In the Community

Making successful connections doesn’t always have to be a hard thing to do and there are many tools available that can help make it easier. The best part is you’re not alone and networking is both an art and a science at which few of us are born naturals. Some of best places to start building connections is from people within your personal life, previous or current employment, academic studies and professional organizations. It’s not always about what you know, but who you know!

Why is it so important to build professional relationships while you are in school?

Simply, to accelerate your career. If you don’t have broad relationships, you will have no one to leverage. Being able to network and build relationships at an early stage is fundamental to building your long term career.

As you begin to strike up a conversation, just focus on being yourself. You will feel more at ease and it will come across when speaking with others. People tend to spot people who are insincere pretty quickly.

Recruitment events and interviews can be an overwhelming experience. You are already familiarizing yourself with potential employers and their backgrounds, carefully selecting the stories that best demonstrate your skills and managing your on-going academic and extra-curicular commitments on top of it all. The last thing you need is to panic just before an event, about what you should be wearing!

If you start treating the interview as one of the most exciting aspects of job hunting, you’ll be able to relax and have a little fun. You may think interviewing is scary but if you have the right approach and bring the right attitude, it can actually be enjoyable to meet new people and find a company you like in the process!