Networking. I know that as a business major, networking is one of the most crucial things to my career, but it is still kind of daunting. I am more on the introverted side, but I have no problem rolling the ball once it starts rolling, but making the ball roll is the hard part. When I entered CBA in the spring semester, I decided that I needed to work on my communication skills. Through meeting with different people through networking events, career fairs, and tabling events, I can say that I improved. Not only did I feel like I improved technically, or expressed myself better, more importantly, I was more confident. At first, I was very awkward when approaching people, since I didn’t know what I wanted to talk about. I just entered the business school, and while I was interested in majoring in supply chain and logistics, I never took a class specializing in either of the two fields. So, instead of taking it the technical route, I instead just started out by making them talk about themselves. Often, I knew little of the company, and even if I did, I don’t think I had enough expertise or experience to talk about it. So, I approached them, saying that I was a freshman, and asking about the company, the jobs that they were looking for, and if there were any opportunities for me as a freshman. While many of them were looking for sophomores and juniors, many were happy to chat about their company which gave me confidence. Thus, beginning our morning today with a talk from Rob Cullen, I was curious to see how my networking experience stood against his own advice and how networking differed between Ireland and America.
What surprised me about Irish networking, or Irish networking according to Rob Cullen, was how off-business it was. He talked about how they were very much off put by the fact that people came to networking events just to talk business, and even banned those people from their events. It wasn’t traditional networking in America, or rather, what I am used to. For example, in a career fair, as the name implies, people are looking for careers. There is not much reason to talk about things outside of business or your professional life. The networking that Rob Cullen was talking about was more about just a general networking event, but even then, it just sounded like people hanging out and talking about their hobbies and interests. Knowing American culture, people will probably be very put off about that, depending on the setting, since our culture as a whole is more direct and straightforward. “Ok, you wanted to talk about business, what about it,” rather than “hey, I wanted to talk about business, but first, lets talk about our favorite soccer teams.” While I don’t think that the matter of including talk about other interests, I think that the order in which people talk in Ireland versus America is different. Both do have an emphasis on both, but in Ireland, people talk about interests first than business later, and in America, people talk about business first than interests later. There is a friendship element universally in networking, but I find it interesting that depending on the country, people make friends and then do business rather than do business then make friends.
From Rob Cullen’s talk today about tips and tricks to networking, two key elements that I took away and want to implement into my own networking myself is following up more meaningfully and the “open” positioning. Taking a leaf out of Irish networking’s book, I should and look more into following up in a more connective manner. After meeting and connecting someone, it’s obvious to send them a message of thanks, but what beyond that? I feel like with the connections that I have, I should try making deeper connections by going out to drink coffee and chat, learning more about them personally and professionally, and overall, making more of a deeper contact than just “hey I met you at a career fair a month back.” Second is the concept of “open” positioning. Rob Cullen showed us how to find space in a conversation and not only inserting yourself properly in that space, but also making room for others. Looking back at it, I think there were a few times where I forced open “closed” spaces, and closed “open” ones. I should be more aware of my surroundings and make sure to make room for others as well.