By Michael Knight | Reporter
Throughout my time in college, I have really learned just how important it is to make connections and to network with people whenever you can. It can lead to so many great things, including a better job for you in the future from the people you connect with now.
I definitely wasn’t this way at the beginning of my college career. While taking the basic business classes and learning about resources like LinkedIn, I didn’t really pay much attention and just figured I would meet people eventually. Starting off sooner would have been a huge boost for me, especially with the major that I am a part of, Sports Strategy & Sales (S3), which values networking so much.
From guest speakers in my major, I have seen firsthand how important it is to maintain the connections you make as a college student. The other day, the guest speakers were four S3 majors who all now work together after practically starting out on opposite ends of the country. Because of their ability to stay connected to each other, they were able to move and take better job positions without hardly interviewing for it.
I have also seen many fellow S3 majors get an internship or job based on connections they made in the program. If you don’t network and get to know people, it will be very difficult to get the job that you want.
Networking is also a huge part of learning about the positions that you would one day hope to have and how you can improve in certain areas. I personally have connected with people, one in particular, who are in the career path that I am looking to have and it has benefited me greatly hearing about the day-to-day job and how I can get better.
With this past weekend being homecoming for Baylor University, it was interesting to see all the alumni come back home and reconnect with their former peers. I covered the Business School Alumni Reception event on October 11 and got to see even more about the importance of networking.
People at the event were very well-connected and were able to practically go table-to-table while knowing somebody at each one. For me, it was cool to see and really reinforced how huge that is in the business world.
One quote at the reception stuck out to me from the Director of the Baylor Business Network in Alumni Engagement Robert Ingram.
“You never know when you might need one of those connections that you made here tonight,” Ingram said.
I feel like that can apply to all of us as we go through college and into our professional career. Continue to make those connections and network at any opportunity presented to you.
