By J.P. Mitri


It’s the old saying, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” The Career and Development Center set up a workshop at Buffalo State College to allow students to better understand how important networking actually works in today’s job market.

According to the CDC, networking is the process of making personal contacts in order to facilitate your job search.

“Networking is about building relationships and maintaining those relationships even when not job searching, because networking won’t work for you if you’re only contacting people when you’re looking for something or need something,” said Steven R. Newton, career counselor for the CDC.

A survey of more than 1,500 successful job hunters showed that 63 percent found new positions by using their networks of friends, family members and anyone else who would help. (Source: Managing Your Career)

“I didn’t realize how important it is to build relationships with people in order to get the job I want,” said a student who attended the workshop.

“Networking works best when you develop relationships over a long period of time and maintain those relationships even when you’re not needing something,” said Newton.

“Almost a third of people who do an internship end up getting a job with that company when they’re done,” said Newton.

The handouts that were passed out during the workshop as well as contact and job search information are available on the CDC Web site at www.buffalostate.edu/offices/cdc.

The handouts were helpful to the students in creating their own resumes and cover letters, choosing a career or major and graduate school resources. The handouts also defined networking and gave helpful tips on what is the right or wrong things to do in an interview.

The CDC has held many workshops this year including, “The Art of Interviewing,” “Creating Resumes for Success” and “Cover Letters that Count.” Reflecting on all of the workshops this year, Stephanie Zuckerman-Aviles, director of the CDC, said:

“The workshops have showed that the students need to prepare and plan before they go out there in to the job market. One of our best workshops was when Don Tomasulo said, ‘Don’t blame the economy, blame yourself for not getting a job’.”