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for students

For students: Networking 101

By Bonni Stachowiak | May 25, 2010 | | XFacebookLinkedInEmail

Brand

One of the most neglected skills in college is the ability to build relationships. While you're studying about microorganisms, the antient Greeks, and the Revolutionary War, sometimes the ability to connect on a meaningful level with others gets forgotten.

Here are a few tips on what is called ‘networking' in business, an important skill to master, regardless of your chosen field of study.

BEFORE

Before you start networking, it is critical to have thought hard about your personal brand and what you most intend to communicate to others. McNally & Speak (2003) write:

“Your [personal] brand takes shape as a result of your ability to make what you do distinctive, relevant, and consistent.”

They have a great way of helping you think about what you want to project by developing a personal brand model.

Personal_brand_model

Roles

You begin by identifying the different roles that you play for others in your life.

Standards

This part of the exercise is where you consider how you deliver your roles. These are like your standards of service. What level of performance can others expect from you? Keep in mind that one of the best ways to build a brand is to be distinct – so think about how you are unique in what you deliver to others.

Style

Last, consider how you interact with others. Since a brand ultimately comes down to a relationship a company (or a person) has with a customer (or a person with whom they interact), the way we will relate to others becomes an important aspect of our personal brand.

I suggest that before you attend that networking event, job interview, or your friend's college graduation party, that you reflect on these three elements of your personal brand. You can consider buying Be Your Own Brand: A Breakthrough Formula for Standing Out from the Crowd to go through their exercises and to solidify your approach, or just get out  a piece of paper and begin by writing down your roles, standards and style.

While working on my doctorate, one of our professors, Vance Caesar, had us go through this exercise. Below is what I came up with as I considered my on roles, standards and style.

Mybranddimensionssm

Final preparations

The only other thing you need to do to prepare is to be sure you have a professional way for people to remember you and to keep in touch. If you are working, of course all you need to do is to be sure to tuck a bunch of business cards in your wallet/purse. If you are focused entirely on school or your job is not one where business cards are produced, have some business cards printed that list your contact information. One of the least inexpensive ways to do this is to use a business card template and to print them yourself, using pre-perforated paper products from an office supply store. I also recommend Vista Print, as they frequently have great deals on professionally printed business cards and you can use their templates, if you prefer them over the ones that come with your Word Processing program. The two most important things to remember in this process are:

  1. Keep your business card design simple and professional (less is more; no graphics, unless they are simple shapes that add to the professional look-and-feel)
  2. Make sure your email address is professional and contains your first and last name (e.g. john.towers@gmail.com). Gmail still ranks as the best free email application, so consider getting an account, if you don't already have one.

DURING

While you're at the event, capitalize on the opportunity to connect. Arrive well before the ‘main event,' if you are there to see a speaker or to attend a meeting. When you meet someone new:

  1. State your name clearly and slowly – it can be tough for people to remember names. You can help by saying your name clearly and slowly and by pausing between your first and last names, so the listener knows where your first name ends and your last name begins. Practice this a few times out loud right now. It may feel silly (especially if you've decided to read this blog while in public), but the listener will never notice you are doing this and will have a greater likelihood of remembering your name.
  2. Give a firm handshake and maintain eye contact – you know what it is like to have a wimpy handshake. Don't give that same feeling to others. Ask three separate people you trust to shake your hand and give you feedback on what you're communicating in that simple gesture.
  3. Ask at least three questions to your new contact – the appropriate question to ask can vary considerably, depending on where you are. If you're at a party, a natural conversation starter would be ‘how did you come to know [our host]?” If you are at a professional association, you could ask the person about how they have been involved in the organization and if they have any recommendations for new members. Between the questions, you will of course want to be able to have something to contribute to the conversation, so your lifelong quest for learning will payoff in this sense, too. Ferrazzi (2005) writes in Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time:

“Just remember not to monopolize the conversation or go into long-winded stories. Share your passion, but don't preach it.”

Consider signing up for Ferrazi's tip of the week to keep you current on building relationships for professional success and personal happiness. You will find these additional student-specific tips from Ferrazi useful as you navigate building relationships throughout school.

AFTER

Ferrazi (2005) reminds us that:

“If 80% of success is, as Woody Allen once said, showing up, then 80% of building and maintaining relationships is just staying in touch.”

