To
increase my networking potential, I employed my lessons from class and reading The Start-Up of You to create a LinkedIn
profile. I noticed right away that the website would soon become a very useful
tool for me in the college years to come. By exploring the website and its
different features, I overcame most of the learning curve in about 45 minutes.
The first thing I did was complete my profile. Once I had my resume down in one
place I realized that I don’t really have much to show for my time in college
so far. I’m determined to obtain a much more impressive resume, but for the
time being I just put up mostly high school organizations and accomplishments. My
LinkedIn profile link is https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=385116670&trk=nav_responsive_tab_profile_pic.
The next step I took to improve my networking was searching for
connections on LinkedIn. I connected with old teachers, classmates, and even my
dad who is a small business owner. These people are just the beginning of my
future business network, but I know they will offer me with some of the most
valuable information. If there’s anything I learned about business people, it’s
that they can get very lucky with opportunities that launch their careers. You
never know where favorable circumstances will lie, but I’m hoping that by
taking the initiative to connect with as many people as I can first, I can
increase the odds.
Another networking activity I did was going to one of
University of Maryland’s writing centers to get advice on writing a resume. I
know that building an impressive resume is absolutely necessary in order to
create a competitive advantage to others in my field, so I wanted expert advice
on what I should do to make mine outstanding. First of all, I never even knew
where the writing center was before
this
The
most rewarding networking activity that I’ve done so far was sitting down and having
a long talk with an entrepreneur very close to me: my dad. There are a number
of reasons why I admire and look up to my dad, but one of the most obvious one
is the fact that he started his own business, Peter Kennedy Yacht Services, and
makes a living off of it. I took the time to talk to dad about his business
using the abundance of new insights I’ve gained from my BMGT289 class. He
graduated university in Ireland as an architect, but has since changed his
business plan to something that he is passionate about and challenges him every
day. It turns out my dad’s business is more international than I thought. He
buys electronic parts from Victron Energy, which is in the Netherlands but
makes most of its products in Malaysia and India. He then exports all of these
parts all over the world. Sometimes my dad will send me the address of a
package that he is shipping to somewhere particularly obscure, then the two of
us will marvel at the location when we look it up on Google Earth. He told me
his best customer is in Australia, so the stuff that was made in Asia is almost
going all the way back to where it came from.
One feat
that my dad took on years ago was making his own website. However, he recently
hired an Indian company, suntecindia.net, to take all the stuff off his old
website and put it on a new and improved website. It was a month’s worth of
work for one person, plus a bit of time for his supervisor. According to my dad
they did a great job, it all got done, and the cost for the month was $500.
All of this
new information taught me that thanks to today's technology driven society, we
are all connected on so many levels. Therefore, it's much easier for people in
the U.S. to outsource their work to places overseas for much cheaper, and a lot
of times, to a much higher caliber. Because of this it's also much harder for
people here in the U.S. to get a job here because we now have to stand out
against competitors all over the world instead of in a smaller scope. This is
why networking is so important. It allows us to form personal connections and
relationships that others can’t replicate.
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