If You Hit it off, Follow-up
When I was in college, my next door neighbour and I went to our school’s career fair to check out the booths of all of the banks and finance companies. We had technical backgrounds but wanted to drop that stuff in favour of finance. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the first clue when it came to finance and we brought along with us such enlightened questions as: “So what’s it like being an investment banker?”
We found the J.P. Morgan booth and started chatting with a female analyst who was funny, approachable, and down-to-earth. She had the same technical background as us and she jokingly called herself a “peon” in front of everyone. We definitely hit it off so I made sure to get her card. But then...nothing. I didn’t do anything! I felt like: “Hey, I made a good impression on her so I just have to submit my resume online and I’m guaranteed an interview, right?” Well, the truth of the matter is that making a good first impression is great, but it’s definitely not enough. If you hit it off with someone at a careers fair or elsewhere, make sure you not only get their contact details but you need to follow up immediately. Don’t be afraid to tell them you’re going to call or send an email so you can chat further, and then do it. If you find someone that you get on with, who shares your background, personality, and humour, you need to leverage that advantage.
Don’t be Afraid to Approach People You Know
And then there was that Morgan Stanley information session. I thought it would be a waste of time, but I felt compelled to go anyway – at least there was free alcohol! Then I happened to see someone I knew, a guy from my fraternity who was a year ahead of me who was working at an MS office on the West Coast. I didn’t know him that well, but he recognised me right away. We chatted for a few minutes, catching up on what had been going on since we last saw each other.
But as before, I didn’t do anything! I just waited around till more people encircled him and asked those general, not very helpful questions like: “What’s it like being an investment banker?”
Here was someone I kind of knew, and I didn’t use that to my advantage. What I should have done was minimise the chit-chat and said: “Hey, you know I have a technical background and now I’m more interested in finance and I’m actually really interested in working in your office, what should I do?” You don’t need to be best friends with someone to ask such a direct question as that, you just need to be credible. The way I handled it, it was obvious I was just there for the booze.
Travel if You Have To
Another big mistake that most people make when going to job fairs is only going to what’s on offer at their school. Especially if you find yourself at a non-target school, you have to travel to meet people or you’ll never get anywhere. Make sure you pick the right events instead of going to loads of ones that may not have exactly what you want. Since I was interested in working in Japan, I found the Boston Career Forum and took a red-eye flight immediately to Boston. There were only about 5 “foreigner” job seekers at the event, so I definitely stood out. It was an interesting fair because unlike usual ones, you could get an interview within 24 hours because the skills they were looking for were so specialised. Though I had taken a great step by actually getting there, I ultimately screwed up. I stuck to familiar names, rather than speaking with any banks or firms I had never heard of that did practically all of their work in Asia. I told myself I wasn’t even 100% sure I wanted to work in Japan, so I didn’t take full advantage of what the event had to offer.
So when you’re networking, especially at some kind of graduate fair, make sure you:
- Make a great first impression but also leverage that to ask for what you want. Follow-ups with good timing will help you on your way.
- If you know someone who may be able to help you, even if you don’t know them very well and even if you don’t have the best relationship with them, don’t hesitate to ask. Worst case scenario: they are annoyed. Best case scenario: you get a job!
- Don’t limit your networking, especially if you have very specialised skills. Explore all of your options, even if you’re not sure about some of them.
