Sophomore Year

The exhilaration, challenges, and not to mention the awkwardness of your freshman year are far behind you. By now, you’ve hopefully settled on a major and are beginning to iron out a few post-graduate plans. Therefore, your sophomore year is a great time to begin to focus on specific network goals.

1. Be Polite. Set a goal to meet one new person everyday. Whether it is just saying hello or taking time to strike up a conversation, you will organically build your network, as well as, work on your people skills.

2. Be Active. Get involved with clubs and organizations that are specifically aligned with your major. By obtaining memberships to professional organizations, you can ultimately give yourself a boost in attaining future goals.

3. Be Proactive. "There is absolutely, positively no better strategy to figure out what career or careers you might want to pursue, and then break into that field, than talking to people who have done it themselves." -- Lindsey Pollak, author of Getting from College to Career. Meet with professors, mentors, potential employers, and other professionals. They have a wealth of knowledge about their specific fields and have ample contacts that could be assets to your network. They can also help you find an internship, which could potentially parlay into a post-graduate job.