How To Create A Professional Contacts List

In college, you are guaranteed to meet more people than you ever have before.  Between all of your classes, events, dorm parties, club meetings, work, internships and professional events, you need to keep track of all of the significant people you meet along the way.  Upon ending my junior year, I realized that I desperately need to organize my contacts after meeting so many new people.  Sure you have added everyone on Facebook, connected with professionals on LinkedIn and followed new friends on Twitter or Instagram, but you need to have all those contacts in one place for easy access.  You may not even be connected with some people on social media because they don't have Facebook or LinkedIn accounts.  You may have only talked to them via email.  Regardless, you must compile all these connections together.  You never know when you will need someone and as graduation approaches and you are looking for a job, a professional contacts spreadsheet will truly come in handy.

Here are the necessary steps for successfully creating a professional contacts spreadsheet:

1.  Go through all of your social networks.  Find Facebook friends, Twitter followers and LinkedIn connections that you think are most valuable.  Start writing names down on a sheet of paper of anyone that you would benefit from keeping in touch with for professional reasons. 

2.  Go through your email.  Search "intern" or "position" in your email or look for professionals you have previously reached out to regarding internship or job opportunities.  You may not be contacted to all of these people, but they are important to include in the spreadsheet if you had friendly conversations with them.  For example, I emailed a recruiter at Dolce & Gabbana about an internship about a year ago.  They already filled the position, but she told me to reach out again for another semester.  Although I never interviewed or fulfilled the internship, I built a friendly relationship with this recruiter and would include her on my list. 

*Your list of connections can include:

• Friends with the same major or interests (classmates)  
• Recruiters you have previously contacted 
• Internship supervisors
• Fellow interns
• Co-workers
• Professors
• Advisers
• Club and team leaders 
• People you met at professional events or conferences

3.  Now that you have your list of names, open up a new spreadsheet in Excel or Google Drive.  Create different categories to organize your contacts for easy use.  Here are the categories I recommend including (in whatever order that best suits you): 

• Full Name
• Position
• Company
• Relationship (how you know them) 
• Email
• Phone Number
• Social Media links (optional) 

4.  Next, complete your spreadsheet by filling in all of your contacts' information.  You may not have every person's email and phone number, but be sure to get at least one or the other.  If you don't have either one, you need to ask them for it.  If you cannot get an email or phone number, there is no use in including that person on your list. 

5.  Double check that you spelled each person's name right and copied email addresses and phone numbers correctly.  

6.  Alphabetize the list in ascending order by full name or company to help you easily find contacts. 

7.  Save your spreadsheet as "Professional Contacts List 2015" and be sure to update the list when necessary or every few months. 

Good luck creating your spreadsheet! Please leave a comment if you have any questions. 

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