Networking seems a bit fake for most people, but if you approach it from the right angle it can make the difference in your entire career path.  You will be paying a hefty price for two years of education that you could realistically get from a library card and some initiative, what you are really paying for is to be part of a community that will be very successful and very helpful to each other in the years to come.

As we discussed in Part I of Career Switching, joining the clubs and going to the company presentations are a great start to building this network, but there is a lot more work to do.  The further from your original career you want to end up the more work you will have to do, especially if your desired job is outside of the three main business school funnels of consulting, banking and consumer package goods (“CPG” or marketing).  If you want to work at a hedge fund, private equity firm, internet based start-up, or something else that is out of the norm, you have a lot of leg work ahead of you.  Some schools have better success in certain fields outside of the big three than others, so once again, the earlier you know about what career you want to switch to the better.

An advantage of being a student is that people will be more willing to help you out in this quest than if you were simply between jobs.  Mostly this help will come through offering you their time.  This time is the key to making connections in your future industry.  The best way to start is to use the alumni data base and filter for all of the alums that work in your desired industry.  Once you have this list, develop a template informational interview email to send out, but leave some room for personalizing because that will catch their eye.  Pick out the top 10 alumni and start doing research on their firms.  Find something that this firm did recently that might be of interest and include that in the email.  For example, you might write something like this, “I noticed your firm recently closed a new deal in [city].  As I am very interested in [industry] and currently studying this type of transaction, I would love to sit down for a cup of coffee with you and discuss.”  You might also want to include some background information on yourself, but do not attach a resume.

You can also do some LinkedIn research and see if you can find anything else to talk about there.  Who knows, you might have a connection you didn’t know about.

Do not be offended if they do not get back to you, and if you are really interested follow up with them in a couple weeks with a slightly revised email.

For those alumni who do get back to you, have a plan of what you want to discuss and DO NOT ASK FOR A JOB.  They are taking valuable time out of their day to help you and this is just the first step.  The plan should include a set of questions, which includes a solicitation of guidance for someone looking to get into this field.

Example Questions:

1)      What was your career path?

2)      How has this industry changed since you broke into it?

3)      Where is this industry headed? Is it smart to enter?

4)      What classes do you recommend that I take?

5)      What experience do employers look for and how can I improve mine?

This is a good start in developing your network.  Take their business card and put them into your contacts database for future reference, with notes you took during your meeting.  Pick the most helpful five out of all these meetings and keep in touch with them and follow their firms.