Networking Became Easier When I Stopped Treating It Like Networking
Networking is one of those words that seems to follow us everywhere, especially in college and professional settings. Whether it’s a class assignment where you meet with other students for 20 minutes or reaching out to someone on LinkedIn to get a better perspective on the company you're hoping to work at, networking seems to appear everywhere.
I think our modern-day outlook has made networking look like a transaction: meet someone, ask questions, exchange contact information, and hope it leads to an opportunity. What’s missing from that is the human side of two individuals wanting to connect and learn from one another.
I would say the most lasting networking session I had really came from informal avenues. One experience that stands out happened while I was working as a tax preparer and shadowing my manager during a client meeting.
While I was waiting in the silence, I simply asked, “What did you do for a living before you retired?” and it opened a connection with that person. I got to learn how they left college due to a car accident injury and ended up working at a grocery store. After years of hard work, they worked their way up from an entry-level employee to a branch manager, a role that eventually allowed them to travel across the United States.
From then on out, with every client I worked with, I always found it really fascinating hearing their life stories, the challenges they were facing, and the advice that they always had for young individuals.
What I came to realize is that every meaningful networking conversation has two people: someone willing to share their story and someone willing to learn from it.
Sometimes it might look like an equal exchange of questions and experiences, or at other times one person takes on the role of the primary listener. There is no single right or wrong formula for building meaningful conversations. I’ve had my fair share of 20-minute phone calls to 1-hour-long meetings with professionals, and no two conversations are ever the same.
I think it’s important when going in to have a slight structure on the things you want to ask them by doing background research, but also letting conversations just flow naturally. There will always be opportunities to network, but there are fewer opportunities to genuinely connect and build lasting relationships.
It never hurts to simply be the first one to start the conversation and have a listening ear as other people share their stories of what made them into the person they are today.
That would be my advice: show up as an authentic self, stay curious, and remain open to learning from others. You never know where a conversation might lead.
About June Sirichusinwong
June Sirichusinwong is a 2026 AdaMarie Fellow whose career spans chemistry, economics, sustainability, and artificial intelligence. A graduate of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, she has explored venture capital, corporate sustainability, consulting, and AI — most recently through the Handshake AI Fellowship, where she worked to build adaptive AI models that improve accuracy across different user needs.
