Today was (surprisingly) our first consistently rainy day, a taste of the Ireland I had been expecting for the last week and a half. It didn’t help that we had to stand in the rain for almost half an hour waiting for the bus after our site visit, but I digress.
Today we started off with a guest lecture on networking by Rob Cullen, a former member of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce. He walked us through what networking should look like as well as how it can improve our lives as a whole. You could especially see from his presentation some of the universal values of networking through his presentation, such as always being open to meeting new people. We also heard the phrase, “It’s not who you know, it’s who knows you”, which has especially stuck with me today. Rob also talked about the effects of COVID-19 on networking, some of which are positive and negative. I think that a positive aspect of the pandemic on networking was how easily you could expand your network despite being unable to meet face-to-face. You could now utilize a multitude of websites and platforms like Zoom and MS Teams to communicate with people from around the world from all different companies. I especially noticed that this opened a lot of opportunities for me, as I could still attend career fairs and talk to multiple companies in the same time frame without even leaving the comfort of my home. I have also noticed that I am able to easily set up times to meet with specific companies outside of scheduled networking events, and talk to people from other states, even if they’re just quick AMA-styled one-on-ones with recruiters. However, of course, there are always negatives to the pandemic. Rob Cullen talked about just how excited people were to get back into face-to-face networking, and told us a story about a networking event that had a turn out of over 120 people despite the room’s maximum capacity being around 80. This lack of face-to-face communication has been especially difficult for people, making them feel isolated and uninterested in the idea of networking through technological means. Two pieces of advice that our guest speaker gave especially stuck out to me that I plan on utilizing in the future. The first of these is being an introducer, and using your own sphere of influence to find people that could help others. Even though my ideas and talents may not be of use to someone I am networking with, there is a high probability that someone within my network has those specific skills the person is looking for. The second piece of advice was to be open to talking to new people and not just sticking with your group. I often find myself resorting to what I know when I am in an uncomfortable situation like a large networking event, but I see how this is holding my back from expanding my reach to other people and businesses. I will definitely carry these pieces of advice with me as I move forward in my career.
Later in the day, we visited Auxilion, an IT consulting business for other businesses to help them set up and upgrade their own technological services. Because this is a much smaller technology company in a city with the Google, Facebook, and Microsoft EU Headquarters, they have had to consistently adapt their business practices in order to compete. One of the ways I believe they’ve done this that is a bit different from companies like Google or Microsoft is outsourcing their IT services to contractors. This helps them keep costs lower than having in-house technology departments while still being able to keep up. They have also had to consistently adapt to changing technologies and stay one step ahead in order to prevent falling behind the times and getting left in the dust by competitors. They also offered food and drinks in their meeting room during the site visit, which I would say it pretty innovative, but that’s just my humble opinion.
Tomorrow is another full day of classroom time and site visits, so it’s back to work before we leave Thursday.
