Networking for the Win

These young alumni didn’t blindly toss résumés into a Jobs.com void—they made person-to-person contacts, and it paid off. As Kieran DiEmidio, who worked with Career Services director Jennifer Duncan on the way to landing a job, puts it: “The number-one rule is to never settle for sending in your résumé through a website. Always find a real-life human being to contact.” Here’s how she and two others made their successful approaches.

Kayuse Briggs

BA ’02, Life Member

Inside Sales Representative, Dell Inc.

Kayuse landed his last three jobs through personal contacts. He suggests reaching out to people, even friends of friends, at a dream company by phone first. If that doesn’t work, he says, ask them out for lunch or dinner. Talk about your goals, ask if they know anyone hiring, and share your résumé so they can pass it along. For his current position in Dell’s Health Care Life Sciences Division, Kayuse got in touch with his friends at the company and asked if they knew of any openings, especially in this interesting division. They asked for his résumé, shared it with the hiring manager, and assured their colleagues that Kayuse would make a good fit within the company. “I definitely believe in the power of networking,” he says.

Kieran DiEmidio

BS ’10

Event Coordinator, New York University Law School

Using LinkedIn on her first post-graduation job hunt, Kieran joined the “Texas Exes” group, giving her access to a list of UT alums. When she found a job that looked interesting at a company like Apple, she would then search on LinkedIn to see if any Texas Exes worked there. Even if they were in a different department, she would shoot them a little message introducing herself and asking if they knew anyone to whom she could send her résumé. This method got her at least two interviews. But the job she landed came, Kieran says, from “sheer brute force.” Scanning for work in New York City, she spotted the job posting on the NYU website and found a person to call and e-mail. “I flat-out told him that I would be great for the position and explained why,” she says. It worked.

Prashanth Magadi

BA ’10

Business Analyst, Deloitte Consulting

As a liberal arts student rather than a business major, Prashanth took advantage of friends and acquaintances — and their networks — to get a foot in the business world. As he sought an internship at Goldman Sachs, an older friend in the Tejas Club gave him a contact in the investment bank; he parlayed one name into several and landed a summer position. That experience helped when he sought a full-time gig with Deloitte. He started by asking friends already working in consulting to give him practice case interviews and advice about what kinds of mental math and other topics on which to focus. They also gave him insight into Deloitte. Managers asked one friend within the company about him. “I’m not sure it affected the hiring decision, but I know it didn’t hurt to have him say, ‘He’s a smart kid,’” Prashanth says. “With consulting jobs, fit is a huge part of the hiring process, because they know everyone they are interviewing is probably smart enough to do the work — it’s whether they would want to be stranded overnight in an airport with them, and whether they’d be personable enough to deal with clients.”