So sad today because it is the second to last day here… but today was great. We went to Griffith College to hear Rob Cullen speak about networking and then gave presentations for the company’s we had site visits on. My group’s company is Docusign so we were able to make a presentation to fully analyze the company and make recommendations to investors.

A huge takeaway that is worth mentioning from Rob was that ‘it’s not necessarily who you know, but who knows you.’ I really believe this quote will stick with me for a long time. Some universal techniques would be understanding and adapting to open and closed groups. Rob Cullen demonstrated how to approach open groups and when to not approach closed groups. This is universally important to know in order to foster productive communication and make a good first impression.

Something I took away that was unique to Ireland wasn’t much to be honest, I feel like networking in Ireland and the US are pretty much the same. If anything, there is a larger emphasis on the ‘coffee date’ you are trying to sell at a networking event whereas in America you really are focused on selling yourself.

Two techniques I am going to try is to get out and explore different job fairs, not only the ones at Pitt. I feel like most of the tips we have learned are largely tailored to career fairs. However another tip I will use in my life is putting my name tag on the right side so when shaking hands everyone else can see as well as making sure I keep groups ‘open’ at events so people are comfortable approaching.

Overall, Rob gave us loads of knowledge and he was funny and engaging. I really believe he was the best person to talk to us because he was so personable and it was clear he is well-networked.