3. Maintaining Connections

This particular section of the email series is shorter compared the two previous sections, but it is one of the most important!

Networking is something you will constantly hear during your time in college. If this is the first you have heard of it, not to worry. It essentially means keeping in contact with people, whether they are people you just met or have already known for a while.

During your time in college, you are going to meet A LOT of people, be it classmates, counselors, or professors. It is important to note that keeping in contact with EVERYONE is not exactly what I mean. A helpful rule of thumb is keeping in touch with people you really connected with and were happy to have met and want to continue getting to know. These kinds of relationships are, more times than not, reciprocal and helpful to both of you. In my case, I met so many great advisors, counselors, and professors, and so I made it my duty to keep them up to date on my current accomplishments.

Now, say you only have a couple people you talked to during college. Not a problem! Just focus on them. You could reach out to see how they are doing. Talk about a book you read in class. Share an achievement you just had or maybe an A you got in class.

More times than not, people are busy with their own lives and sometimes just focus in on their own day-to-day lives. However, by you taking time out of your day to reach out to them and connect, it is a nice sentiment that they certainly would appreciate and reciprocate.

The key here is that you want to keep these mini updates fairly frequent. That is to say, try messaging them twice a month, or at the very least once a month. You want your connections to remember you and keep you in mind. This is important because you will eventually need to find an internship, or better yet a job, and your contacts may be very helpful in your efforts of procuring another important opportunity.