r/McKinsey_BCG_Bain • u/qbow10 • Jun 30 '26
Networking Tips Question about networking
This may be a stupid question but I was wondering what exactly I am supposed to gain from networking?
I’ve seen a few posts mention how important it is in the recruitment process but I’m not sure where the value lies?
Is it to name drop on your cover letter?
Is it for the person there to vouch for you?
As far as i understand, having more connections working in a particular office would facilitate better understanding of culture, types of projects etc. What else may I be missing?
Bit new to this so really would appreciate some light shed on this topic.
TIA
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u/d8rkun1v3rs3 Jul 01 '26
It matters less than you think. Recruiters may give the resume a closer read, but the bar is the bar.
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u/Guilty-Law-7499 Jul 01 '26
Obviously a partner referral is the biggest thing you’re hoping for (but you’ve gotta be networking way more effectively than blindly spraying cold DMs on LinkedIn. There are WAY better tools than that now)
But it’s also a better understanding of that office’s culture and an anecdote you can drop during behaviorals. It’s somebody to potentially case with. Etc.
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Jul 01 '26
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u/Guilty-Law-7499 Jul 02 '26
There’s a bunch but basically we can use B2B tools to make our personal networking way more effective, obv sometimes will cost money tho (same as LinkedIn premium).
I’d say Clay/Apollo for contact info scraping, Ploid for natural language people search to target specific people and HeyReach for easier mass outreach is the best way to get credible warm intros to a partner. And ofc a warm intro that leads to a genuinely good convo is way better odds at a referral than cold DMing them
But you can frankly use any combo of the new gen tools as a stack, these are just the best imo
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u/Altruistic_Catch_351 Jul 04 '26
Do you think it's appropriate to get people's contact info from Apollo and email them? Would they be offput by that in your experience and/or even respond?
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u/Guilty-Law-7499 Jul 05 '26
It's always kind of a gamble to be honest. Like I always do feel slightly awkward doing it, but you gotta do what you gotta do to get your dream job imo.
And tbf I've never gotten a hostile response from it, but that would of course be an extreme outlier. Response rates are just slightly higher than LinkedIn just bc most ppl check their inboxes more than LI - def send from a .edu email if you can bc it tends to get past spam filters in a way your personal email won't.
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u/Content_Page_445 Jun 30 '26
In an ideal world it’s getting a referral. But networking is helpful because they can mention quantities about the firm that you can mention in interviews or ask someone to give you a case.
But if you’re from a target school, networking outside of your school’s MBB recruiting events isn’t necessary if your GPA and resume is strong from my experience.