Networking is actually part of the job

Hello, this is me again. This time I am going to talk about networking in the office. Has been 5 weeks already of my internship, and as we have been advised in school, networking is very important at Citi, as at any other company.

The good thing is that Citi also knows this, so they foster networking among people in the organization. Even, for my first week, I ad already a mentor assigned. Every intern has one, so this mentor may help you to answer all the questions that you cannot ask to HR, and help you introduce to new people. She, my manager, and my teammates have been the main sources to be introduce to more people. And it started naturally, since in order to understand the projects or the landscape, it is important to meet with many people, and those people will refer you to other group, and so on an so for. Also, I reached out the people who interviewed me, and they also gave me more contacts. Now I have a list of people that I cannot find the time to schedule meetings with them. I would say that in this 5 weeks I have been successful at creating networks within the organization. Part of it has to do with my genuine interest of knowing more people and understand what they are doing. Which in the end will give me a better perspective to decide in case that a job offer comes. People have always different roles, backgrounds and experiences with the companies they work for, so networking for me is helpful for both understanding the organization and gaining future sponsors within it.  Since Citi foster this, as I said, it is relatively easy that you can meet with senior people, and in the end, those are the people who can give you a better advice. Another piece that has been critical, is come prepare to those networking meetings. It is like the process that OCD gave us for recruiting. First send a short e mail explaining who are you and you motives, schedule a meeting. And come prepare for it. Understanding your objectives and of course, have clear and smart questions. That is the way  they automatically will say. “You should meet x” so there you go, you have another contact. Ok, that’ it for now. I’ll keep you posted.