Growing Your Network

Most people do not know someone who works in software engineering or another technology role. There is also a huge variety of roles in the space.

Meeting others, learning about their perspectives, and sharing your own work are great ways to find new opportunities and grow in your career.

As a student, you can grow your network by finding supporters!

Outline

A. How can supporters help?
B. How can I find supporters?

A. How can supporters help?

Importance of Supporters

Referrals: Many employers have a process called "referrals" where they ask current employees to recommend people they know to join the organization. Some organizations rely on referrals more than job postings to find candidates. If you are sending applications and not getting a response, it may be because that organization has many referrals to go through. If you meet some and they get to know you and your work, they may be willing to refer you to a role at their organization! To succeed in your job search, it helps to have a mix of referrals and open applications.

Advice: There are many topics to learn about in the world of technology, more than can be covered in school. Should you learn a new programming language? Should you try out open source? How do different industries use software engineering? These are things you can ask supporters and mentors. Their perspective can help you learn things you didn't know you didn't know!

Long-Term Connections: Some supporters may only be available to meet with you a few times, but others may stay connected with you for many years. Even after you find a job, you can reach out them to ask for advice, share your accomplishments, and even help out them!

Types of Supporters

According to the 2 Hour Job Search, there are three types of people you may encounter when searching for supporters:

Curmudgeons: For a variety of reasons, these people are not available or willing to meet with you. Luckily, they will save both of your time by telling you no or not responding.
Obligates: May offer to meet with you, but out of a sense of obligation. Because of this, they are half-in/half-out and may not be of much help.
Boosters: Genuinely energized by helping people, especially those early in their career or part of their community. They will be willing to spend the time and effort to help you.

Topics to Discuss

Think of 3-5 questions that are most important to you. Check out the list below for examples.

You can find more questions in the 2 Hour Job Search slides, starting on slide 34.

About their career:

What accomplishments are you most proud of in your role?
Who do you collaborate with in your role? What is good and bad about working with them?
What was something you found difficult when you started your job? How did you handle it?

About their organization:

Check out the Key Values Culture Queries tool, which is an excellent resource for good questions to learn about what the working environment.

What are the top three thing you like and dislike about where you work?
What does your organization look for in new engineering hires, especially early in their career?

About their industry:

What are some trends in your industry that are important to follow?
What resources do you use to learn more about the subject matter that you work in?

About your growth:

What is a skill you wish you developed earlier in your career and how could I practice that skill?
Based on my interest in (an interest of yours), what would you recommend I focus on?

B. How can I find supporters?

Here is a process you can follow:

Identify a possible supporter
Request them to share their time
Engage with the supporter
Follow-up to stay connected

Step 1. Identify a possible supporter

In general, a good supporter for you is someone who:

Is open to helping students
Has some connection to you (school, club, shared interest, or something else)
Works in the kind of role or industry that you want to learn more about
Is someone who is not already swamped with requests from other students

Do your best to find a supporter related to your specific interests so that you can avoid reaching out to someone who many other students will try to contact.

Here are some ways to find supporters:

Attend clubs, meetups, and presentations (including virtually) and start a conversation with other attendees or the presenter
Join a virtual professional or social community, many groups have a Discord or Slack
Join The Bridge and search for alumni
Search LinkedIn for Illinois Tech alumni (or alumni of another school you went to)
Search for professionals who work in a role, organization, or industry that interests you
Search for professionals who share a club, interest, or other background with you
Ask someone you know if they know a professional related to your interests
Ask a club you are part of to invite a presenter related to your interests

Once you have identified someone, reach out to them with the option that makes most sense:

Message them on The Bridge
Send a connection request on LinkedIn with a personalized note
Find their email address and send them an email
Ask someone who knows both of you to introduce you to them

You can find more advice on this step in the 2 Hour Job Search slides, starting on slide 17.

When you contact them, a good message should contain these four things:

Who you are
How you found them
How they can help you
When you will follow-up

Here is an example email that you can customize to match your interests:

Dear Akshaya,

My name is Vinesh Kannan and I am a fourth-year computer science student at the Illinois Institute of Technology. I saw on LinkedIn that you are an Illinois Tech alum who works in software engineering for improving healthcare, which is an area I am interested in.

Would you be willing to do a 15 minute video call with me so that I can learn more about your experiences in the industry? It would help me get a better idea of what I want to do.

I know this may be a very busy time for you, so I can reach out again two weeks from now in case that is better for you.

Thank you for your consideration,

Vinesh Kannan

Other things to keep in mind when reaching out:

At this stage, it is usually best to ask them to share their perspective with you, rather than ask for a referral directly. You can ask for a referral later.
You can personalize your note further by mentioning their work. If they wrote a blog article you found helpful or some other contribution, you can mention that and share why you liked it.
If you do not hear back in two weeks, you can reply to your original email to ask if they would be willing to meet with you. If no response, you can follow up again one week later. After three follow-ups, you can assume they are too busy.
Do not reach out to a huge number of people. Try picking the three people you are most interested in. If one of them does not respond after your second follow up, you can reach out to another person.
Avoid reaching out to multiple people from the same company. This makes it appear as if you are reaching out to anyone, rather than researching who you think will be most helpful to you.
It is best to set up a video call, but if the person is too busy to schedule a meeting with you, they may be willing to answer your questions by email. You can offer that if they say they are not free to meet. If they are interested in your questions, they may offer to meet with you later on when they have more time.

Step 3. Engage with the supporter

When you have your meeting with the supporter, you can use an approach called the "informational interview" where you ask them questions to learn more about their role and the industry as a whole.

Just like in the previous step, you should not ask for a referral or a job at this stage. Focus on learning about their perspective.
In addition to the questions you prepared, ask follow-up questions to go into more detail about what they share with you.

You can find more advice on this step in the 2 Hour Job Search slides, starting on slide 34.

Many supporters will also have some questions for you. Be prepared to answer questions such as:

When will you graduate?
What do you want to do after graduation?
What are your career interests?
What do you like about software engineering?
What have you been working on?
Who else have you talked to and what have you learned?

Step 4. Follow-up to stay connected

After your conversation, send a thank you email to the person with the following:

Thank them for their time
Summarize some specific points that were valuable to you
Ask if they are open to you contacting them again in the future
Optional: Ask if they recommend any other advice or resources for you

Sometimes, the other person may offer you a referral during the conversation itself! In that case, you should follow up on that in your email. They may ask you to send them your resume.

If the other person is open to you contacting them in the future, you can continue to send them follow-up emails at a frequency that makes sense. During your job search, monthly is a good frequency, and after that, 1-2 times per semester is a good frequency.

A good follow-up email includes:

How you are using the insights they gave you
Updates on your learning: if you learned a new skill, created a new project, or wrote a blog article, especially if it relates to their industry and interests, you should share that with them!
Requests for advice or resources on new topics

If they did not offer a referral earlier, but their organization has a role that you are interested in, a follow-up email is a good opportunity to ask if they have advice about applying to that role.

Keep in touch with supporters and, if you can, think of ways to help them. Maybe you notice an article or video on a topic they are interested in and share that with them. Some supporters are people you will stay in touch with for many more years in your professional career!

Resources

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