Last year, only 24% of college graduates who applied for a job had one waiting for them when they graduated.  As a graduating senior, that’s a very uncomfortable statistic.

I spoke with a few CRC people at Wesleyan about why they thought the number was so low and they told me that college students are generally not very good at networking.  Many students don’t get jobs before they graduate because they are opposed to networking or don’t understand it at all.

Networking is not ingratiation. A lot of college students say that they would never get a job through networking because they are morally opposed to “sucking up”.  While it’s a good thing these people are opposed to sucking up, it is a bad thing that they think sucking up and networking are the same thing.  They aren’t.

Photo Courtesy of foreverdigital

Networking is not schmoozing at a party. Many of my friends tell me that they hate networking because they feel awkward doing it.  I ask, “Doing what?”  They say, “You know, talking to random people at parties.”

First, if you’re having difficulty talking to people at parties, try drinking a glass of wine.  Second, networking is not about randomly approaching someone at a party that looks distinguished enough to be important.  That would be awkward.

So if you aren’t sucking up to people and you aren’t schmoozing at a party, how do you network?

Photo Courtesy of Steve Rhodes

• Contact people you already know in order to get in contact with people you want to know. Being personally recommended for a job or interview from a trusted source will instantly get your resume out of the pile and into someone’s hands.  The key to any job search is finding out who the people are you want to know. Whenever I apply to a job, I first search on LinkedIn for the company, see if I have any 2^nd degree connections, and then ask that connection to put me in contact with someone at that company.  If you don’t have a LinkedIn profile (which you should), or don’t think you have that many professional contacts (which is okay), there are other ways of doing this.
• Find an advocate. Ask a past colleague who liked you if they have any suggestions for people to talk to or places to look at.  There is nothing more useful than a boss that loved you, whether it was from an internship or an on-campus job that relates to the field you are interested in. These connections are vital because they will know where you should look for jobs, they will likely know people at the places you are applying, and they will want you to be successful in your job search.
• Use your network to find whether or not you are a good match. Leverage your contacts to ask around about the companies and positions you are applying for.  Learn if you are a good match by asking questions about the company, their reputation, their work environment, and the type of people that work there. By narrowing down your search to places where you would actually be a good fit, you are more likely to find a company or position that you like and a company that likes you.
• Focus your efforts on contacts, not applications. According to a handout from Wesleyan University’s Career Resource Center, over half of graduating students get their jobs through networking.  So why do so many people spend a majority of their search applying to dozens of jobs. Rather than applying to 100 jobs, contact 100 people in your network.  It’ll take a lot less time and you’ll be more likely to find something that fits your needs well.

While schmoozing at a party and an appropriate amount of flattery may not hurt your job search, it is not the most effective way to go about focusing your efforts.  Instead, find out who the people are you want to know and then leverage your network to get in contact with them.  A good handshake doesn’t hurt either.

Good luck in 2011!