As you build your professional network you will need to sort it out into small subgroups. One of the first groups you should tap in to for networking, if you haven’t already, is Marist College alumni. You probably already have many shared experiences with Marist College alumni, especially if they graduated from the same school within the college or had the same major as you. Chances are you were probably a member of similar clubs or on-campus organizations, had the same professors for classes, or even lived in the same dorm building. Having these experiences in common already with Marist alumni will make it easier to start conversations and build rapport with them. Marist College alumni can give you professional development advice in many areas. They have all been in your shoes at some point and thus know the best paths to take for starting your career or other postgraduate endeavors. What is the Alumni Career Network? The Marist College Alumni Career Network is like a LinkedIn platform for Marist alumni to connect specifically with students and fellow Marist alumni. Members of the network can give and receive professional development advice on topics such as practice interviews, job or internship referrals, workplace shadowing, and more. Marist students and alumni can access the Alumni Career Network through their MyMarist account. In the Student tab, the link to search the network can be found by clicking on Student Resources and looking under the Online Services section. Alumni can browse the network by clicking on the link in the Quick Links section of the MyMarist alumni tab. The Benefits for Current Students For current students, the Alumni Career Network is a useful tool for reaching out professionals in their field who would like to offer some form of network assistance. Students can narrow down the searches for particular alumni using a variety of filters including major, occupation, industry, geographic location, and a range of graduation years. Once a query is submitted in the network, a list of alumni who meet the set criteria will be shown and the alumnus or alumna’s information, including the best way to contact them, will be listed. Each alum that registers for the network chooses as many areas of network assistance as they like. Network assistance is another filter that you can use in your query when looking up alumni in the network. If students have further questions about the Alumni Career Network, they can schedule an appointment with a career coach for Employer and Alumni Connections using their FoxQuest account. Our career coaches can help you navigate the network and find the right alumni to connect with based on your own professional goals and interests. Best Practices for Reaching Out to Marist Alumni Contacting professionals you don’t know can be intimidating. Whether you connect with Marist alumni through the Alumni Career Network or at a separate event on or off campus, the most likely form of immediate follow up communication you will use is email. Here are some tips that will make writing the initial email less daunting and will allow you to effectively convey your message. Remember to keep you emails concise and to the point. It has been discovered that the average person working in business gets around 90 emails and sends out about 40 business emails per day. If someone opens up a long email with paragraphs of block text they are going to be less inclined to read it. Also remember to keep you email structured. Think of any email you send as a really short essay. Start with an introduction that has a greeting, helps to forge a positive relationship, or as a chance to remind the person of where you last left off in your conversation. Next, in the body of your email, get to the point of why you’re reaching out. Avoid extended blocks of text by breaking this section up into either bullets or very short paragraphs if necessary. The last section is your conclusion. This wrap up differs from an essay in that instead of summarizing what you have already said, you should propose a course of action based on the information in your body paragraphs. For example, if the email was about scheduling an informational interview you should propose some possible meeting times and places that would work for you and ask the other person to do the same. Finally, before you send your email make sure that it includes all of the relevant information. It should include answers to the five W’s (who, what, where, when, why) and attachments if needed. Check that your spelling, grammar, and punctuation are all on point. Remember to read your email as if it were a public statement. Nothing is more embarrassing than having to send a second email with corrections, which will reduce your chances your message being read in the first place. Here is an example of a initial networking email that will likely get some kind of response: Dear Monica, The Benefits for Alumni Alumni of Marist College should know that they still have access to the resources offered by the Center for Career Services, including the Alumni Career Network. Registering for the Alumni Career Network is a great way to make a meaningful impact on the career paths of people who are connected to Marist College. You can update your contact and employment information in the Alumni Career Network as often as you like. Attend Alumni Networking Events The Marist College Center for Career Services and Office of Alumni Relations hosted an Alumni and Student Networking Reception on July 24 at Marist New York City. Both offices will look to hold similar events in the future. The Office of Alumni Relations hosts networking events for alumni throughout the year in cities across the country. In addition to virtually connecting with Marist College alumni, there are many alumni networking events organized by chapters and hosted in cities across the United States. A list of upcoming alumni events can be found on the Marist College Alumni Association Page. The prospect of networking might be scary, but the more you reach out to Marist alumni the more you will see just how fast your professional contacts will grow.
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