Knowing the ins and outs of an industry helps you make educated decisions about whether it aligns with your interests, skills and lifestyle goals. Look for job market trends, cultural fit, valuable skills and qualifications, growth opportunities, and professional groups,
Explore industries on Vault. If you’re just beginning to explore a few specific industries, Vault is a great place to start. Vault can help you get to know over 140 industries and nearly 1,000 occupations through in-depth Industry Guides, detailed profession pages, and informative videos and blog posts. Each guide begins with a broad industry overview then delves into its background, structure, outlook, occupations, key websites and more. Not sure what industries you want to explore? This list of Vault Industry Guides (see below) can be a helpful starting point in gaining a general overview of the wide world of industries and identifying specific industries to explore.
Build a target list. Start to gather the names of organizations and people doing interesting work. You can search for employers by industry on Handshake. Similarly, you can search for social-impact organizations by issue area on Idealist. Research them with LinkedIn, Google, Vault or other resources. Then, expand your list by identifying competitors/collaborators, or check to see if there are WashU students or alumni who work/worked there. 
Follow industry news. Employers seek candidates who know about trends, conversation topics and news related to their work. Keep current by following organizations and industry news outlets on social media, reading industry headlines, subscribing to newsletters, listening to podcasts, and/or setting setting Google Alerts. This will make you more familiar with industry lexicon and help you have substantive conversations and interviews. Our Career Communities are a good way to connect with industry-related programming and opportunities.
Connect with alumni and other professionals. Alumni make great contacts for informational interviews. Use LinkedIn to follow companies, influencers and groups related to possible career paths. If you have a specific goal in mind, look at the profiles of people in your dream positions to see how they got there. Maybe their internships or first jobs will inspire your target list.   
Expand your knowledge base. As a current WashU student, you have free access to LinkedIn Learning which provides thousands of videos covering industry specific topics as well as general business, creative, and tech topics. Just type any industry or topic in the LinkedIn Learning search bar for a listing of courses available to you.