The Power of Networking: Finding the Right People for your Career Success

Davinia Bascombe |  Careers Consultant

The Power of Networking: Finding the Right People for your Career Success

---

What does Networking really mean?

Networking, let’s be honest – it’s a tricky approach to finding a job. Yes? However, the key to finding success is changing the way you think about networking. It’s not just about getting a job it’s finding invisible, unpublished opportunities – ‘speculating’. Remember, from the moment you approach a professional contact you’re being ‘interviewed’ so making the right impression from the beginning is critical for your success. Confidence in your ability to make the right connections and choices is essential – if you believe in this, others are also likely to be confident in you. This is showing self-efficacy– one of the top future skills desired by employers – we’ll explore this and other skills in the ‘Building a Strong Portfolio’ article. 

Networking Strategy

You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression as the saying goes and understanding your audience whether physical or virtual is critical.  The much-dreaded ‘introduction’ often creates fear particularly for students and recent graduates keen to build their network so a bit of planning always helps ease concerns. As mentioned, be confident in your approach to networking and focus on the following when approaching your contact:

• contact’s area of expertise – similar to your studies/work experience?
• shared values – it doesn’t have to be about work all the time (sort of) – look for similar interests – it shows your contact that you have broad interests/can work with different people/flexible – do you have any (similar) volunteering experience?
• knowledge of industry challenges/trends – one of the best ways to engage your ‘market’ is to offer perspective/solutions to problems in other words engaging them with problem-orientation

Online and In-person – What’s the Difference?

The Online Approach

• LinkedIn – as a student/graduate choosing this online platform for networking gives you extensive access not only to employers, but the wider industry/networks - adding professional groups, fellow alumni, classmates. You can also ‘follow’ people who work in industries and roles related to your interests – a great way to inform yourself of industry trends

i) their LinkedIn profile/organisation website. Check grammar and spelling - no one’s perfect, but don’t be overly-confident - have you spelt the contact’s name correctly? Avoid chatty or overly-formal tone when writing - a useful tip for judging the right tone is imagining if the person was sitting next to you – would they be pleased with what you’re writing to them?

• Finding the Right ‘Pitch’ – LinkedIn’s ‘Add Note’ feature gives users the opportunity to grab the attention of desired contacts but in 200 characters or less (28-50 words with spaces). Consider this an optimum way to sell or ‘pitch’ what you offer – contacts are very busy and giving you their attention is not a guarantee

The In-Person Approach

• ‘Read the room’ – when you attend a networking event you literally need to understand or ‘read’ what you see in the room: Are the attendees dressed very smartly or smart-casual? Have they already formed groups or mingling, moving around? Can you see and approach your contact(s) of interest? These are some of the factors which influence how and who to approach – you are now competing for attention and can see your competition – use your time wisely

• Plan Ahead - larger networking events post information about delegates/exhibitors – often categorised by industry sector and a short description about the organisation. Make some notes – choose a key topic of interest to discuss for your desired contacts. Better to focus on a few and make ‘quality over quantity’ a priority than spread yourself too thinly and give the impression of having no real interest – just ‘shopping’ or passing time.

• Network in Your Region – use location to your advantage by researching and networking with local businesses (outside of university-employer events on campus). This will be an advantage if you plan to stay in the area post-graduation and helps to gradually build stakeholder relationships (people that have an interest in your career plans) throughout your studies

• In-Person Pitch – similar to the online approach the attention of your key contact is short, so keep your approach the same. The main points to remember are:

- Draw contact in with a strong introduction (what fascinates you about the event/connection to your own experience) – invite them to share similar experiences

- Connect LinkedIn presence or comments to ‘real-life’ interaction…’I understand this is something similar to what your organisation experienced’ or ‘I read in your recent post that…’

- Be open in body language; no crossed arms, maintain reasonable eye-contact without staring (people do this) – leave pauses to encourage your contact to add their thoughts

These are just some of the main aspects of networking with purpose and value; your personality doesn’t have to be lost when making new professional connections, but remember to always keep a professional mindset when networking. You never know who is watching.

References

Simply Psychology (2025) Bandura’s Self-Efficacy Theory Of Motivation In Psychology Available at: https://www.simplypsychology.org/self-efficacy.html (Accessed: 17 March 2025)

Three ways you can get started on LinkedIn today (n.d). Available at: https://students.linkedin.com/content/me/students/en-us (Accessed: 18 March 2025)

Brilliant Learning Systems (2020) Six Principles of Andragogy – Malcolm Knowles. Available at: https://brilliantlearningsystems.com/six-principles-of-andragogy-malcolm-knowles (Accessed: 19 March 2025)

Northeastern University (2024) 7 Networking Tips for Graduate Students. Available at: https://graduate.northeastern.edu/knowledge-hub/networking-tips-graduate-students/ (Accessed: 19 March 2025)

BetterUp (2023) How to pitch ideas: 8 tips to captivate any audience. Available at: https://www.betterup.com/blog/how-to-pitch-ideas#8-simple-steps-to-pitch-your-idea%C2%A0 (Accessed: 19 March 2025)