I’ve been asked from multiple people on how exactly I network. Ranging from career fairs, coffee chatting, starting conversations with professionals, there has been a general formula I have been following to the point where it is pure muscle memory. Throw me into any conversation and I’ll find a way to market myself as a person. In this article, I will introduce the key details on how I have approached networking for co-op search in the 7 months. As of right now, my Fall 2026 co-op has been a result of strong networking and ready for the 2027 cycle with all referrals I have received.

Finding People

The hardest part is finding the right people to message. Normally, I scout for professionals who have had some relationship with my club organizations or university in general. However, I have had success with complete cold messaging on Linkedin towards completely random people. In general, cold messaging has around 1-5% success rate but realistically, it’s just a numbers game. About 50% of my Linkedin connections are people I have never met before and tried to get a coffee chat out of it. Having some degree of professional experience and unique stories does help boost your current status and has increased my rate of response. My cold messaging template runs like this:

Hello (name)!

My name is Matthew Shi. I am a (year) at Northeastern University, majoring in Computer Science and Media Arts with a minor in Mathematics. I recently viewed your profile and was interesting in your experience at (company name) (optional description tile). (Discuss about any personal interests in the company) (If currently in a job, discuss a little bit about how it relates) I would love to spend a few minutes to have a coffee chat with you to discuss how I could relate it in my career. Would you be open to it? Thank you so much for your time!

As of right now, I have mostly messaged professionals instead of recruiters as I personally feel getting information about certain technical aspects is more suited for engineers and tech leads.

Cold Emailing

My personal favorite method of getting coffee chats. Typically, I follow a string of links to find a person I have a large interest in to send a cold email. Cold emailing has been much more successful for me in getting responses since it arrives directly in their inbox. In some cases, some of those cold emails show interest and have landed me interviews as well. My email template is normally like this.

Good (time of day) (name)!

My name is Matthew Shi. I am a (year) at Northeastern University, majoring in Computer Science and Media Arts with a minor in Mathematics. (Describe your intention, your background, and interests in a few sentences) I would love to have a quick coffee chat with you if you are up to it. Thank you for your time!

Best regards, Matthew Shi

Career Fairs / Open Showcases

I have personally only been to the Northeastern University career fairs (skipped the professional ones out of laziness and time). However, I have had both good and bad experiences in career fairs. Within open showcases, it’s the same idea. In career fairs, you want to make yourself standout to the employers. You are one of the hundreds of people they see and you need to make an inner connection to get your name sold. As advice for career fairs, here is some general tips to keep in mind:

• Research the companies before hand, come prepared with questions
• You won’t know the exact opportunity description and the employers at the table, just be authentic!
• Know yourself and market yourself as a potential candidate - treat it like a behavioral interview
• Ask weird and unique questions that really tease their brain

Coffee Chats

This has been the key and most useful part of my networking. Ranging from current Northeastern students, alumni, professionals, and leaders, coffee chatting has been the fastest way to get information about anything. Typically, my own topics range from these few:

• What the company / organization does
• The role the participant partakes in the role
• Teamwork
• The workflow / culture of the company
• Certain project / research about the company you found interesting
• Advice for an upcoming professional

Coming in with questions helps a lot with getting the conversation flow going. Ensuring there aren’t any awkward dead silence in the conversations helps keep both parties engaged. Don’t feel nervous or ask uncomfortable questions. Really try to read the room. Remember, they are taking the time to try to help you! Most of my questions become improved as I want to dig deeper into their knowledge. Be authentic and you’ll come out after the chat knowing more than you did before.

Events

Nothing like getting thrown or throwing yourself in an event where you don’t know anybody. If that’s the case, know yourself deeply and get ready be a marketable product. I have only been to a few of these events and have been quite shy sitting in a room full of strangers who I can’t talk about general topics in. However, when I have been approached, I have found myself be able talk about my personal interests, work, and things I have been working on recently. Get ready to talk about yourself and nobody in the room is out to hunt for you. People are geniunely curious about others and want to hear your story. Just act as speaking to these people as coffee chats in a more public space!

Referrals

For me, personally, I have never found getting a referral as a top priority. While a referral is helpful to my career, I have always found myself talking about myself and my interests to be sufficient enough to keep professionals engaged enough to refer me over as a potenital candidate. I have been advised to be more aggressive and direct in

asking for referrals but I believe that referrals should be handled careful for those with strong knowledge and skills for it. What I do ask is if professionals would be willing to look over my resume when I am eventually applying to the job as I would like an engineer perspective to ensure the highest chance possible to getting the first round. Professionals are more than willing to provide advice as long as you have made great connection with them and show that you are not after the job but after the work.

Wrap up

Overall, this is my general playbook on how I network. It might not be the best method or work for you but I’ve had great success and learned a lot from professionals thorugh this. I hope this was informative and good luck on your career journey!