Quantity or Quality for Networking?
I'm a rising junior at a non-target aiming to land a SA internship next summer. I've been networking a ton over the summer and for some banks I've spoken up to 15 people over the phone. My question is, should I keep reaching out to everyone I can or slow down a bit and try to focus more on quality relationships? The more people I talk to the tougher it will be to try and meet everyone in person and keep in touch with. But at the same time I feel like it's all a numbers game and the more people you speak to, the better your odds are.
Thoughts?
Definitely quality. You've reached out enough. Now's the time to nurture those relationships.
Quantity into quality, if that makes any sense. Your goal should be to reach out to as many people as possible, then figure out which ones to continue dialogue with over time. You'll probably only 'click' with a few people, so just keep relations up with them.
This is in no way an either/or proposition. Spread your net as wide as possible and make each single one a quality interaction.
This.
In my experience, unless you make a complete fool of yourself, most people are willing to help.
Being from a non target I would suggest, nurturing the ones with people that sounded helpful and have offered advice and to meet up. While still sending some emails / linkedin requests to new potential connections. Emailing is much less demanding so it allows you to still try and get numbers while nurturing your best possible connections. Only downside is emailing usually has less results than calls obviously. Personally i don't think any non-target student can ever have enough connections.
Definitely quality first. Although at the same time if there's networking opportunities available, you should still rush to them and network often
Lol
The way I read this, are you saying you've spoken to 15 people at the same bank over the phone? If so, obviously I wouldn't discourage you from talking to people but I'd suggest you cut down and focus on a few people who either A. have the capacity to help you out in getting the internship or B. You simply get a long with and could be good to add to your long term network.
I think that networking is something that you should never stop doing. Every single person you meet has the potential to become part of your network and add value/give you the opportunity to add value to them down the road. I don't mean to make every interaction an interview, but to a certain extent it really is. Someone said it, but as you go forward and continue to reach out to people you will by default begin screening out those contacts that aren't quality. Don't force things, if you are smart and generally like able you won't have to work too hard to cultivate a lot of quality people for your network.
Yup, that's right. Good point as well. I would agree that not all 15 are quality because a couple were a bit bland and I didn't really "click" with that person. However, for some I did have that "click" and had a great conversation. So I'll listen to the general consensus in this thread and take the "quantity into quality" approach. Thanks for the help everyone.
Cast a wide net to get in front of people but really use the time with each person efficiently. You want them to leave the conversation with an impression of you (hopefully a good one).
How many strong personal connections are ideal to have at each bank going into recruiting?
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