Professional Networking Guide
1. Deciding Who to Contact
Take time to think about the type of professional you would want to create a connection with, and how you both can benefit from the interaction. Are you currently in HR and like the field but want to learn how other organizations structure their groups? Do you want to learn about all different career avenues for I/O graduates? Think about some of the following points to start the process, and make the most of your professional contacts.
- What are your goals coming out of the program?
Promotion in current position
Seeking employment elsewhere
Consulting
Change of career path
- Identify an area of interest for you in I/O and use this to help drive your first choice contacts.
Engagement, leadership, selection, HR, training, performance, etc.
2. Tips for Cold Contacting
Use very clear and concise communication when initially reaching out to new contacts. If your emails are lengthy and it is unclear as to what you are asking of them it is unlikely you will receive replies from a cold contact. Take some time to read through the following resources for some great tips and insights to cold contacts.
1. How to Write a Cold Email
Bridges, F. (2013, August 1). How to write a cold e-mail. Retrieved October 25, 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/francesbridges/2013/08/01/how-to-write-a-cold-e-mail/#3f81912e5252
2. What We Learned From Sending 1,000 Cold Emails
Snow, S. (2014, October 7). What we learned from sending 1,000 cold emails. Retrieved October 25, 2016, from https://www.fastcompany.com/3036672/hit-the-ground-running/what-we-learned-from-sending-1000-cold-emails
3. 26 Amazing Cold Email Template to Guarantee a Response
Dragilev, D. (2016, September 20). 26 amazing cold email templates to guarantee a response. Retrieved October 25, 2016, from http://www.criminallyprolific.com/cold-email-template/#.WA9y_9IrKUl
A few key takeaways from these resources:
1. Make messages personal
2. Provide a question or clear item that the recipient can respond to with more than a yes/no
3. Do your research and explain why you are reaching out to them specifically
4. Reassure them that you will not consume a lot of time, but how they will provide you immense value
3. Including Relevant Details
- Reach out to professional contacts using your Bellevue University email account
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- Many people will be reluctant to respond to strange private emails. Having the university tie within the email will validate you being a current graduate student.
- Reassure them that you are not asking for a large time commitment, but are just looking for professional conversations and insights. The purpose is to have someone who could provide knowledge, applied experience, or expertise on various I/O topics to help bring real-world perspective to curriculum.
- Professional networking can feasibly all be done via email, but it would be nice to eventually at least speak to the contact over the phone if you end up using them for multiple assignments.
- Looking for a contact in your area would be ideal, but you are not restricted to only contacting individuals in your immediate area.
- Provide the program director contact information if they wish to follow-up about questions/concerns before committing to anything.
4. Job Title and Organization Searches
Refer back to step one and what your end goal is from the program. Take these thoughts and start your search. You could start with a dream job/company to start your research of their departments and job titles. You could take a general topic area like engagement and work back from that point: engagement consulting firms, engagement jobs, etc.
Below are some initial ideas on different avenues some students might be interested in. You do not need to be restricted to looking for ‘I/O Psychologist’. Many I/O graduates do not hold positions with this in their title, and you could even find professionals who do not hold a formal I/O degree, but are professional who could provide you with valuable insights to topics of interest.
Job title ideas:
- HR employees (HR generalist, HR specialist, HR director, HR analyst, etc.)
- Principal/associate consultant (within a firm that handles I/O related issues)
- Workplace insight analyst
- Client advisor
- Employee relations
- Labor relations
- Leadership development Trainer
- Learning management
- Executive coach
- Recruiter/ Talent acquisition specialist
- Organizational change specialist/manager/consultant
- Organizational development specialist/manager/consultant
- Talent program analyst
If you are interested in a consulting firm, doing a cursory search of I/O firms will provide you with quite a few resources with many of these being smaller businesses. Quite a few firms are small business owners and independent operations. Below are some search terms to get started; add your city to further limit the return on searches.
Consulting firm search terms:
- I/O consulting firm
- Employee engagement company
- Performance appraisal company
- Employee relations
- Talent management company
- Employee surveys
- Leadership development company
