Discover All the Networking Secrets You’ve Always Wanted to Know – By Asking Us Directly
With the way the market is these days, the #1 question we’ve been getting is “How do I network?” or variations thereof.
While reader Q&A is a regular feature on the site, today I’m going to do something slightly different and give you a live discussion of answers to your most burning questions – here’s how it works:
- Submit your #1 question on networking as a comment to this post.
- Kevin and I will review everything this week, and then spend an hour discussing the top questions.
- We’ll record this and put it up on the site, along with a transcript for those of you who would prefer to read some really, really long text.
We’ll spend a few minutes on each question, so an hour gives us enough time to go through 15-20 of the top ones.
You can ask unrelated questions if you want, but there’s no guarantee we’ll answer them. Actually, fine, I’ll answer exactly 1 unrelated question in this call so make sure it’s a good one.
Hint: Do not ask about how my acting career in Korea is going, that would be a waste of your “unrelated question quota.”
To spur your imagination, here are some topics I’ve been hearing a lot about lately…
- How to network from one group to another in a summer internship.
- How to network internationally if you want to work in a different country.
- What to do if you get laid off and you already have a few years of experience.
- How to get someone’s attention when cold-calling.
- Should you delay graduating / go to graduate school rather than looking for a job?
- What to do if you have absolutely nothing lined up for the summer, or you’re about to graduate and have nothing lined up.
I’m sure you can probably think of approximately 5,723 more topics, so go ahead and leave a comment here with your #1 question on networking. We’ll answer as many as we can in 1 hour and then post everything next week.
If there’s enough interest, we’ll do more “live discussion” Q&A sessions like this (I think technically you’re supposed to call this a “podcast” or something but that just sounds stupid) on other topics (resumes, interviews, the future of finance/consulting…).
P.S. I finally gave in to peer pressure and joined Twitter… so you can follow me right here.
Note: I can’t guarantee you will actually learn anything about investment banking by following me, but you will learn how to get in interesting adventures around the world.
I’ll try to throw in something finance-related occasionally, too…
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Thanks for this interesting Q&A idea.
Question
- Any tips on getting in touch with former senior colleagues (Head of Dept, MDs) and inquiring about hiring opportunities? The Head of IB that interviewed me for my current analyst role left after 4 months for a competitor, and my only fear is that he is still in touch with the current senior management at my firm and might nonchalantly blurt out my intentions.
I am at a boutique.
Hello everyone,
i was wondering what the do’s and don’t's for cold-calling are in general. On the outline it appears to have great potential – most of my colleagues however discard cold-calling outright. Is it a strategy you would recommend?
In my experience it is very hard to get someone to willingly give you those two to three minutes of his precious time. Especially via phone.
But i very much like the idea of being able to directly call the person that could answer my question.
Thanks for your time.
I really like this Q&A idea, here’s my question.
How do you maintain and continue to develop a network with recruiters, analysts, MD’s, etc. while you are studying abroad for an extended period of time in a foreign country? How can you make up for the lack of “personal interaction”?
By the way Brian, are you going to be making a stop in China when you go to Korea? I’m going to be studying in Shanghai and would love to meet with you.
Thanks!
This is a great idea!
Further to your earlier post about contacting few people/ alumni per week, over time the numbers will accumulate. How would one go about “maintaining” these contacts before recruiting season? And when time comes, how do you make the “ask” (for opportunities/ interviews)?
I am a student entering senior year. not sure if there is a difference, perhaps address this question from a student’s perspective and a professional’s perspective (?)
Thanks.
Something I have done that works great is send the an update every month or so on what you have been up too. Of course this works best if you have been just accepted into a honor society or somehting similar, but you can also report on your end of semester grades or recent vacations etc.
Another great thing to do is follow up with them if they mentioned that they were going on vacation, having a baby, etc. Ask how that went. This way it shows you payed attention and that you care about them for more than just a way to get a job/intenrship.
Cold-Weather
I’ve done a lot of cold-calling with several different firms. I was wondering how to exactly follow-up after the initial call. The second or third time I usually receive the “if there is an interest, we will follow-up with you.” How would you approach this, move on to the next firm?
The Towel
When do you think it is time to actually throw in the towel after all your efforts networking, developing relationships, and cold-calling do not pay off. It is May and there is only one month before analyst training left closing the window of opportunity
The Vanishing Act
What to do when contacts (alumni, friends, referrals) are about to really start to vanish, i.e. dry up. I scoured different databases and social networks and am really beginning to run out of contacts after holding over 35 informational interviews.
