Networking to Referral Pipeline?

Hi WSO,

Last summer I networked very hard for an internship at various Big 3/ Big4 firms. Conversations seemed to go fine and I'd always ask them if they could connect me to others in their group and always followed up after. However, I wasn't able to convert any of these conversations into referrals to get an interview.

For reference, I'm a junior at a target school with a 3.7+ GPA. Admittedly my resume isn't crazy, but it's decent overall.

I've started networking again ahead of the upcoming FT recruitment cycle and was hoping for any advise or insights into how others have been able to get referrals from networking.

Comments (2)

2mo 
jlweinberg76, what's your opinion? Comment below:

Maybe you should work towards a better approach. Are you looking for referrals or are you looking to meet people in the industry you want in? The person you want to network with is going to internally ask the same question about you. Coming from a target school with a 3.7+ GPA is fantastic, and idk how you could even have a great resume being still a junior. Keep reaching out, but make the connections only right now. Give, give, give, then ask (not receive).

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2mo 

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