Colleges and universities love to showcase alumni who have made it big. While these examples often inspire students, opportunities to interact with these captains of industry are typically limited. But that may not continue to be the case.
Executives are beginning to deliberately carve out time in their busy schedules to get to know current students, whether it’s through involvement in mentorship programs, teaching courses or actively participating in on-campus recruiting.
The latter is how St. John’s University student Razia Khan first met Joseph Tarantino, president and CEO of Protiviti, a global management consulting firm that she had expressed interest in.
Khan, now 22, had signed up to participate in a preliminary on-campus job interview. After finishing with one interviewer, she was told Tarantino was next.
“The CEO? I’m not prepared for this,” Khan remembers thinking. But Tarantino, it turned out, wasn’t intimidating. He kept the interview “conversational,” mentioning that he had been a student at St. John’s and asking Khan about her interests, and explaining why he thought Protiviti was a great place to work.
Two weeks later, Khan met Tarantino again, this time at a dinner Protiviti hosted for prospective employees. “I couldn’t believe he remembered me,” she says. Khan started working as a risk and compliance associate at Protiviti last July.
Borough Park resident Craig Henry met KPMG partner and board member Anthony Castellanos in a slightly different way. In his senior year at Brooklyn College, Natalia Guarin-Klein, who heads the college’s Magner Career Center, asked Henry if he was interested in a mentor.
Henry, who emigrated from Guyana when he was 18, didn’t expect that the next step would lead to KPMG’s Park Avenue offices or that Castellanos would spend hours with Henry over a number of years discussing everything from what it’s like to work for a big company to what to consider when setting the course for your future.
Henry, who’s 31, now works at the firm as an audit associate.
Michelle McDevitt, co-founder and president of Audible Treats, looks to New York University’s music business graduate program to hire what she calls “pre-vetted workers.” As a graduate of the program, she knows how hard the work can be and that making it through sets you up for success.
Dan Cobert, who interned at Audible Treats and is now a publicity and marketing assistant at the firm, says that he got a pretty good look at what working for McDevitt would be like through a course that she teaches at NYU. “The assignments were very practical,” he says.
Public relations industry veteran and founder of Flatiron Communications Peter Himler has gone out of his way to link students from Medford, Mass.-based Tufts University to the world of work for years. He has hired interns from his alma mater, created “winternships” and more.
Several years ago, when Himler was on a panel judging senior projects at Tufts, he was so impressed with one presentation that he told the student, “Look me up when you graduate. I’ll hire you.”
While that student, Caroline Starke, took Himler up on his offer when she graduated, he couldn’t bring her on board immediately. Later, however, Himler, then at public relations agency Burson-Marsteller, made good on his promise.
“I got my dream job,” says Starke.
When Himler left Burson-Marsteller for Edelman, he took Starke along, and although the two have since gone their separate ways, they stay in touch. Starke, now senior vice president at APCO Worldwide, says that connecting with Himler when she was still a student has been worth more than she could have ever anticipated.
Razia Khan echoes her sentiment. “I’m the only 22-year-old I know who can approach her CEO for anything,” she says.
Tips for making alumni connections that work
No-one is going to give you an internship, a job, or heck, even a ride across town just because you both graduated from the same college. But there is something that many, even ultra-successful, executives will grant to students and graduates of their alma maters: a few minutes of their precious time.
Here’s how to ask for it and make the most of it.
Get an introduction
Get introduced to the alumni you want to meet by your school’s career center if at all possible, says Dan Schawbel, personal branding expert and author of bestsellers “Promote Yourself” (St. Martin’s Press) and “Me 2.0” (Diversion Books, both out now.). “They can facilitate introductions for you and give you background on how to handle the relationships,” he adds. Plus there is another advantage — employers who are engaged with your college’s career center are there because they have asked to meet students.
Be subtle and polite
“Don’t ask them (the alumnus or alumna) for a job, they don’t know you. Ask for general advice about landing a job in the field or with their company. Let them offer to help you, if they want, by referring you to HR,” says Natalia Guarin-Klein, director of Magner Career Center at Brooklyn College.
If you’re calling alumni out of the blue, ”Ask for advice, not a job,” agrees Peter Himler, founder of Flatiron Communications.
And when the conversation ends, “Send a thank you and an update. Keep the conversation going,” he adds, noting that executives who take the time to lend a hand like to know what happened next.
Know your stuff
“It’s fine to be aggressive, to reach out (to an executive) directly, but do your homework first,” says Joseph Tarantino, president and CEO of Protiviti, a global management consulting firm. If you need an opening line, ask to learn more about the company and its culture, suggests Tarantino.
Know that it works both ways
“When you’re introduced to an alumnus/alumna, make sure that you find ways to give value to them instead of just handing them your resume. For example, you may know a prospective client for them that you could introduce them to, or you might want to send them a link to a research study that could help them in their role,” says Schawbel.
Don’t wait
“Don’t wait until you need a job to network. If you build a relationship with an alumnus/alumna, over time they are more likely to help you,” says Guarin-Klein.