I contacted some alumni in the past, but the phone conversations eventually became Q&A and felt very awkward/dry. If you had mentees contacting you in the past, how would you suggest making the conversation more interesting, getting to know them personally and even establishing a friendship? What kind of mentees are mentors looking for? What’s their incentives of sharing information with someone who they do not even know?
I am currently a junior in college. During the recruiting season, I received an exploding offer with a bulge bracket bank, and was forced to make a decision before I could attend my second round interviews at more prestigious firms (Goldman/MS). I ultimately accepted my offer due to current market conditions. I have maintained strong relationships with my contacts at the other firms to this point, and am wondering how to best maintain them over the summer. If I were to receive an offer, I’m sure I wouldn’t be given enough time to go through the full time recruiting system (if there even is one this year), and I was wondering if one could “network” his/her way into an accelerated interview process. Any tips?
The Bespoke Suit Chaser
How would you approach making contact with complete strangers at different firms your interested in?
I usually send an e-mail asking for advice on a career in finance but in reality I know I want an analyst position in investment banking and have already have summer analyst experience.
Is there any way to keep in touch with senior partners even if you don’t have a “reason why” to follow up and instead just want to keep in contact for full time recruiting? Is there a way to make up a “reason why”? Thanks.
Great idea, thanks for taking the time!
My question is, after meeting someone whom I’d like to network with at a networking event, what is the appropriate follow-up? What is a good way to keep in touch?
Is there a way to differentiate yourself from other networkers by somehow providing some value to the person you are contacting? What if anything might a student have to offer that would be of interest/feel like a contribution for an analyst, associate, or more senior person, and if there is something that would be well received, how would you suggest working it into the dialogue?
Cheers.
If your trying to network internally at a bank to go from a sales position to a position in the investment banking department how would you go about following up with a contact that you have e-mailed to request a sit down with but has not responded back in two weeks.
Is it intrusive if you send a second follow up? Let’s say your teammates know the contact but you have never met them so it is basically a cold e-mail that you send them. How would you advise getting attention?
I am a sophomore currently working at a European BB in Tokyo this summer. If I want to try to obtain an internship in banking next summer in NYC at possibly even a different firm (e.g. GS, MS) and want to gain a leg-up on the competition through networking, how do I best pursue this? Because my office isn’t in NYC, it seems that I will have a more difficult time talking with relevant people that will impact my recruiting decisions next year. Could you offer insight into how I may pursue this?
I have a BB IBD summer internship already, how do I network during the summer in that particular city to set up for full time recruiting for that same industry group? Is there anything in particular I need to avoid doing, particularly if I am trying to reach out to groups that I have not had previous contact with?
I was hoping you could talk a little bit about what characteristics make a great cold call.
Also, if you could please talk about how a candidate would follow up after a MD or analyst showed interest in their resume. More specifically, what he/she would say if they met the person face to face again.
I will be starting FT in ER as a BB this summer. What would be the best way to network with people outside of the people I usually work with during my stint? Do I just do the SA route and email and call random ppl or try to be more subtle?
Thanks
IMPORTANT!!
I don’t know if its me or what, but the old links (below core content) are not working, at least some of them
will be working as SA at a BB this summer. Was wondering how much networking (i know as much as you can), but how far should you really go to know all the people out there? considering that you are in the team you want and would be happy with an offer for full time. and of course, how you should go about know people etc
Should be fixed now… thanks. let me know if it doesn’t work for you.
When working on the S&T floor, what kind of questions do i ask traders? Ppl always say thats the only thing interns can really do on the trading floor, but what do I ask? Technical questions or more personable questions like why did you pick this bank, college etc
While working in a different department during the summer what is the best technique to make contacts with people in IBD? And is it better to attempt to make contact with recruiters or people that work in the group? Thanks
this is kind of random… for organized networking events, is it even appropriate to carry a resume on you?
and what sort of advice do you have for someone in a small PE firm interested in moving up into the buy-side instead of just a support function in the group?
What do you think about non-finance work/graduate school, then transitioning through an MBA? What about PhD to MBA to finance?
Where do I start when trying to network from a back office corporate finance position at a large commercial bank to the bank’s investment banking division? Is it even possible to make this transition, especially when my undergrad is not a target school?
What if you got an alumni’s contact and reached out to him/her, but without reading this awesome blog, screwed it up and felt that you did not leave a good impression- would you still suggest reaching out to him/her again after a while – probably let the bad impression fade a little bit – or just toss the card and move on with other contacts?
Thanks!