Networking
This past week at school we had what was called spring forward, which is a week-
long of events where alumni from the school come back and talk to students about how to get ourselves ready for the work place for when we graduate. We had a guest speaker named Olivia come and talk to our class about how she got to where she is career wise today. Olivia’s speech was a very interesting, the one thing that really stood out in my mind was when she mentioned how she got her current job by networking. I knew exactly what she meant by networking. She told us how when she moved to Raleigh she joined a certain type of committee, and it was there where she was able to link up with certain people who are in the same job field as her, which in return ended up with her being able to land a nice job. Now where I can relate to this is, right before I decided to get out of the military my Chief Warrant Officer pulled me into his office to have a talk with me. He started off by asking what I was doing and where I was looking to move to when I get out. I told him where I was moving back to and what I was looking to do, I told him that I was looking to get into the job field and start working. He handed me a piece of paper with 3 names on it, with the job title and contact information also. He told me “Stoney it’s not what you know, but who you know when you get out in the civilian world, these gentlemen here will be able to give you an interview and possibly a job.” I called the first 2 names on the list and they told me that they were expecting a call from, and told me that Chief Clark spoke highly of me and asked if I would be willing to come in for an interview. I did, and I was offered a job by both companies, I took the first job and worked it until I decided to come back to school. So, what I guess I’m trying to say is, out of all the things that will help college students when they do graduate, is how big their network is. The more people they know, the better chance they will have at landing a job, or being referred to someone who is looking to hire.
