Throughout my four years at Temple I’ve accumulated a few hundred business cards, and most anyone that knows me has seen, borrowed, or utilized my binder stash collection. Collecting business cards must be done with tact. When you meet someone, you can’t just walk up and request their business card. You need to give them a reason to want you to have their business card. Begin my building some type of relationship. Introduce yourself and let them know if you are interested in something they are offering - a job, a product, a contact, a mentor, a friend. Ask about them - their position, location, experience, history, alma mater - anything to get them talking and build conversation around. Be sure that when you finally ask for the business card, let them know why you are asking for it, whether it be to follow up about an interview or to involve them in a speaker presentation for the organization you’re an officer of. After you leave the interaction, write down on the back of the card the date, time, and place that you met this person for later reference. Later that day, if the contact is someone valuable, email them and let them know you enjoyed the conversation you had. You may want to reference some part of the conversation to both remind them who you are and let them know you were engaged. If your relationship is stretched over a period of time, reach out to this person every once in awhile to maintain the relationship you developed. Let them know skill sets you’ve built since the last time you talked or significant activity in your professional development. And what about giving out your business cards? This is a grey, situation-by-situation topic. My recommendation is try to collect more than you give out. I think it is great to have business cards with your contact information on it, but there aren’t too many reasons a recruiter needs one. All the information they need about you is on your resume. Business cards are great for giving to colleagues and peers and to help build your brand, but it is not recommended to pass them to recruiters unless they specifically ask to see one or have one. Get some, and take them to conferences or speed networking sessions, but at job fairs don’t be too free with them. You are better off passing your resume around.
Tags: Best Practices, business cards
Jena joined the CSPD as the Assistant Director of Recruitment and Professional Development with over 4 years career services experience including a background in corporate recruiting. She is excited to work collaboratively with the Fox School students regarding career search strategies and hopes students gain some additional insight into the job search through “Opportunity Knocks”.
Kel is an undergrad majoring in Management Information Systems, graduating in 2010. He is very involved and hopes to share some of his experiences with other students. His goal is to motivate others to do their best. He believes that with a little inspiration you can get where you want to be. Through this blog, he wants to show you that opportunities are out there.