College Success: Networking

By Jarom Schmidt

Whether you start on the first day of college or wait until later, networking can be easy, fun, and effective. You’ve been networking your whole life; it’s just that you called it making friends. Now, College Success: Networking From College to Career shows you how to turn friends, family, professors, and other groups into a personal network that will serve you for the rest of your life.

Networking goes way beyond Facebook, Twitter, and texting. The secret to moving seamlessly from college to a great job (while bypassing entry level positions) isn’t in having a wealthy family or being born with a high IQ. The key to success lies with the people you meet in college and the people you already know. They will change your life.

This is the time to set the course for your career and your future. The concrete advice in this book will help you find the right people, show you exactly what to say, and help you find internships, residencies, fellowships, and amazing career opportunities.

• Language: English
• Publisher: NorLights Press
• Release date: Mar 18, 2015
• ISBN: 9780990686279

Book preview

It isn’t what you know—it’s who you know.

This old saying has been around for hundreds of years, yet it still rings true. No matter how rooted in technology our world becomes, the best opportunities of your life will always come through other people. The secret to success isn’t in having a wealthy family or being born with a high IQ. The key to success lies with the people you meet in college and the people you already know. They will change your life.

Success in life is dependent on the people you meet and your ability to form a network.

College Success: Networking From College to Career is all about taking control of your relationships. When you do that you’ll be setting the course for your career and your future. The ideas and tips in this book will help you find the right people, show you exactly what to say, and help you maintain a network that will serve you the rest of your life.

The fact that you’re reading this book tells me you’re already on the right track. As a college student you have abundant resources at your fingertips, but the years pass quickly and before you know it, you’ll finish your education and be on your own to find a job. I hope you’re reading this book as a new college freshman. If that’s the case, you will soon possess all the tools you need to begin creating opportunities for the future.

When you embark with me on this journey, you will soon feel more prepared and confident in knowing what to say, how to say it, when to say it, and who to say it to, as you build a network that will help you fulfill your goals.

Perhaps you wonder if you have the right personality for networking. I’m here to tell you that anyone can network. Sure, we all know people who have the gift of gab; who were born with a natural ability to make friends. Because these extroverts possess a gift for interacting with others, they seem to attract admirers wherever they go. Psychologists tell us extroverts are charged up by people, places, and stimuli outside of themselves and love mingling in social situations. Good for them!

But what if you’re an introvert who thrives on a few close friendships, deep one-on-one conversations, and expressing your ideas in writing? Your approach to networking may be different, but you can be equally effective.

I’ve always been an extrovert. I was raised in a small town where all the families knew one another. Growing up in this rural community, I learned how to care for people through conversation, service, and friendship. As I aged and matured, I carried with me the principles of relationship building I learned as a boy. I was fortunate to develop a level of confidence that helped me engage in conversations, meet new people, and build relationships.

I understand many people are quite the opposite. When it comes to forging new relationships—especially in the professional world—they have no idea where to begin. Most college students are comfortable with people their own age, but feel strange interacting with professors and business professionals.

This book is written for you outgoing students who thrive on communication and relationships. It’s also for those of you who dread the idea of meeting new people; those who would rather have a root canal than network at a business event. This book is for those who usually avoid talking to anyone who wears a suit.

Through words of inspiration, motivation, stories, and literal examples of what to say, the formulas in this book will help you reach your goal of finding internships, residencies, fellowships, and most important, career opportunities.

If you find yourself reading this book with graduation around the corner, you’re running out of time. You may only have a few months to network your way into an internship and the job of your dreams. Luckily for you, as you read College Success: Networking From College to Career you’ll learn how to identify the networks you’ve already begun establishing.

No matter where you start, in this book I will help you refine your skills, set goals for yourself, and network with greater efficiency. The tested and proven techniques and strategies in these pages are for college students who are just beginning to build a network—and for those of you who want to maintain and increase the networks you’ve already built. I’ve shared these techniques with others and have witnessed their success countless times.

Let’s get started!

Jarom J. Schmidt

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Section One: The Scoop on Networking

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Chapter 1

Why Should You Network?

When was the last time you did a favor for someone, provided encouragement, gave information, asked for help, or made a recommendation? I’m willing to bet you’ve done at least one of those things during the past week. If so, congratulations! You’re already networking. Let me tell you how I discovered the value of my network:

During my first year of graduate school I decided to try and contact the CEO of a large hospital in hopes of gaining a mentor and setting up an internship. Since I didn’t know much about this executive and he certainly didn’t know me, I planned to cold call him. My first approach was to ring his secretary and ask for an appointment. If you’ve ever tried to schedule a meeting with a high level executive with whom you don’t already have a relationship, you’ll find this method has a low success rate. I quickly discovered why executive secretaries are called doorkeepers. Their primary job is screening phone calls and walk-ins so the boss won’t be interrupted by nonsense and unnecessary visits.

Keep in mind, dozens of sales professionals, job seekers, and employees are constantly calling and dropping in to visit with executives. Properly doing her job, this secretary kindly asked if I’d like to leave a message. I optimistically gave my phone number and an explanation for my call. Are you surprised to learn the executive never returned my call?

Yet, I was determined to connect with this man, so I decided to email him. After uncovering his email address through an Internet search, I composed a compelling message to him. The response? Nothing. After a few weeks I tried again, with similar results. Finally, I shared my frustration with one of my mentors who happened to be an executive himself. Before I even finished my story, he picked up the phone and asked to speak to the same executive I failed to connect with on three occasions. Turns out, they were good friends. After chatting for a few minutes, my mentor asked the executive if he would meet with me the following week to offer career advice and mentoring. He handed me the phone—and there I was, speaking with his secretary to schedule an appointment.

