You Gotta Network To Get Work, Baby

What does it mean to “network?”

In my time at Vanderbilt, and, indeed, even before then when talking to lawyers and law students, there is probably no single word of career advice I have given more frequently, nor one that elicits as many befuddled reactions as “networking.” Even today, when talking with a student who has not yet found their ideal career path, my first question will be about their networking efforts. Why? Well, as with many critical life matters, it can best be explained by Veep, more specifically by Dan Egan:

But those of you with a working HBO Go login might ask, “isn’t Dan an awful human being whom no one should emulate, especially when looking for a job?” First, outside of Gary, aren’t they all kind of terrible people and is that not Iannucci’s point? But second, and more importantly, when we first meet Dan he is the Director of Communications for a Senator and within year or so is a key adviser for the President of the United States. Even after his stint in the White House, Dan never seems to be out of a job for very long.

One of the reasons that any discussion of networking can elicit a look akin to that which would be generated by watching a dog try to do math is that the term is so nebulous. What does it mean to “network?” In short, it just means talking to people. Be it face-to-face, over the phone, via email, or through some sort of antiquated carrier pigeon collection (though in-person contact remains the single best method), networking involves finding out about a particular job, employer, or market by those who are in a position to know.

Networking is such a critical part of any successful job search because of the simple fact that a good number, if not the vast majority of job opportunities, are never relayed to the broader public. If you are in the recruiting department at Biglaw Firm X and need a new first-year litigation associate or a sixth-year M&A attorney, you could go through standard channels such as recruiters or law schools (btw, if anyone reading this needs a couple of great first-year associates, we should talk), but it saves a significant amount of time and money to hire the person recommended by someone already at the firm.

So, how can you network? Any of my Vanderbilt students can feel free to skip this section, as you have all heard this before, but I have found that there are three levels of networking (listed from most likely to be helpful to least likely): friends and family, alums of schools from which you attended, and random acquaintances.

The best place to start networking is with your friends and family. Not only are they the ones most likely to want and help you, they are also the group of people with whom you can be the bluntest. If you have a parent, aunt, uncle, sibling, grandparent of your high school best friend who happens to be a law firm partner, or a District Attorney, or the Executive Director of a non-profit, TALK TO THEM IMMEDIATELY. Do not feel as if you need to be coy. Tell them that you want to work at their firm or in their area of the law and see what they can do for you. They may well have an open position for which you would be a perfect fit, but even if they do not, they will likely know that particular portion of the legal market extraordinarily well and be willing to vouch for you to someone who does have an opening in a way that no other networking contact will be able to do.

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No lawyers in your extended family? No need to despair as there are still a litany of strong networking options available. The next networking level is made up of the individuals with whom you share an academic connection, typically either a common law school or undergrad, and in the ideal case, both. One of the benefits of working at a school like Vanderbilt Law is that our small class size allows students to get to know each other quite well and the convivial nature carries over into their post-graduate pursuits. Alums want to help out current students because they were likely helped by an alum back in their law school days. Unlike your friends and family, these aren’t individuals with whom you can be blunt to the point of saying in your initial conversation that you want to know how they can help you get a job. Instead, you want to reach out and talk about a particular practice area or how they got to their particular part of the country. Ideally, once a rapport has been developed, you will not have to ask for a job because the alum with whom you have been networking has already offered one to you, or has put you in touch with someone at a different employer who can. At the very least, they will likely put in a good word for you with recruiting. This can be vital because of how the application review process can typically work. When an unsolicited application is sent to a legal employer, it likely will join an existing sizeable pile of applications. These applications will get reviewed, at some point, because recruiters across the legal spectrum are professionals. However, they are also humans with a finite amount of time and your unsolicited application might only get a 15-second review. However, if an attorney at said employer, with whom you have been networking, can vouch for you, then your application moves out from the unsolicited pile and into the “I will actually dedicate some time to review this” pile. Not surprisingly, the odds of garnering employment from the second pile are several times higher than from the first pile.

The final level of networking consists of random acquaintances. An attorney you met at a bar or the hiring partner you happened to sit next to on a plane, these are people who might not remember you the moment you leave their line of sight but they are also people whom, if you cultivate a relationship, can be just as fruitful as any other networking contact you might have. Not surprisingly, you will have to work harder to network with this group than with any other, but the reward could very well be as great.

Look, I get it, talking to people, including strangers, with the express or implied purpose of getting a job can feel weird. But even if you are still in law school or early in your legal career, you have likely surmised that a lot of this profession is, in fact, talking to people. And with networking, your talking can get you a job rather than arguing over the proper placement of a comma.


Nicholas Alexiou is the Director of LL.M. and Alumni Advising as well as the Associate Director of Career Services at Vanderbilt University Law School. He will, hopefully, respond to your emails at abovethelawcso@gmail.com.

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