
- Career Shift – in addition to Career Shift’s powerful job board, it also includes a Contacts section where you can access emails. It allows you to filter by your university, a company name and much more.
- OCS Industry-specific recruiting events or employer information sessions– attend these events to make personal connections with the recruiters which often include Yale alumni. Watch OCS’ Preparing for Networking Events video (less then 4 minutes) for additional tips.
- Yale Alumni Association Regional Clubs & Special Interest Groups – YAA has hundreds of clubs and alumni who are willing to help. Contact the officers within a club to ask for recommendations of who to speak to based on your interests. This can be especially helpful if you are interested in working in a specific region as there are YAA clubs across the U.S. and the world. There are also shared interest groups that you can review and see if your interests align with any of their missions.
- Yale Cross Campus – Yale’s online networking, community-building and mentoring program. Cross Campus facilitates relationships between Yalies – whether it’s alumni to students or alumni to alumni.
- Leadership Connect – provides personnel contact database of the institutional leadership of the United States, with information on more than 400,000 individuals leading U.S. government, business, professional, and nonprofit organizations.
- Yale World Fellows – if you are looking to work internationally, utilize this directory for current and past fellows and contact them through the database. This group of experts come from around the globe across top government positions, Fortune 500 Companies, large global NGOs, and successful entrepreneurs.
- Finding Company Contacts – helps you find recruiting contacts or other key individuals at your target companies.
- Professional & National Organizations – search directories of associations based on industries and contact them to find out about any networking opportunities available with their members. OCS Professional Development Reimbursement Program is open to juniors and seniors and can help offset costs to join these organizations.
Connecting with Your Contacts
Between your own network and the OCS resources provided above, you should now have some contacts. The next step is to start reaching out to them to ask for Informational Interviews. If you do not yet have email addresses for your contacts, utilize the Contacts section of CareerShift. You can also use hunter.io to find email addresses. Proceed to OCS’ Informational Interviewing page which has everything from sample emails to request a meeting, how to set up an informational interview, sample questions to ask, ways to engage your interviewee, and building your best LinkedIn profile.
Keep in mind that anytime along the way you can make an appointment with OCS to discuss your networking strategies and questions.
“The term ‘networking’ has developed unfortunate connotations, suggesting the kind of person who sucks up to senior staff and ignores colleagues who are unlikely to help them win promotion. [Professor] Marissa King [of Yale School of Management] cites a study which found that two-thirds of newly promoted professionals were ambivalent about, or completely resistant to, thinking strategically about their social relationships. From the point of view of productivity, the most important networks are those formed by employees from different parts of the company. Diverse viewpoints should lead to greater creativity. They are good for workers, too. A study found that catching up with colleagues in different departments was linked to salary growth and employee satisfaction.” The Science of Networking, The Economist.