Networking

In the words of Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court:

“Sometimes, idealistic people are put off the whole business of networking as something tainted by flattery and the pursuit of selfish advantage. But virtue in obscurity is rewarded only in Heaven. To succeed in this world you have to be known to people.” 

If you feel uncomfortable with self-promotion, consider that ethical networking actually involves less blatant self-promotion than a winning CV or a successful interview. As we explore below, networking is largely about building reciprocal relationships.

Networking doesn’t mean ‘using’ people

Networking is a way of life. In friendships, you build and maintain a social network, sharing interests, advice and knowledge, exploring ideas, and offering or receiving help. You build and maintain a professional network for the same reasons, but in a different sphere.

And, just as with friendships, you need to approach professional networking with emotional intelligence. As you walk into a room to network, don’t prepare to sell yourself, but prepare to understand people and how they may be helped. Networking is about conversation and generosity. Effective and ethical networking is about ‘reciprocal assistance’.

For example:

• If you are self-employed you need to spend part of your time on ‘business development’ – finding new customers, who want to use your services. Once you have a vibrant network it will keep you busy. You will receive new business through 'word of mouth'.
• If you find yourself in a large organisation, you will find most people network inside the organisation (sending e-mails to each other). But the most creative and productive people also network outside it, finding new opportunities for the organisation, and bringing new ideas into the organisation.

Use your current networks

Oxford alone provides a vast network of readily accessible people:

• Your friends and fellow-members of clubs and societies (and their parents!)
• Your tutors and all their ex-students
• Tutors in your subject in other colleges
• Senior college officers (many of whom are board members or trustees of other organisations)
• College alumni (each college will have its own way to connect with alumni)
• Department alumni (similarly departments will have their own links)
• Research@Oxford is a online search and discovery tool accessible internally only for researchers, research facilitators, divisional offices, OUI, research students, senior management and others to find information about research activity across the University. Includes staff profiles, publications, grants, professional activities, and more.

In addition to contacts you have at university, you may have some from home:

• Your parents and their friends, other relations, your friends and their parents
• Your previous school head teacher and subject teachers
• Members of your clubs, societies
• People you volunteer with and for
• Contacts at your internship placements
• Your political party, your local councillor or MP 

At the very start of your journey a starter question for networking either face-to-face or over email could be:

‘I’m exploring my options after I leave Oxford and want to learn more about XX industry/sector. Would you be able to give me some advice about X or Y? Is there anyone you know doing this type of work?’

Example for a career in advertising:

'I'm exploring my options after I leave Oxford and really want to learn more about account planning versus account management in advertising agencies. Would you have time to give me some advice about entry level roles in this area?'

This is an "elevator pitch", basically consisting of three points:

• Who am I? – tailor it to resonate with who they are looking for.
• What do I want? – tailor its to resonate with what they are offering.
• A question – to start a conversation. Research it, and make it engaging.

It's important to keep it this brief. Busy people don't like reading long messages. And it makes sense to have this prepared and ready to network at any time. You are, for example, most likely to bump into an important music industry contact at a gig.

Next steps

Once you've established contact and opened up a channel, you can then arrange an information interview – see the section below.

Very quickly it becomes important to leverage your extensive research and engage your network with more well researched and insightful questions, so that they want to continue the conversation out of interest rather than altruism.

Feel uncomfortable?

You may feel daunted by talking to unknown professionals, or feel uncomfortable promoting yourself. If so, consider that you are willing to do just that in a job interview! Compared to a job application, networking involves less self-promotion, and is more informal. There are also few negative consequences if it doesn't go as you had hoped. This means you can find opportunities to practise, and start getting used to networking.

LinkedIn is the most well used professional social network, with over 500 million members. The majority of features are accessible with a free account.

LinkedIn can be used to:

• create an online profile
• search advertised vacancies
• add peers and professionals you know as ‘connections’
• research industries and individuals using searches
• join groups to read and contribute to discussions
• message connections or ask for introductions to their connections

Additional premium access is priced competitively, and gives access to greater search parameters and the ability to message those who you are not connected to (‘InMail’). It is notable that the majority of the careers advisers do not have premium accounts, and find the free accounts provide more than enough value.

