The Fine Art of Networking

The Fine Art of Networking is an important thing to perfect while you are in B school, and Wharton is no exception. Metcalfe's Law, as applied to B school, implies that the value of your degree is proportional to the square of the number of business cards in your rolodex.

For the Class 33 newbies that are starting the program next month, or the Class 32 folks that need to get yourself in gear, here's my set of suggestions for perfecting your networking skillz:

• Sign up for LinkedIn. I think about this one as continually building my LinkedIn network. It takes some time but it is well worth it. LinkedIn is like MySpace for professionals. I'm up to over 300 right now through professional and academic contacts. As a WEMBA student, you get ~90 classmates for free, so you might as well connect to as many of them as you can. One of my classmates recently went from about 25 to over 200 in about two months, which was highly positively correlated with his job search and interest in what the heck he was going to do after WEMBA.
• Join the Wharton Club in your local area. I signed up for the Wharton Club of Northern California, which has events going on at least once a week, like Speed Networking, Networking Lunches, and Happy Hours in SF or the Penninsula. Speed Networking for Entrepreneurs, where you have to give a 3 minute pitch on your company, fund, etc. It's a great way to meet other Wharton alumni that are starting businesses, funding businesses, or looking for job in an entrepreneurial company.
• Join the Churchill Club, which is a Silicon Valley business and technology club. Many of us that live in the SV have joined the club. There are often a number of renowned speakers that speak to the club.
• Join the Asian American Multi-Technology Association. One of our Asian classmates invited those of us interested in Asia-Pacific issues to join, and they often throw some good networking events. In case you think you need to be Asian to join, that's not the case. Warning: most of us are Asian though :)
• Join the Wharton career clubs of interest to you back in Philadelphia. You can find them on Spike. There's usually a nominal charge to join, but you'll get emails and messages about events of interest. I joined the VC&PE club, as well as the entrepreneurship club.
• Get some Wharton business cards. For you career changers, it's valuable to have a card with the Wharton brand on it.
• Check out the career resources on Spike at Wharton. They have a free subscription to The Vault, which has some great guides to "classic" MBA careers along with advice on salary negotiation, interview questions, etc.
• Join your alumni group. Maybe it's just me, but I've had so many jobs at public and startup companies in the Silicon Valley that there are a number of really good groups to join. You'll hear about jobs, personal updates, and events through the network, which is great. The Oracle alumni list has about 25 posts a day. wharton-west-alumni@yahoogroups.com allows WEMBA students to join, which is also a good group to join. (UPDATE: Click here to go to the WW alumni website.)
  

-Chairman P