As an employee at a web development company, Ernesto Gluecksmann has to deal with clients everyday in order to find new projects for his company. He offered a lot of good advice about making connections and keeping them.
I don’t know about everybody else, but I am not great at reaching out to a stranger and socializing with them unless we have something in common. However, one particular advice that he gave stood out to me which made me reconsider the importance of me learning to make connections. He told us that in the future, we will have to compete with everybody else in the world that may be better at the job and even it for a fraction of a cost. That, right there, is scary. However, he also told us that we can beat other candidates by establishing relationships with the right people and that there are a ton of tools that can help make that happen. That, right there, is still scary.
Still, he gave us some tips to make it easier for people who are shy like me. He gave us the names of a bunch of networking sites that I’ve never even heard of. For example, he goes to linkedin.com to find client relations person and hang out with him then uses facebook to find a mediator who also knows the client relations person. He advised us to make profiles for networking sites (ning, youtube, facebook, flickr, twitter, meetup). Find out what events are happening and go to them. When you meet people, don’t be needy and say I need a job. Be concerned with what they want and ask them questions about themselves. It’s not about telling them I’m trying to sell a website. It’s about finding what the other person does and keeping that in the back of your mind just in case it’ll be useful later.
Honestly, I feel that it’d still be hard for me to be as social as he is, but I think it’s just a lack of experience and practice. His advice reminded me that I do need to focus more on establishing relationships with my professors because I’ll need their help in the near future writing a recommendation letter for me. He helped me to realize again that it’s more important to have tried than to have never tried at all.
Great post Christy! Thank you for sharing your personal reflection and reactions to what Ernesto shared with us in class. I realize some people are more outgoing than others but always remember that humans are social beings and we love to communicate and interact with others... never be afraid of striking up a conversation. As long as you are interesting and intersTED in things, you will always have something to talk about in order to build relationships and reach out to others.
ReplyDeleteI was not in class the day that Ernesto Gluecksmann came to speak to our class, which is a bummer. But your summary was very helpful! It's also hard for me to strike up conversations with strangers, so those tips were very handy! It was also a good reminder to try and build relationships with other students and professors.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree about the scariness of the future. So many people are already comfortable with this "social-networking" thing, but I still feel really awkward following random people and then telling people that I am following. I guess I have to (we all have to) get started and get used to socializing through the internet as soon as possible because of the future competition we face.
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