With all the juggling of priorities that we're expected to do these days, we can tend to prioritize higher those pieces of data that hit us most recently. If you want to form a relationship with someone, you will need to follow up after a first meeting in more than one of the following ways:

  1. Send an email with a resource they might benefit from, based on your conversation
  2. Call to say it was nice meeting them and to thank them for the advice they gave
  3. Follow up with a hand-written thank you note, particularly if you met one-on-one
  4. Find out when their birthday is (not at your first encounter, but as the relationship progresses) and call them to wish them a happy birthday on their special day
  5. Forward a timely news story, related to their career or industry

It comes down to being authentic. Helping others achieve their dreams as you pursue yours… If your personal mission involves more than just meeting your own needs, you will no doubt be naturally gifted networker as you seek to change the world.

Filed Under: Resources Tagged With: for students, networking, personal brand

For students: How to be a lifelong learner

By Bonni Stachowiak | May 1, 2010 | | XFacebookLinkedInEmail

Graduation2

I know many of you who are graduating. It is a time for celebration, but also a time of fear and anxiety. There are your concerns over what to choose as a career and what life will be like after college. The good news is that you could have very well written your last academic paper (unless you elect to attend graduate school). The bad news is that it will take more work now to maintain a posture of lifelong learning.

 

Here are five ways to ensure that learning never stops, even after graduation day:

Listen to podcasts in the car during your commute. I’m still amazed at how much new knowledge can be acquired during the drive to and from work. My favorites are APM’s Marketplace (business news) and Marketplace Money (financial literacy), Slate’s Daily Podcast (political gabfest, cultural gabfest, and the green lantern’s environmental stories), and Tony Campolo’s Podcast (sermons, talks and radio programs from the author, professor and speaker). I also listen to Creating a Family (talk about adoption and infertility) and just subscribed to The Chronicle of Higher Education's podcasts.

Get to know your local public library. I remember loving the library as a kid and making good use of Chapman’s library while I was there in the early 90s. Somehow I forgot how wonderful the library is as an adult. I rediscovered it a couple years back and love the opportunity to explore all that our local libraries have to offer. If you live in South Orange County and haven't visited the Mission Viejo Library, you're missing out on a wonderful part of our community. Your public library likely has the following all for free: DVDs, audio books you can listen to on your iPod, CD player or computer, magazines, newspapers, movie nights, author visits, and even a used bookstore to either donate to or support.

Find a mentor. We can sit back to wait until we find a person who gives us good advice, or we can be proactive and set up a mentoring relationship ourselves. Ask someone to mentor you and then set up regular times to get together to discuss your goals and challenges. Take the next step from there and set up a personal board of directors, where you have someone who you can ask questions about your personal finances (your CFO), another who you can talk to about branding yourself (your VP of marketing), and an individual who you consult when it comes time to negotiate salary at your new job (your VP of sales).

Set up RSS feeds for customized news updates. RSS stands for really simple syndication. Instead of having to read every industry publication or website, you can customize the news you receive and discipline yourself to spend a little time every day staying up to speed with what is going on in the world, in your industry, and in your area of expertise. Common Craft can get you up and running with RSS feeds in no time.

Friend learning organizations on Twitter. While Twitter is becoming widely known as the place to catch up with the latest on John Mayer or Ashton Kutcher, it is also a great place to keep up with learning.  The Wall Street Journal has a bunch of useful topics including: WSJWallet (personal finance), WSJBusiness, WSJManagement, WSJCareers, and WSJ. Subscribe to our Innovate Learning Twitter feed and we’ll sift through the masses and bring you the best in leadership and personal effectiveness.

Let us know how you remain a lifelong learner in the comments.

 

Filed Under: Resources Tagged With: for students, learning, lifelong learning

For students: Five smart ways to manage your money

By Bonni Stachowiak | May 21, 2009 | | XFacebookLinkedInEmail

Money

You can't watch the news today without some mention of the economic crisis. You may be experiencing financial troubles of your own. Here are five smart ways to manage your money, instead of letting it manage you.

  1. Know where you are. The easiest way to assess where you are is to use technology to help you track your money. We recently switched to the free online service www.mint.com and can't recommend it enough. How do they make their money? By recommending financial products that you would benefit from, based on your current situation (such as offering a credit card with a lower interest rate than what you're paying).
  2. Think about the future. Now that you know where you are, contemplate where you want to be… What are your long-term goals and how much money will it take to get there? CNN has a number of online calculators to help you figure out what it will take to achieve your long-term goals.
  3. Plan for the unexpected. It sounds like an oxymoron. How do you plan for things you aren't expecting? While we don't know whether our emergency will be a car accident, or a leaky toilet, there are always bound to be things that come up that we haven't budgeted for. Experts recommend six to nine months of liquid assets designated for emergencies. If you don't have any emergency funds, start today by putting a little aside at a time and you'll be surprised how quickly it will add up.
  4. Give [up] a little. If you add up how much your daily Starbucks costs, or your lunches out, you'll see that the little things quickly wind up as big expenses. Prioritize your spending and give up a few little things and reap the rewards of savings. Your coffee habit may be costing upwards of $2,000 a year that you could be putting toward meeting your long-term goals.
  5. Re-think what is important. When birthdays and special occassions come along, consider writing a heartfelt letter instead of purchasing a gift. Your words will be much more meaningful than whatever the gift you would buy might symbolize and you can start having deeper relationships that are based on more than traditional exchanges. I've started writing a list of things I'm thankful for about a particular person when it is his or her birthday. My list is as long as the number of years they've been on the earth.

