Want to network with big shots? Learn to speak their language

All too often I find myself being asked by my friends, “how did you get that job” or “how did you meet (insert big shot name here).” It isn’t the question that I find amusing; it’s the astonishment that seems to be associated with the inquiry. It’s almost like they’re saying, “You’re lucky you are so connected.”

The truth is that any advantage I have developed over my peers has come from simply engaging in conversations with someone a typical student wouldn’t bother interacting with. Pick the right topic, with the right person, at the right time and it’s amazing how far you can get – and if your rolling your eyes like “great I need to go searching for the right place,” don’t be fooled, these “right times” constantly surround us.

Take the other night for instance; having decided that we were tired of the campus bar scene and wanting to take a one night break from it, two friends and I decided to head to the bar at The Westin Hotel. Within minutes the three of us were completely engrossed in a conversation with the vice president of a software company in Chicago. Turns out, he happens to not only use the same financial services company my buddy is going to interview with next week, but he is familiar with top management who could easily secure the job for my friend.

With just a generic knowledge of the current state of the economy and emerging trends in marketing we were able to maintain the interest this gentleman had in us long after the shock of us being undergraduate college students wore off.

This is a great example of what I have done for years now. The key is to jockey yourself into places that foster the kind of environment and conversations crucial to your success. And once you get there, don’t stop introducing yourself and talking to everyone in the room.

Of course this comes with a caveat; you have to know what you are talking about. I can assure you this knowledge does not come from playing video games or getting drunk at the corner bar five nights a week. The key is to have a working knowledge of as many topics as you can possibly discover. Read the newspaper regularly, read business blogs, read business magazines, read the trade magazines of your choice, and talk with career professionals and business executives. Once you have this knowledge, connect the dots and formulate your own unique opinion about all of it.

After you have created your own analytical encyclopedia, share it with the world. Then get the hang of searching for and being in the right place at the right time. The continuing conversations that you will have will become right here, right now, and anytime you want.