Students at the Eli Broad College of Business recently had the chance to practice one of the most important, and often most intimidating, career skills in a supportive, low-pressure environment.
Hosted by the Russell Palmer Career Management Center, Networking Simplified: Learn, Lunch and Let’s Practice Networking with Alumni, brought MBA and M.S. students together with a dozen Broad alumni for an interactive afternoon focused on building authentic professional connections. The event was held in the new Multicultural Center on campus.
Part workshop, part lunch-and-learn, and part mock networking session, the inaugural event paired practical instruction with real-time practice. Students heard directly from alumni about how to approach networking and then immediately applied those strategies during small-group conversations over lunch and guided practice sessions.
The goal: make networking feel less transactional and more human.
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Hosted by the Russell Palmer Career Management Center, Networking Simplified: Learn, Lunch and Let’s Practice Networking with Alumni, brought MBA and M.S. students together with a dozen Broad alumni. 
Part workshop, part lunch-and-learn, and part mock networking session, the inaugural event paired practical instruction with real-time practice. 
The goal: make networking feel less transactional and more human. Among the alumni volunteers was Mike Maglio (MBA ’14), now a Human Resources Business Partner and People Consultant at Google, who helped design and lead the day’s programming.
“I’m a coach by training, so I genuinely enjoy helping others grow,” Maglio said. “Combining my coaching expertise with my knowledge of the job search process from my time as a recruiter, I’m uniquely positioned to help students understand how to best position themselves to employers. The (Broad) MBA program gave me the skills to be in this position, so helping the program grow is important to me as a thank you.”
Maglio also shared a personal perspective that resonated with many students.
“I hope they appreciated that an introvert created and delivered a training on networking,” he said. “Networking and other social skills aren’t traits we’re born with, but skills we develop. If an introvert like me can build that skill enough to host a full day of networking, learning and practicing, then they are just as capable of becoming strong networkers.”
For Maglio, returning to campus was a full-circle moment.
“It was surreal to lead day-long skill building for the program because I still vividly remember orientation sessions from 2012 and all the feelings of inadequacy and insecurity,” he said. “A quick decade later, I’m in that position. I hope students realize how much potential they have and how alumni are extending hands to support them along that path.”
“One of the reasons I chose MSU in the first place was because of the alumni network.”-Short
The event featured Broad alumni from organizations including Deloitte, Grant Thornton, Intel, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Dun & Bradstreet, National Food Group, Automation Anywhere, Archaea Energy, and more, representing a wide range of industries and career paths.
For many students, the experience reinforced why they chose Broad in the first place.
“One of the reasons I chose MSU in the first place was because of the alumni network,” said Parker Short, a second-year MBA student studying supply chain and finance.
Abin Payyappilly, another second-year MBA student also studying supply chain and finance, said the chance to connect informally with alumni made a lasting impression.
“We want to take advantage of every opportunity that is provided to us, and this was a great opportunity where we had a lot of alumni come back and try to help us out with networking,” Payyappilly said.
During lunch, he connected with an alumnus from Intel who shared both professional advice and personal stories.
“You never really know who you’re going to connect with. This program makes me excited that one day I could come back and share my story with students.” -Payyappilly
“He was sharing about his journey through undergrad and the MBA program and all his connections at Intel — and how he ended up meeting his wife, who is also a Spartan MBA alum,” Payyappilly said. “The network continues to run so deep even years after graduation.”
The conversations also helped him reflect on his own evolving goals.
“I didn’t know I wanted to get into finance when I first started the program, and now they’re some of my favorite classes,” he said. “Especially with making these connections, it goes a long way as we get into the market and grow into our careers. You never really know who you’re going to connect with. This program makes me excited that one day I could come back and share my story with students.”
“I just got through my internship season with interviewing, and I think getting this information and growing for the next year so I can peer coach will help me be a better mentor.”-Colen
For first-year MBA student Eric Colen, the structured, hands-on format made the difference.
“It’s not that often that you get to meet with so many alumni and they take that time out to speak to us and let us learn from them,” Colen said. “I just got through my internship season with interviewing, and I think getting this information and growing for the next year so I can peer coach will help me be a better mentor.”
One conversation stood out.
“I talked with an alum from General Motors. I was an Army officer, and he actually worked on the vehicle I piloted in the Army,” Colen said. “It was so surprising to have that Spartan connection from so far away. We had never met each other, but I was using something he worked on. It was a real one-in-a-million conversation.”
While the event emphasized that it was not a recruiting opportunity, it reinforced something equally valuable: networking as a lifelong professional skill.
By combining coaching, practice, and honest alumni perspectives, Networking Simplified helped students reframe networking from something intimidating into something learnable.
As Maglio put it: “If I can give them a low-risk environment to try, fail, question, apply, and grow, then a coach can’t ask for a better development opportunity.”
