How To Network

Learning to network is crucial to getting a job and progressing in your career. However, networking tends to get a bad reputation. Networking is not about using people to get ahead, it is about building professional relationships. If strong relationships are built it can aid you in your career by offering industry and professional information, information about job openings, assistance with the job placement process, and other network contacts.

So how do you network? First, you need to meet people. The easiest way to meet people is to start off by talking to friends and family members and asking them if they know anyone in your industry. Another way to find contacts is through networking events, LinkedIn, and meeting people in your daily life.

Once you have contact information you should set up a phone call or meet them somewhere to talk. You will want to ask them questions about their job, industry, and experiences as this information can be helpful to you and people typically like to talk about themselves. The contact will typically ask about you. Make sure you are prepared to give a brief description of where you’ve been, what you’re doing, and what you want to do. It’s okay if you don’t know what you want to do especially if you tell them you are exploring different industries. If you have more questions or would like a different perspective you can ask them if they know anyone else who could give you more information on a specific topic. This is a great way to gain more network contacts.

After the initial contact it is important to follow up with them from time to time so they are thinking about you. One easy way is to add them on LinkedIn. If the first conversation went well then I would reach out again and ask them more questions you have about their job, industry, or experiences. Another way to maintain relationships is to email your contacts an update when something big happens such as you got an internship, a new job, or are going back to school. Once a relationship is built you can ask if they know of any job or internship opportunities but never directly ask for a job or internship. Directly asking for a job or internship is a good way to lose network contacts and ruin your reputation.

Networking doesn’t come natural to most people. But the key to building a great network is to be networking every day. Some of my best contacts are college friends as they know me very well from working long hours together on projects or homework. Other places I have met contacts are on a plane, networking events, LinkedIn, church, family, friends, work, through other network contacts, and cold calling/emailing. Remember you are building a relationship so treat them professionally.

Tips:

·         Keep track of all your network contacts. I like to use an Excel workbook with their name, email, phone number, job, and a few notes such as how I met them.

·         Take notes when you first talk to a new contact. These notes can remind you about the person and what you talked about the last time.

MAE Grad Speech

I was supposed to give a graduation speech at the MAE graduation event before the official commencement but I was late and wasn't able to give my speech. I would like to post my speech here for all the current MAE students and specifically for those who have just graduated.

2014 MAE Graduating Class

MAE Speech 2014:

It’s an exciting time as we graduate today and are looking to the bright future.

This program has been an amazing opportunity for me and I hope it has been just as amazing for you. With minimal core requirements it allowed me to specialize my education in areas that no other programs offer. I know many of you are dual degree students and have very unique backgrounds. I was able to meet people from all over the world with a wide variety of goals and interests which has helped me see the world through different lenses.

And after graduating I hope we all continue to stay in contact through email and our LinkedIn group. With a better connected alumni base we can continue to give back to this program and help future students in ways that haven’t been possible. Keeping a program running and making it competitive and successful is a large challenge, and I would like to thank Linda and Vinnie for the hard work they have put in. I would also like to thank Stefanos and all the other students who have been helping me build the mentor program and the alumni program as this will help all of us in the short-run and the long-run.

But as graduation has neared, I have realized that I have been in school for 20 years and standing here the future doesn’t look so promising. We are all used to being in school and moving on can be a bitter sweet moment. Many of us are graduating without jobs and that reality has started to set in as well. But I hope you realize how valuable this degree is and how much you have learned from those around you. As I have contacted many of our alumni in the past few weeks I have seen what great lives they have made for themselves and they have accomplished many great things. Our alumni base is very diverse across professions as well as countries. We have all worked very hard to get into this program and we have all worked very hard to graduate. And I know if you continue to work hard as you move forward in your lives you will be just as successful as our current alumni. I would encourage you to think about what this program has done for you and continue to think about how you can give back to the program and the future MAE students.

If there is one thing that I have learned from this program, it is that you get out of the program what you have put into the program. I hope all of you took courses that challenged you. For me there were depressing times when homework loads were high and exam scores were low but I wouldn’t change it for anything. Those terrifying times built character and grit which are invaluable assets that we all need.

So as you close this chapter of your life, and move on to new things, I hope you remember not to take the easy route, but to continue to look for challenges and to better yourselves. I hope you remember how Michigan has helped you and you continue to give back to your fellow Wolverines. For today we are victors and stand among the half million Michigan alumni. And as we say in Michigan, GO BLUE!

MAE Alumna Letter

An Alumna of the MAE program has been very helpful and offered to write a letter of advice to current MAE students. The letter is below.

