Inspired by our talk of being an aid to the next generation, I recently volunteered to be a mentor to a student at Western. (That sudden whooshing sound is years flying by – it was stunning to realize that it’s been 17 years since I graduated from UWO! ACK!)
I had to smile when the student asked me (in slightly woeful tones) if she really had to join associations and schmooze as she had heard at school. Although I can remember feeling the same reluctance at that point in my career, I couldn’t honestly tell her that she can cruise through her career without becoming involved in the larger life of her profession. There are *lots* of people who do (too many), but the benefits you gain from being able to share with others who share the same perspective, challenges and context are so significant that I think you do yourself and your employer a disservice if you don’t participate.
Rob Hyndman is going to be speaking to TALL next month on Web 2.0 – I think the new technologies are fantastic, and I’m eagerly learning everything I can about them. But in the end, they are merely a new forum – a new way to transmit the impulse to share.
We need to continue to encourage that impulse, regardless of the form it takes.
Wendy
There is schmoozing, and then there is networking. I am not out there to make fake friends to hopefully finance projects (as in the film or entertainment industry). Instead, I am there to make real connections to people who are doing what I am doing, to learn from them and hopefully build some mutual support system. And that can be on a quiet, one-to-one basis. Having lunch with one colleague/friend is just as worthwhile with regard to networking as trying to work a room of 50 people at an event, or perhaps even more so.
Comment by connie — March 1, 2007 @ 10:19 am