.
If you are interested please send your resume to Bianca Nafpliotis, Career Corps Volunteer Program Coordinator at [email protected].
Stranger Danger:
Letting Go of Fear in the Name of Networking
Hello, my name is Emilie, and I hate networking.
Loathe it, in fact, if you’re looking for a more expressive word.
“Networking” is a word that makes my palms sweat. My throat gets a little raspy, as though it’s trying to get me out of a conference, event, or dinner with a spontaneous case of laryngitis. As I take a sip (or three) of water, however, this is the point when I must remind you—as this networking issue of the MSEJ so aptly does—that networking is valuable. Necessary, even, in an age when jobs are often passed through friends and acquaintances before they hit the open market.
So, what is a reluctant networker to do?
I’ll tell you what we’re going to do.
We’re going to have a networking toolkit, and we’re going to use it. We’re going to go in prepared, do what we came to do, and then leave. We’ll reconvene in our pajamas, on our couches, eating takeout and thanking our lucky stars that we were brave, that we did it (and that it’s done).
What is a networking toolkit?
When I write about toolkits for the MSEJ, often I’m talking about a metaphorical toolkit—skills that you can carry with you that don’t fit in a box beneath your bed. This time, however, at least half of the items I’m recommending are concrete objects you can hold in your hands (which will give your flustered hands something to do instead of shaking).
By: Emilie Duck
"Business Card?
Um, I'll just write my contact information on that piece of paper there."
Don't forget
the
business card.