The networking opportunities are one of the most important reasons to get an MBA. It opens the doors to a broader perspective and more opportunity. Not only are you surrounded by motivated people, but you are exposed to many different backgrounds and experiences that you can learn from and tap into just by being part of the class.
It would be a waste if you didn’t maximize your time and grow your network as much you can. Here are a few tips to getting the most out of your MBA network.
The first step at being better at networking is to realize that networking doesn’t just have to be transactional. The best networkers aren’t trying to gain something from others, they genuinely want to build relationships with them.
The first step to becoming better at networking is coming to terms with the fact that networking is not a bad thing. A lot of people think it’s slimy and taking advantage of other people, but in reality not working it’s really just about building better relationships with other people. It’s not bad to practice and it’s not bad to use tools to get better at it.
Most NBA students come from different places and backgrounds, the worst thing that you can do as an NBA student is try to shelter yourself by sticking to what you know. Try to surround yourself and go out of your way to get to know people from different countries and different industries. If you work in the tech sector, you should be surrounding yourself with people from the real estate and finance sector. If you’re from Texas you should be surround yourself with people from California and New York.
If you go out of your way to surround yourself with different people, Your network becomes more diverse and in the long run more healthy.
Don’t wait for people to introduce themselves to you. Don’t wait for somebody to start leading a group project. The best way to make sure you’re part of a group or meet a certain person is to take charge and facilitate things yourself. Facilitating it means that you’ll meet the people you want to meet.
People gravitate toward facilitators.
One of the big mistakes MBA student makes is only networking within their class. Alumni are an amazing resource because they can give you insight into the NBA program as well as insight into whatever industry or company they’re working at.
You don’t have to wait for somebody in your class to graduate and work at Google to start networking with somebody at Google, reach out to alumni that work there.
You can get the most of your NBA by leveraging the entire network.
It’s hard to keep track of all the people that you work with, leveraging a tool like a personal CRM will help you keep track of everything.
You use a calendar to remember all of your events, why not some thing for your network?
With a personal CRM you can write notes about people, remember interactions and remind yourself when to follow up.
Check out Mogul, a beautiful and easy to use personal CRM that hundreds of people use every day to level up their networking.
