Networking 101

Networking is often one of those skills that everyone recommends but is it hard to do in reality. If you ask a business person what networking is, they’ll tell you it is making and building new relationships. You’ll also hear a lot about the benefits of networking: it could help get your application seen (through referrals), help you land interviews or even a job offer. But advice on how to network can be hard to come by.

A simple way to view networking is meeting new people and learning more about what they do. Networking is all about curiosity and being open-minded. It’s also more than small talk, while that is a good starting point. A networking conversation is the perfect place to ask questions about what one does, how they got there, what their future looks like and if they have any advice for you. You already accomplish 3/4 in normal conversations when making a new friend! You could always imagine the recruiter you met is someone you’re trying to befriend if that makes you feel less awkward.

There are different types of networking and each has a different goal. Lateral networking is when you are networking with people who are at your level, for example, other university students or interns, and the main goal is to learn about what your peers are doing. Job-search networking is the type of networking that is focused on the job search, for example, coffee chats with prospective employers or recruiters. Here the key goal is gaining information related to a job or improving your job prospects. Lastly, there is networking with higher-ups - in an internship, this looks like meeting with your manager’s manager or the Vice President of the company, in the consulting team, this would be the Directors or Partners of the firm or even professors you admire in an academic setting. In this networking, you are hoping to learn more about the person’s career advice and hopefully gain advice that would help you in your long-term career goals.

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General tips

  1. Have an elevator pitch! This is a 30-second introduction that you would ideally share with someone in an elevator ride, hence the name, elevator pitch. A simple elevator pitch includes your year of study, program of study, most recent internship/project and any extracurricular you’re involved in. For example, “Hi! I’m Jane. I’m in my third year at UofT studying CS. This summer I interned at CIBC with the Capital Markets team as a Software Developer. I’m also a volunteer with the UofT Language Exchange Initiative.” The extracurricular or project you share does not have to be CS-related and can be the place where you can let your personality shine.
  2. Download LinkedIn on your phone for the duration of the event to make sharing your LinkedIn easier.
  3. Do some background research on the person/company you’re meeting. This could be a quick skim of their LinkedIn. If you don’t know them beforehand, it is okay to skip this step and substitute it using small talk, like asking how the event is going for them.
  4. Learn to confidently self-promote/share your achievements. Networking is all about presenting your best self and this can be extremely awkward at first. You want to be confident but not brag and it’s a fine line to walk on. The best tip to self-promote is sharing your accomplishments with friends and practicing this with each other.
  5. Have/Adopt an open and friendly personality (at least for the event). Being curious and friendly can go a long way in networking as this would be the first impression people hold of you.

LinkedIn tips

Networking can be done in person or online. LinkedIn is not only useful to stay in touch with people but is also helpful when meeting new people. You can use LinkedIn to search for people in internships or jobs you want and reach out to them to learn more about their journey. It is also helpful when you want to connect with hiring managers or recruiters and pitch yourself as the best candidate for a job.

When you find someone you’d like to connect with, you can send a shorter version of your elevator pitch with a clear ask. Let me illustrate this with an example: Say you want to be a UI/UX designer and find someone from UofT who did an internship in the field. Both you of have a common ground of going to UofT, so you can emphasize that in the connection note. You would ask to learn more about the field of UI/UX design. So the connection note would look like “Hi [Name]! I’m Jane, a 2nd year at UofT. I’m majoring in CS and am interested in pursuing UI/UX. I saw you interned in the field and would love to learn more about your journey. Thanks!”. As LinkedIn has a character limit, it’s better to keep your message short with a clear ask to show that you respect the person’s time.

If you meet someone at an event and exchange LinkedIn, a good rule of thumb to stay in touch is messaging them for a coffee chat once every 4/6 months. In this coffee chat, you can catch up and build your relationship with them.

Coffee chats

Coffee chats are 30-minute informational meetings where two people can discuss ideas, careers, mutual interests or career journeys. Being a student/intern gives you a lot of advantages when it comes to coffee chats. Most people tend to accept coffee chat requests from interns/students and many companies even encourage/incentivize their tenured employees to have coffee chats with interns/students. So make the most of it and set up coffee chats with everyone you think are cool!

