Building your professional network is something you should start as a student and continue throughout your career.
What is Networking?
Networking is about discovering and leveraging connections between people by tapping into your circle of contacts, including friends, family, professors, previous employers and Eagle Alumni. Networking is not about schmoozing or asking for a job, rather it is about making connections to:
- Gain information and advice about careers, industries, and organizations
- Learn more about possible job and internship opportunities
- Connect with people who are doing things you aspire to do
- Share more about yourself with other professionals
How to Build Your Network
Before embarking on your networking adventures, please review our professional etiquette advice. Practicing professional etiquette in any networking situation, including online, is essential.
You can connect with people through classes, clubs, events, organizations, jobs, etc. Here are some example to get you started.
EWU Resources
- Eagle Career Network
- Career Fairs
- Career Center Networking Events
- Student Activities Involvement & Leadership (SAIL)
- EWU Alumni Association
Local Community
- Spokane Young Professionals
- Greater Spokane Incorporated
- Spokane Convention Center
- Inlander’s event page
- Meetups
- Eventbrite
Online Resources
- LinkedIn – Connect with colleagues and recruiters, follow organizations, share your experience, get endorsements and references, and showcase your expertise with article posts and links to projects.
- Twitter – Share your knowledge and connect with experts in your field of interest. Don’t just favorite and retweet. Create a conversation.
- Search online for specific networks – Look for online communities that are specific to the field you’re interested in and get involved by signing up, creating a profile, and connecting with other users.
Informational Interviews are a form of networking with many benefits:
- Get firsthand, relevant information about the realities of working within a particular field, industry or position. This kind of information is not always available online.
- Find out about career paths you didn’t know existed.
- Get tips about how to prepare for and enter a given career.
- Learn what it’s like to work at a specific organization.
- Gain insider knowledge that can help you in writing your resume, interviewing, and more.
- Initiate a professional relationship and expand your network of contacts in a specific career field; meet people who may forward job leads to you in the future.
Be confident! Be prepared. In advance of an event or other meeting think of how you’re going to introduce yourself with a short introduction, or elevator speech. Your introduction should be about 30 seconds long and cover who you are and what you’re about. Keep all information professional. Review the professional etiquette page for topics to avoid.
When meeting new people it is helpful to ask open-ended questions to keep the conversation flowing. Here are a few ideas for questions you could ask…
- What brought you to this event?
- What did you think of the presentation?
- What is your connection to this organization?
- What is your role with XYZ company?
- Do you have any exciting plans for the upcoming long weekend?
- What was your first job in this field?
- Are you reading any good books at the moment? I’m looking for some recommendations.
When you meet a professional contact, it’s a good idea to follow up with them to build that relationship. Here are some best practices:
- Follow up within 1-3 business days via email, handwritten note, or LinkedIn. If you met the person in a professional setting, don’t look for them on social media sites such as Facebook. LinkedIn is a professional social platform and it is more appropriate to find them there.
- Remind the person where you met and about the interaction you had.
- Consider your reason for contacting them. Are you asking for a contact? Sharing your resume? Getting a reference to their company Internship Coordinator? Thanking them for sharing their expertise? Offering news or insight on a shared interest?
Just remember, networking isn’t all about what you can get from them, but what you can offer the other person. Hopefully, they will return the favor.
