Foreign LL.M. Absolutely Need to Network

This week we welcome guest blogger Desiree Jaeger-Fine.  

By: Desiree Jaeger-Fine

About three years ago, I wrote an article for Above the Law titled: Foreign LL.M.s need to be Master Networkers.  A lot changes in three years and so did my opinion about the necessity for foreign attorneys to network.  It became even more radical.

As a career consultant for international attorneys, I constantly have to talk about networking.  Not because it is my favorite topic, but because it is of the upmost importance for the U.S. career development of an international attorney.

Why is that?

When I came to the U.S. in 2011, I “knew” exactly two people: my roommate, to whom I had spoken on Skype for about 30 minutes, and one other person who I had met in Germany, 6 months prior, for about an hour.  How much was I able to accomplish in New York, “knowing” two people? 

In order for me to live happily in New York I had to start connecting to New York.  We only connect to a city or a country when we connect to the people living there.  I feel a strong connection to the Statue of Liberty but it is quite difficult to have a drink and a good evening with a statue.   Being connected to our new country as an expat is absolutely crucial to our well-being.  The more social interactions we have, the easier it is for us to adapt to all the newness around us.

Besides our well-being, the need for connection is also important for professional success in our new country.  To be more precise, connections are important for finding job opportunities.  I am sure that you have heard these two sentences during your LL.M. study: If you want to find a job, it is very important that you network, that you go out and meet people.  But do not do so with the expectation of finding employment.  

What now?  Let me try to explain.

Why Networking?

First of all, what is a social network?  That’s fairly simple.  According to Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler in Connected[1], a social network is a collection of people with a set of connections between them.  These connections, these ties between them, is what differentiates a network from a mere group. 

What makes a network so much more important for us than a mere group of people is that something can flow, something can be transferred, between the people through their interconnection.  If people are not connected, nothing can be transferred between them. 

The Internet, for example, is an interconnected network and what is transferred is data.  What can be transferred in social networks?  Something as bad as the flu, or as good as information.  And information is what we need as foreign LL.M.s in the U.S. 

Let’s take a look at my first days in New York again.  When I arrived in New York I desperately needed a job.  Where would I find information about job opportunities?  Through only two means: the Internet (or newspaper) and my law school. 

Here is a question:  Would my chances of finding employment have risen had I more information about opportunities?  Yes. 

Here is another question:  Would I have learned about more opportunities had I spent an additional two or three hours on indeed.com or Symplicity?  No, because the information available online does not magically multiply by me staring at it.  Once I have clicked through all the job boards, I am done for the day.

Here is the final question:  How else could I have learned about opportunities, other than through the Internet and Law School?  From others.  Let’s call it gossip.

We only get gossip if people share it with us, and they only share it with us if they know and like us. 

When we as foreigners arrive in the U.S., we face something called “network inequality.”

We are not part of any U.S. information chain, at least the majority of us.  No one knew that I was in New York, and quite frankly no one cared that I was here.  There was a flow of information, all around me, and I was left out.

When we talk about inequality, we usually talk about inequalities that arise from race or gender.  But there is another inequality, an inequality which directly affects every foreign LL.M. in their first months in the U.S.  Christakis and Fowler call it “network or positional inequality.”  “An inequality not because of who we are, but because of who we are connected with.”

Christakis and Fowler say this: 

Your chances of dying after a heart attack may depend more on whether you have friends than on whether you are black or white.  Your chances of finding a new job may have as much to do with the friends of your friends as with your skill set.

. . .

Network inequality creates and reinforces inequality of opportunity.[2]

The good news is that we can do something about this inequality as foreign LL.M.s  We can start connecting with people, start becoming part of a U.S. social network, part of a communication chain.  When people here in the U.S. tell us that we have to network they do so because they know how important it is not to be left out of the communication chain.  And this is not something that we imagine to be so.  It is a well-documented and inescapable fact.  I suggest that you read articles from Mark Granovetter who found in a survey of residents of a Massachusetts town that over 50 percent of jobs were obtained through social contacts. 

Social contacts lead to jobs.  That’s a fact and no moaning and crying will help us.    

Why not expect getting a job?

So, why on earth are we also told not to expect employment through networking?  I just said that the importance of social networks in finding jobs is inescapable, that it is a well-documented fact. 

These are two different kinds of messages.  When I say that that the importance of social networks in finding employment is inescapable, I answer the question “Why should you network?”  When I say to you not to expect employment when networking, I answer the question “How should you network?”  Why and how are two different things. 

We advise you not to expect opportunities because having this expectation will most likely affect your behavior in a way that is counterproductive when building relationships.  The how to network, I leave for another time.  This was an article on the why network.


Desiree Jaeger-Fine is principal of Jaeger-Fine Consulting, LLC, a career management firm for international attorneys in New York, and author of A Short & Happy Guide to Networking (West Academic Publishing) (forthcoming).

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[1] Nicholas A. Christakis, MD, PhD and James H. Fowler, PhD, Connected: How your friends’ friends’ friends’ affect everything you feel, think, and do.

[2] Id. at 301.