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From Day to Night: Makeup for Networking Events
One thing I hate is lugging makeup with me back and forth to work. I keep some cosmetics at work (mostly lip balms and lotions), but I don’t take a full case of makeup to do touchups throughout the day. I just figure that by 5 o’clock everyone looks just as drained—and again, the culture of my work doesn’t really call for a full face of makeup throughout the day. However, whenever I have events in the evening, I always do my best to prepare so that my face looks bright-eyed and polished; especially when it’s a networking event with private attorneys. I mean, let’s be real, other legal aid…
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Turning your Internship into a Job
Let me paint a scenario of a time when I let a big opportunity slip through my fingers: The time: fall 2008, and I’m half-way into an externship with a really great agency. I turn in an assignment to my supervising attorney who reminds me that applications for summer internships at this agency are due in a week. Cue: me saying, “oh ok,” and totally missing the huge sign of my boss encouraging me to apply for a PAID summer internship. No, instead I decide to apply to a different agency that summer for an internship that does not pay me for my time (an internship I could have done during the school…
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Mastering the Business Lunch
One summer I participated in a program where I interacted with a lot of private attorneys. This resulted in a lot of business lunches, which was fun, but there were also some cringe-inducing moments. I remember one lunch where a coworker’s main focus seemed to be figuring out how many glasses of wine he could drink. This wasn’t a lunch among friends or even same-level staff, but rather with clients and supervisors! Needless to say his behavior ended up being super awkward. Now that it’s summer (though it’s constantly raining here in Chicago), there are more opportunities to step outside the office for networking lunches, and of course, if you…
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Networking Basics: How to Master a Networking Event
Late spring/summer always seems to have so many networking opportunities. Usually there are events to help students network, but a lot of professional orgs and alumni groups have get togethers around this time as well. I remember the summer before starting law school I attended my first legit networking event and was kind of confused about what to do. Thankfully, with practice it gets easier (and sometimes it’s actually fun). But when you’re first starting out as a new professional, you really have to work on managing and maintaining your professional image at these events because you never know when you’ll cross paths again. Usually when people don’t seem to…
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Networking: Why & How
I think many people feel apprehensive about networking because it can be an awkward situation. Perhaps it’s with a group you barely know; you feel weird about wanting to find leads on jobs; fearing awkward silence if you can’t think of something to talk about; or the worst– when you get iced out of a conversation when a third party joins the conversation. I can go on and on about how much I used to dislike networking. For those that don’t have a natural tact for networking it can seem overwhelming and confusing, especially when you’re still a student. As a student everyone is yelling at you to “network!” But what does…
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Getting Comfortable with Self-Promotion
I recently read this article from Harvard Business Review on networking and why it doesn’t always work for women. It seems that for women, it’s less “who you know” and more “what kind of work you produce,” when it comes to being hired/promoted. In other words, men are being given the benefit of the doubt based on potential, while women have to show measurable accomplishments. We’ve previously discussed the importance of being able to promote yourself and to eschew the ever-valued Latino custom of humilidad. And we’ll keep pushing those ideas until studies show us that the tide has changed. Until then—what can you do to showcase your accomplishments, especially…