If you only have time for one of the five, get started with www.mint.com. After that, you can come back and tackle two through five, based on what is most relevant to you and your current financial condition.

Let us know what other personal finance tips you have in the comments.

Filed Under: Resources Tagged With: for students, money, personal finance

For Students: So You Say You Want a Reference?

By Bonni Stachowiak | July 25, 2008 | | XFacebookLinkedInEmail

Reference

A student once asked me if I would provide a reference for her on a job that was her dream opportunity. She had always wanted to be an interior decorator and now had a possibility of working directly for a woman who had a large design firm in Newport Beach and learn from her first-hand. The woman was quite nervous about hiring a recent grad, since she had been burned by more than a few in the past. However, she was impressed with the young woman and wanted to at least speak to someone who knew her well.

I ended up spending an hour and forty-five minutes on the phone with this woman, talking about her needs for the position and giving examples of ways that I had seen the candidate demonstrate those skills and character traits in my interactions with her over the years. My background in human resources was helpful as we discussed her business goals and need for specific talents related to her firm. She ended up taking the risk and the young woman got her dream job… and the chance to gain valuable experience she would take with her throughout her career.

You will be asked to provide references on a pretty regular basis, during college and beyond. People you ask to be a reference for you are the individuals who will influence the decision makers about whether you should get that internship, go on that missions trip, or be offered that new job.

BEFORE

I hope some of you will be reading this post before the time you need a reference, because thinking about the aspect of building solid relationships in advance will have a big payoff for you. Here are just some of the ways that I’m influenced about the nature of any reference I will give for a student:

  • Do they show up on time and are fully present for classes?
  • Do they take responsibility for their choices and actions?
  • Are they curious?
  • What type of energy and passion do they show for learning and for life?
  • Are they respectful of the people around them?
  • How have they demonstrated that they want to help others succeed?
  • What is the level of quality of work that they submit for classes?
  • Have they gotten involved in organizations that help them learn experientially (such as SIFE or ASB) in addition to taking classes?
  • What level of maturity do they demonstrate on a consistent basis?

Along with any reference I provide for a student goes my reputation. I don’t take lightly the integrity that I think is crucial, anytime I talk about how effective I think someone will be in a given situation. I’ve been working, professionally in Orange County for over 15 years and have built a reputation for someone who knows quality people who will excel in a given job. Now is the time for you to start getting to know your professors and other professionals who can ultimately make a big difference in your ability to achieve your goals.

DURING

When you ask someone to be your reference, there are a series of questions you should answer for them in the process, so they can assess if it makes sense for them to be the person to represent you:

  • What is it that you’re pursuing that requires you to get a reference? Talk about the opportunity and the organization associated with the possibility.
  • What knowledge, skills, and attitudes are being sought?
  • What do you have to offer in terms of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes? Be specific in your answers and provide an example of how you’ve demonstrated that you have acquired the competencies thus far.

Occasionally, you’ll be asked to provide a reference before you have had an opportunity to build strong relationships with your professors at school. The better you do at presenting yourself and at addressing the questions outlined above, the more likely they will be to believe you’ll be a good fit for the opportunity.

AFTER

Remember that once your reference has agreed to help you, does not mean that his or her possibilities of influencing whether or not you get the job are over.

  • Follow up with hand-written thank you note.

‘But email is so much more convenient,’ you might argue. Yes, that is true. However, you want that person to be willing to go out of his or her way for you, so it makes sense that you’ll go to the extra effort to thank thank them properly and sincerely. Not many people write thank you notes today, so you will allow yourself to stand out from the crowd and be noticed as worth someone’s investment of time.

I recently wrote a letter for a student who was seeking a number of scholarship opportunities. She sent me a thank you card that not only communicated her appreciation, but also indicated that she was successful in obtaining her scholarships. She specified how much money I helped her save by my investment of time in writing her the letter. Her letter will make a nice addition to my tenure application in the next couple of years and you can bet that I’ll be more than happy to help her however I can as she pursues her dreams.

Filed Under: Teaching Tagged With: for students, internships, jobs, reference

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