I’ll be honest – networking was one of my least favorite parts of the recruiting process when I was in my second or third year of college. The not-so-subtly handing someone your resume, the desperate need to “make a connection” of some sort so the recruiter remembered you, the mad dash to the event space to be the first one to greet the company representatives, the aimless wandering through hundreds of booths while cramming handfuls of free pens into a ridiculously overstuffed thinner-than-thin plastic bag…I disliked all of it. By the end of my third year in college, though, I positively loved them, and “making a connection” no longer seemed impossibly daunting.
This is why.
One random day in my third year of college, I was about to archive the third reminder email we’d received about a consulting “networking day” that was happening that week. I may have even sighed in resignation as I added it to my calendar. I looked through the list of companies attending, though, and perked up a bit – not only were there a lot of companies coming, a lot of them were companies I was very interested in. Okay, this is it, I thought. I don’t care. I’m “making a connection” with these people if it kills me. What’s the game plan? The advice I gave myself that day is still the advice I give frustrated prospective Bainies as they navigate the recruiting high seas.
As I thought back on it, I realized what frustrated me most about networking events was that they were very hit or miss. Sometimes I felt like I really connected with the people to whom I was speaking, and sometimes I felt like I was just making the same small talk over and over again. As I figured out that day, the best way to deal with this is to go for quality over quantity – it doesn’t really matter if you go to 20 or 25 networking sessions if you’re not making an impression at any of them (and, in fact, the last person you want to be is the one whom the recruiter remembers with a sigh-filled oh, this person again.) I decided I would look at the list and pick five companies – no more – that I was seriously, legitimately, for sure interested in. And then – this is the part that most people don’t do – I would visit those five in the morning and come back home when I was done. There’s a huge temptation with huge “networking days” to stick around for hours and try to talk to as many people as possible, but I realized that it was impossible for me to (a) be truly enthusiastic about that many companies, (b) keep up my energy and winning smile that long, and (c) keep being creative and interesting in my questions to the recruiters. I decided I’d rather be a blank slate when the rest of the companies saw my resume rather than have someone speak up and say that I was “…fine…” when they met me.
Finally, I decided I would never again ask any question that I had ever asked at a networking event. Going in with questions that are unique is absolutely crucial. I guarantee the vast majority of people at these sorts of things have probably heard “So, I hear consultants travel a lot…what’s that like?” and “What does Bain look for on a resume?” and “What do you like most about Bain?” a thousand times, and repeating the same questions everyone else has just makes them go into their rote memory to reel off the same answer they give everyone else. Instead, ask about things that the recruiter might not have heard – “I heard summer interns get to go to this offsite that’s supposed to be a ton of fun. How was yours? What was your favorite part?” “How long are consultants usually unstaffed between cases? What did you do when you were last unstaffed?” “I’ve heard groups of cubicles in the office have their own themes and can be pretty close-knit. Are you close to your bay, and do you guys do anything cool?” – so that they have a chance to talk about something that they might not usually.
And, finally – this may seem obvious, but everyone says this for a reason – don’t ask a question you could Google the answer to.
Happy networking!
Filed under: General recruiting Tagged: Bain, Bain & Co, Bain and company, Business networking, Business School, career path, consulting, Interview, MBA, networking, Question, Résumé Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
