Networking
Connecting with professionals through networking allows you to learn more about careers and organizations of interest while building relationships with people who will become your colleagues and contacts as you progress in your career.
Informational interviews are an important type of networking in which you have a conversation with an individual about their professional experience. Informational interviews are common across career sectors, and many professionals see them as a way to help students, recent graduates, and those new to the field.
There are multiple pathways to find people with whom you can schedule an informational interview. Talk to your immediate network of classmates, faculty, colleagues, friends, and family about their own career paths, and ask if they know other people you could contact. Identify professionals of interest in your extended network through networking platforms like LinkedIn or HookedIn, the official UT Austin social networking platform. Make sure your profiles on these platforms reflect your experiences, skills, and career interests so professionals with whom you connect can learn more about you.
Past Workshops
Learn more about networking, informational interviews, and LinkedIn from these recent workshops:
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How to Do Informational Interviews
A guide to finding and talking to people in careers of interest to build your professional network.
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Networking Online: Developing Professional Relationships
In this interactive virtual workshop you will learn how to create, manage, and activate your network online. Graduate students will learn how to effectively identify and approach potential professional contacts. You will leave the workshop with specific strategies to immediately implement to establish a strong network of advocates.
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LinkedIn for Diverse Career Paths
As public scholarship and diverse career paths increase, LinkedIn is perhaps the strongest platform for creating a professional presence in and beyond the academy. This session presents strategies for using LinkedIn as a professional tool for job-seekers, researchers, scholars, and educators looking to keep their options open while conveying the value of advanced-degree training to a broad public.