Network your way to the top

Building a network of contacts is not an optional extra for MBA students

Getting the most from your MBA isn't simply about contributing in the classroom, ploughing through the reading list or turning in a decent assignment. What you get out of it will also depend largely on how well you plug into the network of like-minded people and discover how they might be able to help you advance in your career.

Indeed, effective networking has never been more important for MBAs, says Sally Glover, career development manager at Cranfield School of Management. "Using networking to gain a range of contacts is something that is even more important in a poor economic environment. Even in a buoyant employment climate, around 30 per cent of all jobs are secured through networking."

Those who develop good skills or are naturally good at networking find more prospects, she says. "They see networking as opening doors to endless information opportunities and business possibilities."

As Julia Tyler, MBA director at London Business School (LBS), points outs, the more senior jobs often go through a series of contacts rather than an advert in the press. "Networking means understanding what's out there and knowing when to dip in and dip out. It means making sure you're connected."

Up until recently even US MBA students were poor at networking, believes Adrian Barrett at Global Enterprise, which runs a programme of networking events and offers networking training to business schools.

Until the middle of last year you could get away with being passive, Barrett says. "Students at top business schools didn't need to know how to network because they were so heavily pursued on campus. You didn't need to go and find a job – it came and found you. It was an underused muscle. But now even those at major schools are having to learn it – and learn it very quickly."

With pressing economic need and a certain reticence among British students, schools are more actively pushing networking skills and creating opportunities for the students to make contacts. At LBS, for instance, new students are contacted by a current MBA as part of the induction process and also given a second-year student mentor.

Alumni associations act as a hub for networking at business schools. Cranfield's, for instance, includes more than 9,000 people across 100 countries and offers a range of networking activities as dinners, reunions and evening lectures with prominent business speakers.

"The sheer size of our alumni network offers great advantages for MBAs and individual alumni," says Sally Glover. "It gives them access to a large number of very experienced business people, many of whom now hold senior positions in the business world."

Increasingly, students are also doing it for themselves. Dean Wallis, 30, graduated from Imperial's class of 2000 and helped set up the Thirsty Thursday club to enable his cohort to stay in regular contact.

"We decided we wanted to stay in regular touch, both for social reasons and because it's very useful to know what people are doing. I don't think networking is about getting in someone's face and giving them your business card, but about getting to know people and having a common interest in helping each other, and that usually comes out in a social context. It's fun and a great session to catch up on what people are doing. Since graduating two years ago the business environment has changed dramatically and people change jobs all the time and this gives us all a chance to catch up."

And it has already born fruit in quite substantial ways. "A number of the MBAs are now working together," says Wallis. "Indeed, when I left Imperial, I ended up setting up a business with other guys from the course, all of which stemmed from a conversation we had over a barbecue."