How are you supposed to "network"
I am a college freshman about to attend a quantitative trading competition. There will be multiple representatives/recruiters from top firms like Jane Street and Hudson River Trading. I get that I'm supposed to "network" with these people to help my future career but I don't know how. Am I supposed to just talk with them? Do I ask for their phone numbers or LinkedIns or something so I can reach out later? How am I supposed to reach out to them after the competition ends? What do I even talk with them about?
Literally just be a normal person. Your main goal should not be to land an internship, it should be to get them to like you. There is no shortage of talent in the market so if you want to beat other candidates, make the recruiters like you by relating to them in some way.
Having a normal conversation can go a long way. Do talk about your goals and how much you admire the firm but that should only be a small portion of what you discuss with them.
Talk with them. Ask insightful questions. Relate to them outside of the world of finance/business (sports, hobbies, etc.). Try to target alumni if possible. Obtain their contact details & send an email to follow-up, asking for a brief call or coffee chat. Have a series of interesting questions planned for that encounter. Afterwards, follow up and ask for other contacts in their firm. If all goes well, they will give you other people to talk to, and you repeat this process again.
So the strategy would be: have a genuine conversation with a rep, at the end say "is it fine if I get your email" or something along those lines, a couple days later email them for a casual meeting, have said casual meeting and try to get the contact info of other employees, repeat process to build connections, when later applying for internships (probably in 1-2 years) or jobs ask said connections for a reference, hope this gets my foot in the door and lands an interview.
Think of the goal of networking is to find unique stuff out about the firm which you can reference in interviews. That way you come off as engaged and interested as well as seeming like a normal person as you'll be talking normally without the aim of getting them to like you etc
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