Whenever There is a Guest Speaker, Introduce Yourself!

If you are a college student, getting involved in different organizations around campus is a great way to meet new people and make friends. Oftentimes, campus organizations that are professionally based or provide work experience will have outside professionals come in and give a speech. Time might be limited for these people on a normal basis but can pay dividends later on if you take time to introduce yourself after the speech.

Whenever there is a guest speaker who comes in and gives a talk to any organization you are apart of, take time to introduce yourself and exchange business cards with that person. This person is taking time out of his or her day to come speak with people and meeting this person face-to-face shows interest and initiative on your part. It will show this person you are interested in what he or she talked about and provides you an opportunity to speak one-on-one for a couple of minutes. This gives the guest speaker an opportunity to know you and put a name with the face when you send a follow up e-mail.

When sending that follow up e-mail, keep it short, sweet, to the point and ask if the person has any other time to speak with you for further advice on reaching your career goals. The worst this person could say is no and getting more time to speak with him/her could open up more doors in the future. Be respectful of time and politely ask if you could spare more time in the future for advice on reaching your career goals.

From a personal standpoint, this approach has helped me develop great business relationships, landed me a couple of internships and even a part-time job! Some of the people I have introduced myself to after a talk or speech have helped me with networking, reaching out to other professionals in the area and there are a couple of introductions that led to internships later on. I once introduced myself to a guest speaker after a networking meeting and a week later, that person e-mailed me an opportunity for part-time work (which I ended up getting!). Had I not taken the time to introduce myself, these possibilities never would have happened so my five minutes with these people paid dividends in the end.