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Building My Network

This activity aims to have students identify people in existing networks who can offer advice, guidance, or connections.

Discuss

As we discussed before, networking isn’t just about connecting with strangers; it often starts with people you already know. Let’s start to think of your interests and create your network. Think of people you know, these can be people such as family, teachers, professors/instructors, academic advisor, family friends, coaches, classmates, mentor, coworkers, and more. Think of a job or career that you think is interesting and want to learn more about. This information can help you start building your own network. These relationships can lead to opportunities like job shadows, informational interviews, and job tours.

My Network is a tool to begin to build and look at your own network. Look through the tool and pick which option is best for you.

  • Starting in the center, write in your name and a career you are interested in.
  • Now think of someone who knows about the job or career you are interested in. Write their name in the Person 1 space.
  • Fill in information about where they work, what they do, and how you can get in touch with them. This can be an email address, phone number to call or text, or another way to chat them.
  • Do any of these people know information about your career interest?
    • If yes, that’s great! They are someone you may decide you want to connect with to learn more information from.
    • If not, do they know someone like a friend, co-worker or department at their organization related to your career interest? Many employers have a variety of departments and job positions that your network may be able to connect you with. Continue to add contacts until you are able to find someone who knows about your interest.

[Note to Instructors: You are able to help students build a connection if they are struggling to find a connection with their interest. You can consider school staff or others the student may know or leverage your own professional network.]

Resource

My Network Tool

Review

Review the My Network worksheet to help students map out their network. How students complete their network may vary based on available technology, time, and skills. Students can use notebook paper or a different worksheet, if needed. Below are some options to help students complete this activity:

  1. Instructor Assisted: Instructors can help students complete the worksheet based on information the student shares or known information about the student or school environment.
  2. Guided Activity: Instructors can guide students through the worksheet starting from their interests through to finding someone they know that would know about their interests.
  3. Independent Activity: Students can independently document their interest and complete the worksheet to identify someone they know who they can discuss their interest with.

Interactive Opportunity

Have students pair up to discuss the network connections they made. Do students have a connection for the peer they are working with based on their interests? If a student was not able to find a connection in their own network, does a peer have a connection? Students can use these prompts to help them do this activity:

  • Practice introducing yourself.
  • What is your career interest?
  • What are your future goals?
  • Share if you have a connection for the other student that relates to their goal.

Give students the opportunity to share what they learned from one another. Can they see how this would help in other places or other events? Instructors, if you have network connections that may help the student, feel free to share these with students to further make the example of how to network with others.

Extending the Conversation

If you already have multiple careers in mind, consider completing multiple My Network worksheets. You can use one for each career interest you may have. You can start to note how you plan to reach out to some of your contacts and in what capacity you would like to connect with them, are you interested in an informational interview, a worksite tour, or a job shadowing experience. If you do not have a contact for a certain area, you can detail how you will network to find a contact or do an internet search for local business.