Networking

When you start working you end up having responsibilities that you have never had before. Working after graduating college is much different than working while you are in college. When you are in college you know that school is your number one priority and work is just a side thing. When you no longer have that school to focus on you come to realize that work is all you have going for you at this time.

The number one thing in the work force is who you know. This is something people repeat to you all the time but you don’t realize the importance of it until you are actually out and working in the field. When I was in school people always told me it’s important to make connections with people and network but I never understood why. I knew it had some importance because it’s always good to know people, but not to this extent. When I work with people now, I always try to make a long lasting relationship because you never know who you may need in the future. It’s always important to treat people with respect and treat them the way that you want to be treated.

One example of this was when I went to the career fair. There were many companies that were there and talked to some students when a student came up to them. What I did is I walked around and talked to students myself instead. I asked them how they were doing, what they thought of the fair, I introduced myself and I’m sure that I left a much more lasting impression on them than other companies. Now that many companies are laying people off the companies that are hiring act as if they are doing you a favor. Many times I feel they tend to forget that they need mutual respect in order to have a good working relationship with an employee. When a company respects the employee they build a much better relationships and the employee tends to be much more productive. When I look for people to hire I try to make sure I treat them with respect and make it known that they are valuable. Many companies treat their employees like an expense but I try to make them feel like an asset to the company.

Meeting new people is very important to me right now because I am trying to create new connections. Yesterday I decided to join a gym, SPA 23, so that I can take classes and network with people. There is a very broad range of people who attend SPA 23 which will give me the opportunity to make connections with various people. You have to be creative in meeting people and I am happy that I made the decision to join the club. They have really cool classes that you can take for free such as yoga, Pilates, kickboxing etc. I am very excited!