Students are often put off from starting a LinkedIn profile, because they would rather have no profile than a poor one. Yet by utilising the LinkedIn guides on how to create and use an account, you can make sure that the account you are creating is an asset. Below you will find links to LinkedIn’s student tip sheets and videos. These guides have been created by LinkedIn, to ensure that students can create professional accounts, and get the most out of the many features they offer. In addition, The Careers Service also runs a regular talk on how to create a profile on LinkedIn, and how to use the site to network.

Top tips

If employers search for you, a LinkedIn page ensures they find what you want them to know. It’s a place to showcase your skills and qualifications, and to get publicly recommended by those you’ve worked with. You can add rich content to your profile such as video, images, and documents.

• Building a Great Student Profile – Students are often put off from starting a LinkedIn profile, because they would rather have no profile, than a poor one, so read this tip sheet first – and remember to use ‘Settings’ to control what (if anything) appears on your public profile until you’re ready. If you’ve already got a profile and connections, use ‘Settings’ to turn off ‘activity broadcasts’ to make sure your connections don’t receive an email for every edit to your profile you make!
• Using LinkedIn to Find Jobs or Internships – Few know that it is free of charge for an employer to post an internship or ‘entry-level’ job on LinkedIn. Expect that to change as recruiters realise this new way to share their opportunities, but for now employers typically pay c.£190 to advertise their vacancy on LinkedIn in the job search. This means that for situations where the recruiter might be disinclined to cover this cost, you might find few jobs in the job search, and more mentioned in discussions (free of charge) in relevant professional groups.
• How to Network on LinkedIn – Go to the University of Oxford page on LinkedIn and click 'alumni' to be able to search the 375,000 Oxford alumni on LinkedIn. Here you can identify people in one of your target sectors. It may be possible to select people who studied your course, so you have as much in common as possible. Set up an information interview (see below) to gather information but note the language people use to talk about their job.
• Tailoring your Profile to your Goals – Tailoring your profile is important; you want your profile to help you achieve your dream career. Remember that you want your profile to show who you want to be, make it forward looking, it is not important for people to understand the details of how you were in the past.
• Communicate Effectively on LinkedIn – With so many people using LinkedIn, you want to make sure that your messages, comments and updates stand out from the crowd.
• Build your personal Brand on LinkedIn – One of the main reasons for using LinkedIn is to show your professional on-line brand to potential employers. It is best to focus on what makes you unique and what you can offer.
• The LinkedIn Alumni Tool – There are over 375,000 Oxford University students and alumni on LinkedIn, and the alumni tool provides a powerful search facility, giving you the ability to filter alumni based on keywords, employer name, subject studied, location, their skills and sector. Knowing more about what alumni have gone on to do can help you to make academic and career choices, and find people who you could search for on the wider web before making contact to ask for further advice on following in their footsteps. To use the tool, search the “University of Oxford” in the top search bar to go onto the University of Oxford page and click “alumni”. You can search all Universities in this way.

Get your profile reviewed

Video: How to Nail Networking

Careers adviser Jonathan Black tells you how to control your nerves, break the ice and gather useful information when networking.

Oxford Alumni

Regional Alumni Groups

There are currently more than 350,000 alumni around the world and in excess of 170 regional alumni groups in over 90 countries; so wherever you are in the world you are sure to find Oxonians near you. Some of these groups are run jointly with Cambridge alumni. If you are new to a region, or just passing through, do contact the local group secretary to let them know!

Books

Recommended reading:

• Teach Yourself Successful Networking, Alison Straw, Dena Michelli
• Improve your communication skills, Alan Barker
• Networking for People Who Hate Networking, Devora Zack
• Confident Networking for Career Success, Gael Lindenfield, Stuart Lindenfield
• Brilliant Networking, Steven D'Souza
• The New Rules of Networking, Rob Yeung