Async vs sync coffee chats

There are two types of coffee chats: synchronous and asynchronous. A synchronous coffee chat is when you meet someone either in person or via an online meeting platform. An asynchronous coffee chat is when you communicate with someone solely via texts/emails, so you send them a list of questions and they type back their responses. If you reach out to someone for a coffee chat, you can offer both options and be mindful of the other person’s time.

How to coffee chat

Irrespective of the type of coffee chat, there are still 3 basic steps for a coffee chat:

  1. Prepare your questions beforehand! Read through the person’s LinkedIn/website, understand their experience and create some specific questions. Also, research some of the industries the person works in, this can be a basic Google search.
  2. Send the person a meeting invite with the location of the meeting, either an online link or the meeting place, and if possible your questions so that they can prepare.
  3. After the meeting, send them a thank you note, thanking them for their time and sharing their experience.

There are 2 more things to keep in mind for a synchronous meeting: 3. During the meeting, you can keep your list open and take notes. Always be mindful of the other person’s time and ensure you’re keeping track of time. 4. While it is good to prepare and have a list of questions, make sure you have a conversation and don’t turn the coffee chat into an interview.

You can use coffee chats to stay in touch with people you meet at events/in internships. You can reach out to people once every 4/6 months for a new chat. If you see an article on something you spoke to them about, you could always forward that to them. If you followed their advice, you could always share the outcome and either ask for more advice or express your thanks.

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Networking at events

Throughout the year, there are various events catered towards networking - information sessions, career fairs, speed networking, hackathons and conferences. The networking style at each event is slightly different as each event has a different goal. An information session/career fair/speed networking is where companies can share more about their programs and assess if you would be a good fit for further conversations. A hackathon is a place where students come together to build projects and showcase their technical skills. Similarly, a conference is where you would showcase your work/research. As you can see the goal is different, so your networking style would also need to be modified.

In a career setting, like a company information session/career fair, you should emphasize your elevator pitch and how you would be a good candidate for the company’s role. When it comes to hackathon/conference sponsors, you can keep the elevator pitch but also include your project/conference interest in it. However, the job-focused elevator pitch wouldn’t be as effective when meeting other peers in these hackathons/conferences as that information isn’t helpful/useful to them. So in this case you would simplify your elevator pitch.

Hidden networking opportunities

Hackathons are a great hidden networking opportunity. Most recruiters who attend hackathons are there to promote their companies, advertise open job postings and hiring for these postings. This is not well-advertised but does happen. Sarah, another CS ambassador, wrote a blog post about attending Hack the North, interviewing with TD and getting an offer from them before the hackathon ended. Even if a company is not hiring, they often set up a Student/Early Career Talent Network, these are mailing lists of things the company is proud of, open job postings and event invites. When you sign up for these, the company receives your resume and could potentially reach out in the future if they are a match for a job posting.

Mentorship

Networking can lead to a more long-term and time-intensive mentorship. If you find someone who is inspiring and whose advice you would like long-term, you could ask if they would take you on as a mentee. There are also plenty of mentorship boards and communities you can join where the expectations of being in a mentor/mentee relationship are clear and expected if that is more accessible to you. However, be mindful that the person could stop being your mentor or may not have the capacity to take you on as a mentee.

Mentorship board

There are various mentorship programs offered at UofT:

  • The DCS offers the Alumni mentorship program for CS students in their third and fourth year.
  • UofT also has an online mentorship board called the Ten Thousand Coffees
  • Various clubs at UofT offer mentorship programs. Check out their websites and Instagram for the most up-to-date information.
  • Colleges at UofT also offer mentorship programs either with upper-years or alumni.

There are also various mentorship programs offered externally:

  • BobaTalks is a non-profit that partners mentors with mentees.
  • ADP List is a mentorship program focused on the design industry.
  • Rewriting The Code is a US-based organization that matches women-identifying folk in tech with industry professionals.
  • ColorStack is a US-based organization that matches Black and Latinx Computer Science students with industry professionals.

DCS Coffee Chat Program

Helen, another CS Ambassador started a project called the DCS Coffee Chat program  which displays profiles of various upper-years in the CS program here at UofT who are open to coffee chats.