A soon-to-graduate co-ed made a four-hour trek to suburban Chicago last week for an informational interview that she arranged through a friend of her family. Fortunately, there’s a real job at the end of this rainbow, so it was worth the trip. But the student should have tried to arrange at least one other interview during her visit to the Windy City.
I’ll contrast her trip to the recent job-exploration visit of another student who networked his way into five interviews within 24 hours. Asked how he did it, the senior said he simply tapped his network that was largely built around his active involvement in PRSSA. After landing the first interview on his own, he then was able to line up four other interviews ranging from coffee with junior staffers to informational interviews with agency recruiters. He got on the radar early during the intern search season, and he’s planning a return trip in early March to see people who those in his first round of interviews have suggested he meet.
While electronic job postings are essential starting points for any job search, there is no substitution for networking and good-old-fashioned shoe leather.