Professional Networking: How to Build Your Network Before, During and After Your Master’s Degree

Networking is not about simply accumulating LinkedIn contacts or asking for help when a job opportunity appears. It is about building professional relationships based on trust, learning and reciprocity. A master’s degree can accelerate this process by bringing together students, lecturers, executives and professionals from different sectors in the same environment. However, to make the most of these opportunities, it is worth starting before the first day of class and continuing to nurture those relationships after graduation.

What Is Professional Networking and Why Does It Matter During a Master’s Degree?

Professional networking is about building and maintaining trusted professional relationships that make it possible to share knowledge, experiences, information and opportunities. It is not simply about accumulating LinkedIn contacts or meeting as many people as possible.

A valuable network is built gradually. It may include colleagues from work or university, former managers, clients, suppliers, lecturers, professionals from other industries or people with similar professional interests.

Its importance increases when you are looking to change companies, take on greater responsibilities or gain a better understanding of a particular sector. A conversation with another professional can help you discover which skills a role requires, understand how a company operates or learn about opportunities that have not yet reached the usual job search channels.

A master’s degree expands the opportunities to build these kinds of relationships because it brings together people with different backgrounds and goals over an extended period of time. A postgraduate programme, in addition to broadening your knowledge, can also introduce you to a new professional environment made up of classmates, lecturers and other profiles connected to your area of specialisation.

The value of that network does not end at graduation either. Relationships built during the academic stage can last for years and evolve as people move to new companies, take on more senior roles or launch new projects.

That is why spaces such as Student Experience & Network play an important role within the learning experience: they help extend relationships beyond the classroom and connect the academic dimension with other opportunities for professional interaction.

How Can You Network Before Starting Your Master’s Degree?

Networking can begin before your first day of class. This stage is an opportunity to define what you want to achieve through your network and prepare your professional presence so that new contacts can quickly understand who you are and where you want your career togo.

The first step is to review your professional profile. Your CV and digital profiles should present your experience, area of expertise and objectives in a clear and consistent way. This is particularly important if you want to use your master’s degree to move into a different industry or take on new responsibilities.

Working on your personal brand can help you define this positioning. It does not mean creating an artificial image, but rather identifying the experience you can contribute, the knowledge you want to develop and the areas in which you want to build professional recognition.

Before starting the programme, you can prepare your networking strategy by following these steps:

1. Define your professional goal: Think about what you want to achieve during and after your master’s degree: changing industries, moving into a new role, specialising in a particular area or broadening your career opportunities. Having a clear objective will help you identify which contacts could offer valuable new perspectives.
2. Update your digital presence: Review your LinkedIn profile in particular to ensure that it accurately reflects your experience, skills and current goals. Anyone visiting your profile should be able to quickly understand who you are and what your professional focus is.
3. Identify the people you would like to meet: This is not about creating a fixed list, but about identifying classmates, lecturers, alumni or professionals from sectors related to your interests. Prioritise people you can learn from or with whom you share common goals.
4. Prepare a brief introduction: Have a 20–30 second explanation of your background and objectives ready. For example: “I work in digital marketing and I’m starting the master’s degree to broaden my strategic perspective and move towards roles with greater responsibility.”
5. Take part in early networking opportunities: Make the most of groups, pre-programme activities or events to introduce yourself and meet your future classmates. A simple question such as “What made you choose this master’s degree?” can be enough to start a conversation.
6. Establish a follow-up routine: After an initial conversation, connect on LinkedIn or continue the conversation when there is a natural reason to do so. You could send a short message such as: “It was great meeting you. I found our conversation about the industry really interesting. Let’s stay in touch.”

It is also useful to approach your future class with curiosity rather than from a purely transactional perspective. Your classmates may come from different industries, countries and professional backgrounds. Learning about their experiences can help you identify shared interests and opportunities to gain insights from different perspectives.

Those coming from areas such as the Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and Digital Communication can apply their knowledge of communication and audiences to their own professional positioning. The same principle, however, applies to professionals in finance, technology, operations, human resources or management.

This is also where principles associated with public relations come into play: listening, communicating appropriately and building relationships that last over time. Before starting your master’s degree, the goal should not be to seek favours, but to arrive prepared to build meaningful professional relationships.

How Can You Make the Most of Networking During Your Master’s Degree?

A master’s degree brings together a wide range of opportunities to expand your professional network. Classes, group projects, activities, professional events and informal conversations all provide opportunities to understand how other people work and what they can bring to the table.

Classmates are a particularly important part of this experience. In programmes such as an MBA or a Master in Management, working together on projects allows you to observe qualities that are often difficult to assess from a professional profile alone, such as leadership, organisation, reliability, analytical thinking and the ability to perform under pressure.

This means that networking during a master’s degree starts with something simple: being a good person to work with. Keeping your commitments, listening to different perspectives, contributing your knowledge and helping solve problems all help build your reputation within the group.

It is also worth making the most of other moments:

• Before an event: check who will be attending and which topics will be discussed.
• During the activity: prioritise relevant conversations rather than trying to meet everyone.
• Afterwards: connect with the people you had meaningful conversations with.
• During group projects: work with people from different professional backgrounds.
• With lecturers: ask questions related to their experience and areas of expertise.
• In extracurricular activities: take part in initiatives that allow you to meet students from other programmes.

