Mock Informational Meeting

hi I'm Nathan Perez and welcome to video three in video one I talked about the importance and reluctance around networking in video 2 I covered each step of the 20-minute networking meeting in this video you'll see a mock 20-minute networking meeting in its entirety just for a little bit of background it features taos a soon-to-be MBA grad networking with an executive who played by me created a career path that Taos is interested in now it's important that I say that as this video is only 10 minutes long it's a truncated version of an actual meeting the good news is as we state in the book a handful of times no one meeting must last exactly 20 minutes in some cases they'll be longer in some cases they'll be shorter but without a doubt watching the following will give you a really good sense on how fluid and effective such a meeting can be enjoy hi are you are you house yes like Nathan I'm Nathan had a nice to meet you there's a restaurant down the street the whale inspired do you know it yeah it's like right around this corner maybe has like a red awning on that organic ingredients locally sourced locally sourced yeah it's a really uh my colleague just introduced it to me like a month ago I walk by it all the time it hadn't been in there oh well thank you so much for sitting down with me I want to be sensitive to your schedule so I only take about twenty minutes of your time to ask about three questions as they relate to my career development oh sure okay are you looking for a job yes but I'm not asking for one it's more about research to inform my career path and and goals which reminds me Abigail smalls who are introduced us she asked me to say hi oh oh that's right yeah have you Abbey and I work together like a long long time ago I haven't see how is she doing she's great you worked at the green initiative together right that's right she's been a mentor to me and she mentioned that that's where the two of you got your start yeah and she also thought that your career path is similar to the one I'm on and that you would be the perfect person for me to connect with oh I see okay but before we get into that I'd love to give you just a 60 second snapshot of my background for some context if that would be okay uh yeah actually that would that be great okay so I earned my BS BA from the and ice of business in Kentucky and three of the four years I had paid internships and the third year my third internship it was at the mill so let's plant across the river in New Albany Indiana yeah and I assisted Chris Souza who is a general manager there and ready in the plant for sale to a holding company which is also how I ended up getting to Minneapolis I from that experience I suspected that I really like to be in management in the corporate environment but I asked Chris his opinion and he connected me to a B so we had a video meeting yeah and then a temporary position opened up in her division so she sent me the link and I applied two interviews and I landed the role you got the job congratulations so the year before I started my MBA I was able to manage three junior interns oh wow that's that's quite a lot of experience but I have so how'd it go I loved it now I'm a hundred percent sure that I want to be a people leader in a busy operations group Cory brings me to the president two years later and my first question okay so your LinkedIn profile mentions that you worked in marketing after receiving your MBA yeah and then you had a few other experiences before becoming the general manager of a small Foods Group yeah so I'm curious as to what your path was like that led you here right you mean like like maybe like steps that he took sure were there more choices or was it by promotion mm-hmm I guess it was a little bit you know both there are a few different paths that you can take to get to a general manager position the more traditional ones are gonna be sales marketing maybe finance there's actually quite a few different ways to get there but I think the most important thing to do is is gain an expertise in all of those areas your role as a general manager is to oversee day-to-day operations essentially the entire organization so yeah how did you transition into having experience in all those different areas oh wow well that goes back to the the initiative at that at that time is going back to see if I can remember at that time the marketing division worked really closely with the sales division and there was an opportunity that popped up I apply for it I kind of like jumped all over it after that though I think I sort of realized that these things don't really kind of fall into your lap and then I try to create opportunities for myself when I went out and I started meeting a whole bunch of people both internally and externally and they got an understanding of my background they got a better idea of how I fit into things and then I got a lot more traction that way okay I see that makes sense so I should really learn how to articulate my background well oh yes no question about it have you ever it's kind of like you ever heard that you you should kind of have a different resume for each thing that you apply for and it's sort of tailored for each one of those experiences the idea is the same you want to be able to talk about your background in a way that allows them to kind of put the pieces together that you know in a way that they're not able to do just by looking at your resume okay that's very helpful did you find that that also helped with your networking as well oh no question about it I mean it definitely helped with the interviewing but if I hadn't been doing it with my networking I don't think I didn't actually be here talking to you okay well that leads me to my third question which is what is this skill that makes you so good at your work hmmm well you know I think it's a skill that all really good leaders have and that's the ability to make relationships I mean I have a I have a really good business acumen I have a lot of experience but to be honest with you if if you don't have really healthy working relationships with your colleagues there's as much value to your expertise anything else besides relationships I mentioned technical skills that's gonna be important but I think I think what all really good leaders share is is their knowledge they're constantly absorbing more and constantly educating themselves and staying on top of trends and and leadership development and what-have-you and especially in a role like a general manager position where in operations there's so much to keep track of so educating yourself informing yourself thank you that's that's great that's really all I have for now just oh do you know anyone who might be a finance professional and foods that I could talk to you mean kind of according to what your career path like what you're doing now yeah two people the first person is Jenny Trexler second person is a gentleman by the name of Sam graver but you know what I don't have any of that information with me right now but if you follow up with me after this then I can I can send it to you whatever cool so but can i maybe give you an idea who else to network with besides the people in your chosen area of course I really consider networking with your peer group I think I I sort of made that mistake coming out of my MBA program and it was a little hyper focused on meeting with executives and all the people that I thought were gonna be the best contacts and the more important people and I did myself a disservice by not not only networking with people who were just ahead of man and and getting an idea of what it was all about that make sense sure so you mean like other grads yeah other grads other people who were maybe just two years ahead of you they got two years ahead of you any experience to give you an idea of what it looks like that makes sense so someone who recently graduated would have more relevant experience for me than someone who's experienced professional and hasn't had to go through a job search in some time right right the times of change and it's different now than it wouldn't look like then and it's gonna be like that going forward and asking your contemporaries and the people who are in your peer group it'll give you that kind of insight networking with executives and prend experienced professionals like me will definitely give you career insight what your peer group will will give you the job search insight thank you so much I really appreciate it I want to be sensitive to your time so just one last thing is anything I can do to help you oh I kind of wasn't expecting that question um I can't think of anything at the moment that I would love to stay in touch absolutely that would be great okay I'd like to show my gratitude for you having taken the time to meet with me this is an article written by Johnston Brown who is VP of Marketing at vivid tech yeah he's been one of my mentors in my MBA program it's an article about the importance of relationships in the workplace and if there's any overlapping interest I'd be happy to connect the two of you I would love that thank you wonderful so I'll send you a follow-up email to get Jenny and Sam's information and at the same time I'll I'll send an introductory email to you and Johnston that's perfect thank you very much and please stay in touch if I can answer any questions just send me an email and we'll get on the phone wonderful second thank you so much Nathan this has been so helpful and I feel like I'm gonna have a lot more confidence in what I'm doing ah I'm glad to know that please stay in touch let me know what's going on if you have any questions just uh let me know okay wonderful mr. Lee you too did you get an idea of how a 20-minute networking meeting is run if you've already read the book hopefully you can now see how simple and straightforward a networking meeting can be if you haven't read the book it's a quick read not to mention chock full of real-world scenarios short stories meeting examples and dozens of tips and observations from students hiring authorities and recruiting experts to make your own 20-minute networking meeting smooth and easy as we Wine things down I'd like to offer you a closing thought remember that people in relationship building are the very foundation of networking and try to remember that reciprocity is key to building trust with others always try to give and always try to give back it's what's gonna make others remember you fondly and think of you professionally I'm Nathan Perez I wish you well in your career and the best of luck in your networking

Channel: Roy Young

Views: 14,843

Rating: 4.9087453 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: DJ_yPCmpJm0

Length: 10min 28sec (628 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 13 2018