After a few weeks away over the summer, we’re back with the latest post in the My First Steps series, which sees professionals recounting their careers journeys and the steps they took to get where they are now. Today’s piece sees a conversation between Seyran Khalili and Katie Black, King’s Internships Manager here at Careers & Employability. Today’s post is less about Katie’s career journeys than some of our other pieces, but instead features some fascinating insight on the value of networking and some practical tips on how to do it effectively from a self-confessed introvert!
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Katie Black is King’s Internships Manager here at Careers & Employability. In a fascinating conversation, we spoke about the challenges students can face in the early stages after graduation, and what resources they can use as tools to secure a job through networking, going to events and presenting themselves to potential employers.
Katie studied Law at University but realised that she wanted to pursue a career in an area that connected more with her own strengths, skills and interests. She undertook work experience in different sectors, both law and non-law related to help her figure it all out. Although she is still fairly early on in her own career, she really enjoys the work that she does and finds it very rewarding seeing students using their internship experiences to pursue a wide range of successful and fulfilling careers.
The course of our careers…
“I think particularly with people of my generation – the millennial generation – it’s becoming more and more common to do more than one role throughout the course of your career, which in my opinion makes life more varied and interesting, so students shouldn’t resign themselves to feeling like they have to pursue one career path.
Do what interests you, use King’s Careers & Employability and go to lots of events. Networking for me is something that still challenges me; I’m an introvert and always find approaching new people a bit daunting, but at the end of the day it’s just a friendly chat with another person! I’ve seen networking provide such amazing opportunities for people, so my advice would be to go to events and be confident in speaking with people you haven’t met before.”
Networking, networking and more networking – but what can I say?
Doing a bit of reading and research about the organisations you intend to talk with at events and the people you are meeting is really key, and will help you to start off a good, solid topic of conversation.
I’d also advise writing down 3 things you are hoping to get out of the networking opportunity, what you’re going to do to prepare and when you’re going to do it by. This could apply for any event, from employer presentations to careers fairs to hackathons.
1) Who do you want to speak to? Is there a specific organisation or person who you are interested in?
2) What are you going to ask them? Look at their programmes and the training opportunities they offer. What interests you about them that you want to find out more about? It’s often graduate trainees that come along to these events so you can ask them to offer their tips about the recruitment process, what their experiences have been working with the organisation, and what made them apply?
3) Try to ask questions that you couldn’t find the answer to anywhere else – that will impress them and help them to remember you. If you are interested in putting in an application to one of their graduate jobs or internships, then mentioning you’ve met ‘Joe Bloggs’ at the King’s Careers Fair who said wonderful things about the company is a meaningful and memorable thing to add.
What’s the first thing to do after a networking opportunity?
Evidence shows that taking time to ‘reflect’ on any kind of experience or interaction will help you gain more from it – the more you are mindful of what you have learnt and taken from something, the more likely you are to remember and constructively learn and develop from it. This is an important action that you can take to make the most of your lectures, an internship, a networking event, or even just a random chat with someone in a King’s corridor! I think in the same way as writing down 3 things you want to get out of the event, write down 3 things you have come away from the event having learned or done. So if you go: “Ok, I am very interested in that specific organisation … what did they say, what tips did they give me, what can I use in my application?” Write it down and record it somewhere because it WILL be useful in future. If you’ve exchanged business cards or if they have invited you to get in touch, then they want you to contact them – so do it!
I think, sometimes going to these events and asking straight up for an internship isn’t the best way to do it. You have to build-up that relationship slowly – asking brazenly for an internship might just have the opposite effect. If you have had a very positive conversation with someone and they have given you their business card saying “email me” or “we’ll go for a coffee”, that’s of course a good sign and they want you to get in touch with them. I always forget who I’ve met, what kind of conversations I’ve had so I now write it all down, just a few notes as a reminder for myself. You never know when it’ll come in handy.
From your experience, do you have any takeaway messages for students about to graduate?
It’s so hard and I completely empathise with soon-to-be graduates because I remember being so focussed on my studies, wanting to get the grades and doing the best I could, that often it becomes difficult to find the time and space to take yourself away from that and focus on the bigger picture. No matter what people would say to me I probably wouldn’t have listened, or it would have just made me worry. In hindsight, and of course it’s easier said than done, but I would say try to make the most of all the different opportunities and events on offer inside and outside of King’s, and soak up as much as you can. The more information you have – from reading, researching, events and experiential learning – the more you will help yourself to find a job and career that you love.
If you are coming to the end of your degree or if you have graduated recently you can access us for two years after you graduate and use the services that you need. I was scared to use my Careers Service because I thought they were going to shout at me for not having found a job yet, but my experience was completely the opposite – they were SO lovely and helpful, and I only wished I’d used them earlier. So use us! There are so many exciting opportunities out there and all of us have our own strengths and skills that make us unique and employable, so my final penny’s worth is not to worry – you’ll be absolutely fine.
The King’s Internships team run a variety of different internship programmes, events, and initiatives to help King’s students find internships and be successful in their applications. And the wider Careers & Employability team run a wide variety of events across the year to give you a chance to make lots of networks and new professional contacts, and ultimately gain lots of great experience and skills that will help you get a great graduate job and pursue what you want to do in your career. Keep an eye out on our events page and social media networks for more details!
Like what you read? You can see previous posts from the series, and read Seyran’s introductory post to the series.