Everyone knows that when it comes to business, it can sometimes be who you know rather than what you know. But what if you have been tucked away in grad school for the past five years? Who do you know? Chances are that the professional contacts graduate students have outside of academia, regardless of discipline, are few and far between.

Mathematics for Information Technology and Complex Systems (MITACS), a federally-funded Network of Centres of Excellence that brings together academia, industry and the public sector to develop cutting edge tools vital to the knowledge-based economy, in collaboration with the School of Graduate Studies, set out to remedy this situation with their networking workshop that ran earlier this month.

As the lone humanities PhD in the room, I at first felt a bit at sea amongst the 40 other students, predominately engineering and science graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. An extremely diverse group of local and international students, research interests ranged from micro-computers for flying machines to cures for cancer. Despite our differences, though, we quickly found common ground under the tutelage of networking expert Donna Messer, president of ConnectUs Communications. Donna spent the day teaching us that it's important to recognize personal communication style, make a good first impression and build a professional network ethically through web-based resources.

The first task of the day-long workshop was to start creating a network amongst the participants in the room. Through on-the-spot introductions, Donna showed us how to make meaningful connections that went beyond the usual stating of name and occupation. Instead, we were encouraged to share our hobbies and goals with one another in order to make alliances based on shared-interest, rather than mutual job descriptions. The goal of effective networking, Donna explained, is not to simply network for yourself, but to network for everyone you know. Many employers today seek to hire the person - and the contacts that they come with - rather than just the skills listed on a resume.

At the end of the day, we worked in groups to discuss what we had learned about effective networking. Some of the key lessons we came away with were: if you don't listen, you learn nothing; be a problem solver for yourself; networking is a collaborative process; go forward despite shyness and always do your homework.

Curiosity, creativity and patience are all part of networking. You must treat everyone in your network as equal, give without expectation and always say thank you.

Navigating the non-academic job market is undeniably challenging, especially for those lacking hands-on professional experience. With better networking skills, however, any graduate student can make productive and successful business relationships.

Kathryn Allan is a PhD candidate in English & cultural studies.

Stay connected