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How do you make your MBA network work for you?
MBA networking: one of the supposed benefits of attending business school. Part of the job description of an MBA in almost any position includes that elusive, poorly-defined, sometimes awkward activity.
Top Three Quotes About MBA Networking:
“Job opportunities require great networking skills.”
“Business school is a great networking opportunity…think of how much you’re investing in your network…”
“Come to this party, it’s a great networking event!”
The Truth About MBA Networking:
It IS important, and it’s harder than it sounds.
I’ve been in school for less than a semester, and I’ve already lost count of the events I’ve been invited to that have been touted as “networking opportunities.” It starts to make one feel guilty—if I can’t make that Happy Hour or attend that CEO Q&A, have I missed a priceless networking opportunity? Are future investors even now accepting someone else’s business card? What if my future boss is drinking martinis with some other MBA hopeful right now?
To be frank, my liver can only take so many of these “networking events,” and even so, is this really what networking is? I find it exceptionally hard to believe that the course of my career is to be charted this way. And even if it was, Don Draper I’m not—I’m not sure I could pull off that kind of networking even if it was the key to money, power, and glory (or even just the key to meeting handsome ad men in tailored suits).
But here’s the thing; I’m not convinced this really is what networking is all about.
It’s fun, and it’s a break from studying, and it improves one’s social skills, which is of course valuable for any businessperson. But networking is not about getting to know everyone in a power suit who walks around your campus. Networking is this: one of my new b-school friends is engaged to a recruiter at Bloomberg. Another of my b-school friends is looking to switch jobs. Friend A makes an introduction on behalf of Friend B, and just yesterday, Friend B earns herself a phone interview for a supply-chain management position at Bloomberg. True story.
From what I can tell so far, networking is making friends. It’s getting to know a few people very well—well enough to know what their fiancés do for a living. It’s treating each new relationship as valuable for its own sake, not for what it might earn you in the future. Because collecting business cards over drinks earns you nothing more than a stack of business cards, but building relationships gets you people to lean on in times of crisis, people who will be there to lend a hand when you need them because you didn’t base your entire relationship upon needing them.
So enjoy the occasional Happy Hour, but give yourself permission to get your MBA networking on in your own way. I have to trust that if I shift my focus to helping people where possible and building strong relationships where I can, I’ll end up with a tightly-woven network to carry me to the next step and beyond.
The post MBA Networking: An Essential Business School Skill appeared first on Kaplan GMAT Blog.
