Developing a Professional Network

Grad school provides a good opportunity for you to develop a professional network that you will be able to draw on throughout your academic and professional career. To develop your professional network, you need to attend conferences, publish papers, and make an effort to meet established researchers. One good approach when you are at a conference is to approach people whose presentations you found interesting and ask them additional questions. Any time you meet others in your field, be prepared to ask them questions about their research and to answer questions about your own work. A simple 'What are you working on?' is an excellent way to begin a conversation. Be sure to bring business cards that you can pass out to the people you meet.

Once you meet people, the next step is to continue contact through phone conversations, e-mails, and conversations in forums and networking sites. Send e-mails asking questions or sharing (nonconfidential) information about your research. You can also offer to review papers that these contacts are seeking to have published and ask them to review your own papers.

Some other ways you can expand your professional network is to:

• Volunteer on conference organization committees.
• Review new books in your field.
• Give seminars at other universities.
• Write conference and workshop papers.
• Organize a panel or a workshop at a conference.
• Tutor and mentor other graduate students and undergraduates.
• Do research projects with others in your field.

If you aren't confident in your networking abilities, remember that it is a skill you can practice and learn. Like all skills, networking will get easier the more you do it.