Running Head: NETWORKING 1

Name
Institutional affiliations
Course
Instructor
Date
NETWORKING 2

Many people may have negative thoughts on networking but this may differ from a
person to the other. For me, networking may not be negative all the way. One can use
networking as a way to connect with other people, help other people or even creating strong
bonds with people through relationships. This can all be done through networking. It is not all
the time that a certain group seems to be favoring someone but the best thing is to always be
open to new ideas and new opportunities. Networking should not always be one-sided. Like,
what does networking do for you? One should also consider what they are doing for networking.
One may meet someone at an event of networking and that person may end up being in need of
your help. So for me, if someone gives an opportunity for networking, I would not hesitate to
take it. It may be an open chance to meet someone working at one of the companies one dreams
to work in or even meet someone whose friends work there. Going to events would help greatly
in expanding life possibilities and this can open great doors. Networking taken positively can
give chances and opportunities. Statistics show that about 70% -90% of people, networking has
provided opportunities for them. Generally, for me, I consider networking as a way of
connecting with new individuals from different industries and companies, gathering information
about some careers through listening to personal experiences of others and even learning about
vacancies to jobs through who one knows and who they have a close relationship with.
There are but a few aspects of networking that one may find intimidating and may need
to change with time. It is not always that networking may lead to success. One may end up
wasting resources in networking trying to meet great people for connections in companies and
other industries of interest. Instead, they may end up being exploited by those people they meet
and promise them connections. Other people on networking events may end up being choosy and
discriminating. This always happens when people have different interests and other people may
discriminate you on the basis of religion and even race. This makes one feel wasted and in the
end, they will have wasted much time in the same process. Wasting lots of time trying to get
connections and in the end, failing to get any makes one feel wasted. This is one of the things
that one may find so much intimidating on networking and end up looking down on it. Although
this does not always happen or have to be the case with networking always, these aspects can
make people reluctant and not interested in looking for chances to attend events or take place in
any networking processes.
In order to make networking enjoyable and rather less intimidating, there are things one
can do. Attending seminars and other events whose focus is not solely on networking would be
the best idea. Sometimes people feel intimidated when they have to introduce themselves to new
people or have conversations with them. Attending seminars like fundraiser even which already
has the discussion topic created makes things easier. In order to avoid feeling wasted and time
being spent on non-important things, one can decide on attending those events which they are
interested in. like those ones that reconnect with old friends and people like schoolmates. One
can also bring a friend to a networking even to avoid feeling so much lonely.
NETWORKING 3

Reference
Baldwin, R. M., Bridge, H., & Bush, M. (2018). U.S. Patent Application No. 15/708,126.