Do you skip classes for networking calls?

Many people at my school say that networking calls need to come before school and that class isn’t an excuse not to take a call. They say the only excuse is an exam. I’m at a non target for reference. I understand that bankers are very busy but as a student it is my responsibility to go to class. I am literally paying thousands of dollars and going into debt to take these classes. I have adhd so skipping a class for me is worse than a normal person. I need to go to class to do well and I’ve known that since high school. With the pace of college classes missing a day puts you way behind everyone else. Additionally even if I can’t break into IB at least having a good gpa will help me get into other jobs. Is it possible to still be able to network well without missing classes? Anyone else struggle with balancing networking and classes?

 

Facts. But if this is something you’re genuinely worried about, try scheduling calls during the front or back end of a class you don’t really care about or need to be alert for to do well. At the end of the day, nothing wrong with watching the recorded lecture afterwards

 

First off, when you share your availability for phone calls in networking emails, leave out the times you are in class. This way you avoid scheduling during class time to begin with. 

Second, your contact at a firm has the ability to land you a job/interview. Your class does not. Interpret this however you wish.   

 

Obviously know very little about you and don't want to discourage you, however, if missing one class causes you to be this concerned about your GPA it's possible finance isn't the best industry for you. As it compares to college, it's significantly more fast paced, and that seems to stress you quite a bit. Also, and not looking to be a dick here, it's sort of wild to me that you need to consult WSO for a solution to this. Almost thought this was a troll. Gotta figure stuff out for yourself, especially the little trivial things like missing a class or not. Food for thought I guess.

 

After several months of recruiting without converting, I eventually decided to stop missing class for calls/interviews/etc. It's up to you personally if you want to miss class but I always found it wasn't too difficult to schedule around it. Eventually got an offer in AM and through the whole process with the firm they made sure to respect my class times and scheduling conflicts.

 

As a banker and not a prospect I would rather you reschedule than skip class for a networking call. Analysts and associates are busy but it's not like we're on scheduled calls all day, can easily work around your 2 or 3 classes. Just say you have class and suggest a new time, there's plenty of hours in the day and we don't expect that you are free 24/7

 
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The choice isn’t “network or skip class”. You are creating a problem where none exists, you can do both. As someone in finance, I’m happy to reschedule calls if people have class, but the easiest solution is to provide availability so we can find time that works for both schedules. It really isn’t hard. 

What I don’t appreciate (which happens very rarely) when someone reaches out, asks for my availability and then comes back with something like “oh well the next 2 weeks are pretty busy because I have a big project so maybe today/now or if not in 3 weeks?”  I won’t remember about this in 3 weeks, and I’ve been in college, if you can’t find time during a week for a 30 mins call, something is wrong. 

 

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