All I needed was someone to open a door for me. The same thing can happen in your life if you combine smart networking with perseverance. I never gave up on my goal of meeting this executive face to face. In the beginning, I worked hard, but I didn’t work smart because I forgot to use the best resource available to me—my mentor. I could have saved much frustration and time by networking.

Networking provides a way for you, as a student, to use the people around you to help you find success.

Trust me: you do need the help of a network to find success. If you don’t learn this now, you will learn it the hard way later.

When you join the ranks of job-seeking college graduates, you’ll quickly realize that finding a job is not easy, especially if you set high goals for yourself (as you should). Forces out of your control impact your ability to find employment. Today’s tough economy is a prime example, as workers with college degrees and experience are laid off and sent into the job market to compete with new graduates.

To make finding a job even more challenging, for many positions you’ll need a graduate degree to meet the basic requirements. Then the employer looks for a minimum of two or three years’ work experience in the given field. If you’re like most students, your job experience is limited to temporary work in retail sales, restaurants, or customer service. Is it any wonder students feel unprepared to enter the post-college workforce?

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree, I tested the job market and applied for over 60 jobs throughout Montana, Idaho, Utah, and Arizona. I felt confident about my resume, having performed three internships in my industry. I also had a few years’ experience in sales and management as a result of working through college. I was president of a student organization and had performed over two years of volunteer service. Compared to other recent graduates, I felt my resume was top notch. As I waited by the phone each day to receive a call for a job interview, the days became longer and longer. During those two months, I had only one phone call for an onsite interview. Halfway through the interview I was told I didn’t have enough work experience for further consideration.

At that point the decision to attend graduate school was made for me. I tried my best to find a job, but my resume and experience weren’t enough to get me hired.

You may face the same situation, now or in the future—and that’s why you need to begin networking today. You don’t need to start from scratch or enter the job market alone and clueless. Networking lets other people intervene on your behalf to help you find success.

You may realize a graduate degree is necessary for your career path. If you’re on the fence about this, I urge you to continue your education. If you already know you’ll be satisfied with a bachelors or technical degree, be prepared to work extra hard, because lack of a graduate education automatically disqualifies you for many jobs you may one day want to pursue.

Whatever you decide about continuing education, planning ahead will help you get where you want to go. This book will show you how to work smarter and faster toward your goals.

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Chapter 2

Excuses, Excuses

Each time I give a lecture on networking I get deer-in-the-headlight looks from some of the students. I know these are the folks whose hands will go up when I ask, What are some of the reasons you don’t network?

I call their predictable answers EXCUSES. When we fail to do something that will ultimately benefit us, like exercising, eating the right food, studying, and getting plenty of sleep, we tend to invent excuses. The same holds true for networking. Because putting yourself out there can be scary, it’s easier to hide behind rationalizations, such as:

I don’t want to be a manipulator!

We’ve all had classmates or coworkers who were called brown-nosers, butt-kissers, kiss ups, or manipulators—even in kindergarten and preschool. These people can single handedly ruin the perception of networking. I still remember students who tried to manipulate me, my classmates, and the teacher. In most cases these folks are easy to spot. As Stephen R. Covey points out, those who posture themselves to manipulate are easily identified as

Reviews for College Success

[roomwithbooks-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It is my pleasure to read and review GRACE REVEALED: A MEMOIR by Greg Archer.

I don’t often find myself engrossed in a recounting of distant family history, but Greg Archer has written a memoir that is so astonishing that I didn’t want to put it down.

We often read of the horrors of the concentration camps of Germany and Japan, but this is the first time I have read a description of the atrocities of Stalin and the Russian military prior to WWII.

My heart breaks for the millions upon millions of families expelled from Poland by Stalin and the horrors that they faced. As the facts presented by Mr. Archer’s research hold forth, this is genocide of the worst seen in the twentieth century, and possibly ever.

I applaud Mr. Archer for taking this courageous journey, mentally and physically, to trace his Polish heritage and uncover the truths about his family so as to give their ghosts some peace.

I highly recommend GRACE REVEALED: A MEMOIR by Greg Archer and humbly give five steaming hot cups of Room With Books coffee.


©April 27, 2015
Patricia, Room With Books

[ecataldi-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Greg Archer's memoir has been touted as the Polish version of "Eat, Pray, Love" and I can kinda see that. Archer's memoir is an exploration of his family's tragic past, starting with the deportation of his family from Poland to a slave labor camp, to homelessness, death and despair, salvation in Africa and finally a journey to America. Archer brings to life one of the most under-reported atrocities of the last century, Stalin's horrid treatment and murder of millions of Poles. It's really eye opening. As a history student who's traveled to Russia, I thought about how glossed over this MAJOR event has always been. Stalin was responsible for more deaths than Hitler could ever begin to take credit for, but Stalin didn't ever seem to catch nearly as bad a rap. Archer's story starts in California and over several years finally end in Poland finding the Church his family attended. Greg Archer is witty but I felt like half of his memoir he was poking fun of himself or talking about how awesome all his celebrity encounters were (he was an entertainment journalist). It was a little distracting, but not awful by any means. I thought he did great research and really empathized with his family's plight. An eye opening read and great memoir. I received this book for free from the publisher in return for my honest, unbiased opinion.