The quality of conversations is usually more important than the quantity. A specific question about a project, an industry shift or a professional experience can lead to a far more valuable exchange than a generic introduction.

Events with companies also provide opportunities to understand which profiles organisations are looking for. This is where employer branding comes into play, as companies work to position themselves as attractive places to build a career.

In specialised programmes, networking can also help connect technical knowledge with other business profiles. A student on the Master in Business Analytics & AI, for example, may connect with professionals from marketing, finance, consulting or operations. These relationships can help broaden their understanding of how data is used across different areas of a business.

One simple practice is to keep a personal record of your most relevant contacts. There is no need to create a complex database. It is enough to note who the person is, where you met them, what interests you share and when it might make sense to get back in touch.

How Can You Maintain Your Professional Network After Your Master’s Degree?

One of the most challenging parts of networking begins precisely when the master’s degree ends. Weekly classes stop, and conversations no longer happen as naturally or spontaneously. Without some continuity, many relationships can gradually fade.

Maintaining a network does not mean constantly messaging every contact. It is about keeping meaningful relationships active.

A practical way to organise your follow-up is to approach it in stages:

1. During the first few weeks: connect with classmates, lecturers and professionals with whom you built a meaningful relationship. If they are not yet part of your professional network, this is a good time to add them.
2. During the first few months: share useful information, congratulate contacts on career moves and take part in alumni events. You can also pick up conversations around projects or shared interests that came up during the master’s degree.
3. In the medium term: stay in touch periodically with your closest contacts and offer help when you can add value. Recommending an opportunity or introducing two professionals to each other can help strengthen the relationship.
4. In the long term: review how your network has evolved and continue building new relationships as your responsibilities, industry and professional goals change.

The most useful principle is reciprocity. If you only contact people when you are looking for a job or need an introduction, the relationship may feel transactional. Sharing information, offering support or facilitating useful connections helps create a more balanced relationship.

Not every contact requires the same level of frequency. With some people, it may feel natural to speak every few weeks, while with others, once or twice a year may be enough. What matters is having a genuine reason to reconnect.

Professional content can also help you stay visible. Publishing a reflection on your industry, commenting on a study or sharing a project allows others to see how your experience is evolving. In this way, your personal brand continues to develop beyond the academic stage.

The network you build during your master’s degree may become even more valuable over time. A classmate who currently works in a technical role may become a department head a few years later. Someone else may start a company, move into a different industry or relocate to another country. Networking should therefore be approached from a long-term perspective.

What Types of Networking Are There and Which One Is Right for You?

Not all professional relationships serve the same purpose. Herminia Ibarra and Mark Hunter proposed a classification in the Harvard Business Review that distinguishes between operational, personal and strategic networking.

Operational networking is related to the people you need in order to perform your current role effectively. This includes colleagues, managers, collaborators, suppliers and other professionals directly involved in your projects.

During a master’s degree, this type of networking develops naturally through group work. Coordinating deadlines, sharing responsibilities and solving problems with classmates helps build relationships similar to those formed in a professional environment.

Personal networking expands your network beyond your immediate environment. It may include professionals from other companies, former colleagues, associations, specialist communities or contacts who can offer new perspectives on your career.

This type of networking is particularly useful if you want to change industries, explore different roles or learn from other professional experiences. Events, alumni communities and industry meet-ups can all help you develop it.

Finally, strategic networking connects professionals with people who can provide a broader perspective on the business and the industry. This may include executives, specialists from other areas, entrepreneurs or professionals involved in decisions and projects different from your own.

There is no need to choose just one type. A balanced professional network combines all three:

• Operational
• Personal
• Strategic

What Mistakes Should You Avoid When Professional Networking?

The most common mistake is treating networking as an immediate search for opportunities. Contacting someone only to ask for a job, recommendation or introduction when there is no prior relationship can have the opposite effect to the one intended.

Another common issue is prioritising quantity over quality. Having thousands of digital contacts offers little value if there is no real relationship with them. A smaller network made up of people who know your work can be far more useful.

Some of the main mistakes to avoid include:

• Only getting in touch when you need something
• Sending generic messages
• Talking only about yourself
• Neglecting your digital profile
• Limiting your network to your own industry or company
• Focusing only on senior executives
• Failing to follow up
• Forcing an artificial level of contact

It is also advisable to avoid taking an overly calculated approach to professional relationships. Networking works best when there is genuine interest in learning about other people’s experiences and when both sides can gain some form of value, even if that value is not immediate.

A master’s degree provides a particularly suitable environment for developing this approach because it allows you to get to know people over an extended period and see how they work. Trust is built through shared experiences, not simply by exchanging contact details.

That is why a professional networking strategy can begin before starting your master’s degree, become more active during the programme and continue throughout your career. Preparing your professional presence, participating actively, maintaining relationships and contributing value to your network can turn contacts into a valuable resource for learning, identifying opportunities and progressing towards positions with greater responsibility.