{"id":32076,"date":"2017-09-27T02:23:40","date_gmt":"2017-09-27T06:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=32076"},"modified":"2017-09-27T07:47:38","modified_gmt":"2017-09-27T11:47:38","slug":"my-networking-skills-are-a-work-in-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2017\/09\/27\/my-networking-skills-are-a-work-in-progress\/","title":{"rendered":"My Networking Skills are a Work in Progress"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_32077\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-32077\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2017\/09\/IMG_2841.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-32077\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2017\/09\/IMG_2841-1024x656.jpg\" alt=\"After attending an event with the Munk School of Global Affairs at the Canadian Club of Toronto, I found out that going to a seminar about talking to people is a lot easier than actually talking to people. \" width=\"640\" height=\"410\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2017\/09\/IMG_2841-1024x656.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2017\/09\/IMG_2841-300x192.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2017\/09\/IMG_2841.jpg 1800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-32077\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">After attending an event with the Munk School of Global Affairs at the Canadian Club of Toronto, I found out that going to a seminar about talking to people is a lot easier than actually talking to people.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">My experience networking is far from extensive, unless cultivating a digital resum\u00e9 on Linkedin counts. So, I decided to attend a <a href=\"http:\/\/careers.utoronto.ca\">Career\u00a0Exploration &amp; Education<\/a>\u00a0workshop called Networking Made Easy to give me a taste of networking is about, beyond the anecdotes of my business-savvy Rotman friends. <\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The workshop I attended was one component of the <a href=\"http:\/\/alumni.artsci.utoronto.ca\/b2b\/\">Backpack to Briefcase (b2B)<\/a> program, which connects U of T students to alumni in their field. b2B's events range from seminars like the one I attended to mentorship meals, speed networking events, and industry nights (all of which I hope to attend in the future!). The program piqued my interest because it gives you a chance to learn more about potential career paths, and build relationships with mentors. If this isn\u2019t incentive in itself, b2B also offers CCR credit to participants!<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The workshop answered many questions on my mind. One of these was \u201cwhat could a student like me possibly have to offer to professionals?\u201d In response, the workshop facilitator told me that many people appreciate the opportunity to give back, and don't see students as a time drain- after all, they were once in our position. We were told to consider \u201cWhat is most meaningful about your academic, personal, and\/or professional experience(s) that you can share with others? Thinking this way helped make the idea of talking to professionals a bit easier.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">While the workshop couldn't have prepared me better, I soon found that the act of networking is a lot harder than learning about it. It was hard to put everything I learned to practice! This Tuesday, I attended an event at the Canadian Club of Toronto, where David MacNaughton, Canada\u2019s Ambassador to the United States, gave a talk about Canada-US relations. I got to attend due to my participation in the PCJ program with the <a href=\"http:\/\/munkschool.utoronto.ca\">Munk School of Global Affairs<\/a>. The atmosphere was intimidating, and I wasn\u2019t sure what I had in common with older men with developed careers. But after mustering up a bit of confidence, I had time to apply what I learned.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">While I didn\u2019t \u201cwork the room\u201d as well as I could\u2019ve, there are thankfully plenty of <a href=\"http:\/\/alumni.artsci.utoronto.ca\/b2b-events\/\">b2B-affiliated networking events<\/a> coming up soon. If you're interested in making connections to U of T alumni, or learning more about career development, make sure to check out the Career Centre's opportunities. One particularly exciting one is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tenthousandcoffees.com\/hub\/uoft-cafe?hub=uoft-cafe&amp;vip_page=universityoftoronto\">U of T\u2019s hub on Ten Thousand Coffees<\/a>, which gives students the chance to arrange a coffee chat with alumni in their field. <\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">While I\u2019m still blundering my way through the foreign and ambiguous world of networking, I hope that by the time I\u2019ve been to all the b2B events on my calendar, the whole thing will be a lot less intimidating!<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-summary\">\n<div class=\"entry-summary\">\nMy experience networking is far from extensive, unless cultivating a digital resum\u00e9 on Linkedin counts. So, I decided to attend a Career\u00a0Exploration &amp; Education\u00a0workshop called Networking Made Easy to give me a taste of networking is about, beyond the anecdotes&hellip;\n<\/div><div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2017\/09\/27\/my-networking-skills-are-a-work-in-progress\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;My Networking Skills are a Work in Progress&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div><div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2017\/09\/27\/my-networking-skills-are-a-work-in-progress\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;My Networking Skills are a Work in Progress&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":322,"featured_media":32077,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,70,69,58,67,77],"tags":[13499,23814,329,331,1650],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32076"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/322"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32076"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32089,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32076\/revisions\/32089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}