As the Ten Days of Career Services nears the end, today we recommend a simple task, “Organize Your Professional Network”. You likely met a lot of people at the Spring Career and Internship Fair and got their business cards. Take the time today to organize those business cards and put them in a safe place for the future. You never know when you will need them. You might consider a contact spreadsheet with the name/ company and contact information for each person you met. Go the extra mile and include dates when you have contacted them – or plan to contact them. You should also include a little note about a few memorable things that you talked about. This will help you refer back to the conversation.
Now is also the time to add your connections to your LinkedIn profile. It is an easy way to stay connected and is a way to network with people in the future. If you don’t have a LinkedIn account, take the time today to create a profile. Fill out everything, you can pretty much take things from your resume. Begin to make connections with your friends and any people in the industry you know. As you go to more networking events, gather business cards and add people into your network. People are always willing to connect with others – especially students. There are also jobs posted on LinkedIn.
You have worked hard this week – make sure to enjoy today and Friday and have a great weekend! Tune in on Friday for our blog about “Leveraging your Connections” where we will dive a little deeper into the concept of making your connections really work for you as you seek internships and jobs. Remember – all this networking stuff is learned – no one is born knowing the best ways to connect with professionals. As always – we are here to help, drop us a line career@cals.wisc.edu