Hello Fellow MAE students and graduates:

How to find a job with the MAE?   I can appreciate your dilemma because I faced the same one 30 years ago, when I finished my degree. 

The MAE is an overly flexible degree that could work in many many contexts and it requires that someone--you--do some careful thinking about what you want to achieve in your career.  From the opposite end of the career spectrum, I know that students are desperate to get somewhere, but it is worth taking a long term view of your career, expect that you will succeed and accomplish and contribute, and spending some time (6 months to a year) doing two things.

·    First, clearly identify your personal strengths, and learning to state them clearly.   You should know what you want to offer an employer.  Ultimately, you will want to target jobs that use your core skills and grow those skills over time, in a context that also allows you to develop secondary talents.  A career and your current job should center around something that you do easily, so that you will excel in the longer term.  To give some examples, higher math and diplomacy are both skills that are easy or hard for various and different groups of people.  If you are terrified to speak in front of groups, you shouldn't target a job or be persuaded to take a job as a spokesperson for an organization.  If you have terrific database and math skills, you need to state that and be hired to do that.  If you don't want to be a database manager, you don't want to get into a job where that is all that you do, just because you have a MAE.  When you're working in a job 40+ hours a week, you must be using your strengths.  If you're not, you won't be happy and you won't perform well.  If you find yourself in a job building on a secondary rather than primary skill, your boss needs to support you while you build your capacity.  If s/he doesn't, s/he will mark you down or even fire you for a weak performance.    

·    Second, learn about the content of jobs in various sectors.  Do ALOT of informational interviewing with a diversity of well-educated successful people to ask them to carefully define the daily content of their job, and tell you what skills they have that are essential to their success.  Ideally, one would do this before entering graduate school, but it can be done in the course of completing a degree.  [By the way, every week, the second page of the New York Times Sunday business section has an interesting interview with CEOs about careers, managing and hiring, being ambitious, strategic moves and thinking outside of the box.  Read the back columns for some interesting views on interviewing as well as very interesting places to work.]  This kind of research will inform your choices regarding the sectors of the economy that interest you, the size of organization you might want to work in, and related lifestyle issues.  There are so many organizations:  public sector, private sector, multinationals, national companies, regional public service utilities, small start-up firms, your own company operating from your study.  Can you stand to sit at a desk all day long?  Do you need to work alone?  Do you want to manage, train, and mentor staff?

·    When you have a list of skills that are central to interesting jobs, you should look over your proposed course choices and make sure that the content of the courses you choose will supply those skills.  If the MAE required courses don't offer you what you need, you may need to extend your stay to get a few courses that do fill those gaps.  Interview next semester's professors and find out what skills you will acquire in his or her class.

 

·    Finally, get a suit and haircut, get your resume in perfect order with your personal strengths and your job skills front and center, and go to professional conferences and network.  Most professional organizations have a discounted student membership fee.  Working professionals are usually interested in meeting and informally interviewing potential employees, and giving suggestions about places that might be hiring.  If you structure it well, that MAE will take you to finance, banking and accounting conferences, transportation conferences, urban planning conferences, engineering conferences, demographics and statistics professional conferences etc. etc. etc.  Meeting people will hone your understanding of what about you sells and where opportunities lie.  It will be fun and will affirm to you the value of your education.

·    Possibly take ANY job in a location that excites you, and locate a good job after you've relocated.  There are agencies in every major city that place professionals in temporary jobs, and working through such an agency gives you the opportunity to examine potential employers from the inside.   However, assess the quality of your credential vis-a-vis other job seekers in the location before jumping in.  Here in Washington DC, having a masters degree is like having a last name, everyone has at least one so what you have to offer has to be strong enough to withstand tough competition.  

·     For U.S. citizens, if you want to be in the federal government, it is always hiring.  The baby boomers are retiring and the federal government is increasingly desperate to backfill and retain talent.  That said, the federal government has not adopted many of the management approaches and tools that are typical in modern successful private sector firms.  The federal government's hiring mechanism is a horrible website called USAJOBS, which one MUST master to get any job in the federal government.  At the end of every job announcement in USAJOBS is the name and phone number of the personnel officer handling paper work for that job listing.  Call that person up and ask them about employment in their agency, including unpaid internships.  Many new MA graduates get a toehold by doing unpaid internships at their agency of choice.   

·    After you get a job--and you will get a job because you're very well trained--settle in, work hard to make a contribution to your organization.  Work with and support your boss, but make him or her support you in your career and help you advance.  After a while, assess your employer and your immediate boss.  If you don't think you've landed the right opportunity, change jobs.

             Best of luck to you,

             Renee in Washington DC, MAE 1983.