What College Doesn’t Teach You About Building a Network — from linkedin.com by Jeff Sellingo
Excerpt:
Here’s what I told the students in Boston about starting their network. It’s advice that might be useful for any of us trying to build or expand our network throughout life.
From DSC:
I appreciated reading Jeff’s article out on LinkedIn; a solid topic, for sure.
These days, I try to share with students taking my Foundations of Information Technology Course that I had the wrong view of networking in college and for many years after that. I thought networking was manipulative and self-serving.
I tell the students that I was wrong to view networking that way. I now see networking very differently. I view it as an opportunity to learn with — and from — others, to share information with others, to contribute to others, to help others and to be helped by them as well. It’s a multi-directional street. It’s also invaluable in finding a new job. The saying that “it’s not always what you know but who you know” is very true.
I strongly encourage the students to be out on LinkedIn and to begin their networking immediately (we create a LinkedIn profile as part of the class). They can start with fellow students as well as their current faculty members, family members, people from their current jobs or churches or volunteer organizations, etc. They can contribute to streams of content on LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social media as well as draw from those streams of content as well.
I have always valued other people. But I didn’t always value networking. I now value networking much more than I ever did before.