UCL offers a series of staff development course which I attend often. Let me tell you about my experience of attending a networking course the other day, which forced me to exercise engaging with other people to establish a network point.
This networking course is using networks for our advantages, especially when we are trying to find a job. The lecturer emphasised, 'People are likely to offer a job to those who they already knew or recommended by whom they trust.' I had two occasions that were not true, but there was one definitely true. I cannot overgeneralised from n= 1 experience, extending our circle of contacts can be a key to find a job, and networking means extending the circle of our contacts.
For academic researchers, the most obvious opportunity to extend our circle of contacts is at conferences. But, we can look at our workplaces, too. What about colleagues in our department who do similar work, but not published a paper together? What about at the same university?
The lecturer recommended LinkedIn as a tool to manage our contacts. People move institutions, but we will not lose our contacts as long as we update our status. SNS, like Twitter, is useful in that way, but each medium has its own pros and cons (i.e. security). I would say to follow the general rule: use it wisely (=think twice where your messages are heading before hitting the 'send' button) and change the password regularly.
The lecturer also emphasised the use of language in networking. This is not about English. It is all about using the words/phrases/terms that our potential contacts are familiar with. Use research words when we network with academic researchers, but do not use the same language to people who are not working at academic institutions. In essence, we need to think about whom we are talking and what is the purpose of the chat.
The lecturer suggested that we could start out with small talk to find out what they are interested in. Then we can shift the conversation towards us - what we can offer, e.g. knowledge, skills, ideas, material resources or even own networks. Then, it is our thinking time. What are we, and who are we indeed? How could we introduce ourselves to those who are not academic researchers as the way we do to the academic researchers? How do we want them to remember us? Are we a good number cruncher and report writer with extensive knowledge in the subject areas? What else? How could we be useful to our potential employers?
When I was doing my PhD, it was all about research skills. I firmly believe that networking skills should be a part of doctoral training. Probably some universities might have incorporated already. During the early career researcher stage, it is good to build an academic profile with strengths, but also to think ahead what else is needed to reach the next step, either fellowship or first job. That is what networking plays the role.
But the lecturer also warned us, not to get overexcited with building our networks (sounds like an empire to me) without giving back to people in our networks. Support has to go both directions. If we cannot give them back, our contact today will not be our contact tomorrow. People are moving all the time. The lecturer recommended sending relevant information to our contacts to keep the momentum going. I will certainly take this on board.
Networking is something that we all have to think about throughout our career stage.
This networking course is using networks for our advantages, especially when we are trying to find a job. The lecturer emphasised, 'People are likely to offer a job to those who they already knew or recommended by whom they trust.' I had two occasions that were not true, but there was one definitely true. I cannot overgeneralised from n= 1 experience, extending our circle of contacts can be a key to find a job, and networking means extending the circle of our contacts.
For academic researchers, the most obvious opportunity to extend our circle of contacts is at conferences. But, we can look at our workplaces, too. What about colleagues in our department who do similar work, but not published a paper together? What about at the same university?
The lecturer recommended LinkedIn as a tool to manage our contacts. People move institutions, but we will not lose our contacts as long as we update our status. SNS, like Twitter, is useful in that way, but each medium has its own pros and cons (i.e. security). I would say to follow the general rule: use it wisely (=think twice where your messages are heading before hitting the 'send' button) and change the password regularly.
The lecturer also emphasised the use of language in networking. This is not about English. It is all about using the words/phrases/terms that our potential contacts are familiar with. Use research words when we network with academic researchers, but do not use the same language to people who are not working at academic institutions. In essence, we need to think about whom we are talking and what is the purpose of the chat.
The lecturer suggested that we could start out with small talk to find out what they are interested in. Then we can shift the conversation towards us - what we can offer, e.g. knowledge, skills, ideas, material resources or even own networks. Then, it is our thinking time. What are we, and who are we indeed? How could we introduce ourselves to those who are not academic researchers as the way we do to the academic researchers? How do we want them to remember us? Are we a good number cruncher and report writer with extensive knowledge in the subject areas? What else? How could we be useful to our potential employers?
When I was doing my PhD, it was all about research skills. I firmly believe that networking skills should be a part of doctoral training. Probably some universities might have incorporated already. During the early career researcher stage, it is good to build an academic profile with strengths, but also to think ahead what else is needed to reach the next step, either fellowship or first job. That is what networking plays the role.
But the lecturer also warned us, not to get overexcited with building our networks (sounds like an empire to me) without giving back to people in our networks. Support has to go both directions. If we cannot give them back, our contact today will not be our contact tomorrow. People are moving all the time. The lecturer recommended sending relevant information to our contacts to keep the momentum going. I will certainly take this on board.
Networking is something that we all have to think about throughout our career stage.
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