Early this year one of my goal was to get involved in various networking groups. I just feel like the most important thing for your career up to certain point is not so much of “what you know” but it’s “who you know”. Of course with the existence of a child made this mission rather challenging.
Back in March I joined a club called CYP, or Columbus Young Professional. My goal is to find people in different areas of corporation that I might be able to connect, whether someone who works in the same company I work for, or in banking, manufacturing, etc. Not that I’m looking for a job right now; I’m very happy with where I am. You’ll never know what’s going to happen in the future and it’s always nice to have something or someone to fall back on.
Another reason for me to go to this kind of meeting is to overcome my shyness and fear to approach people. I’ve always been very introfert and shy to people I don’t know very well, and it took me a while to get to know them. I feel like it’s kind of backfiring me in terms of my career. If you always take the backseat you will never go anywhere within the corporation.
Needless to say I went to the first new member meeting in early April. The dinner took place in this fancy restaurant in downtown. I wasn’t very happy with the place because I felt like it’s too much for my budget right now. But I went anyway because I have a mission. I’ve got to be honest, I was so afraid going to that event all by myself. I watched some people who dressed up like they were going to this networking, and they have somebody with them. I decided to go anyway with the thoughts if I didn’t enjoy the meeting then I will use every excuse I could find to run away. In the back of my mind, I feel like this is my chance to learn how to approach people. You can’t learn this by the book, you just have to do it.
So they sat me on a table, there were about 100 people in the room and about 10 people per table. People were already in a conversation at the time because I was a little late. At first I didn’t know what to say, but then I asked the person next to me what she does for a living. From that it went on to how she met her husband, where she was from, her job, where she lives, etc. From the person next to me, it went on to the person accross from me. Turned out she went to Ohio State University and we graduated almost the same time with the same major. It wasn’t so bad after all despite the pricey food that costs me $15 for two pieces of tiny crabcakes appetizer. I left early because I was still breastfeeding my son at the time. I left feeling pretty proud of myself on coming to this event all by myself, was able to approach people and actually had a really good conversation. However, because there were so many people attending this networking event, it’s really hard to build a continuous relationship. Networking doesn’t just happen over one time dinner. The purpose of networking is to expand your horizon and swimming in different pool of friends. And in order to get the benefit of it, you need to build the relationship. To me, this is just the beginning and I’m looking forward to get involve in different networking venues.
Tags: networking dinner
