Abstract
Introduction
It goes without saying that networking is a really important activity. Yet students are often reluctant to engage in relationships beyond their immediate circle. They have powerful aversions to networking partly based upon fears and misconceptions about what it is: selling (it’s all about selling yourself and pitching), that it is about being an extrovert (sociable and bubbly), that they as students have nothing to offer (‘who
would want to talk to me?’), that it seems pointless (students will have stories about going to events collecting business cards and nothing ever happening). They will have a multitude of good reasons why they can’t and shouldn’t do it. The challenge is to turn round these misconceptions and show students that networking is valuable, doable and indeed enjoyable.
It goes without saying that networking is a really important activity. Yet students are often reluctant to engage in relationships beyond their immediate circle. They have powerful aversions to networking partly based upon fears and misconceptions about what it is: selling (it’s all about selling yourself and pitching), that it is about being an extrovert (sociable and bubbly), that they as students have nothing to offer (‘who
would want to talk to me?’), that it seems pointless (students will have stories about going to events collecting business cards and nothing ever happening). They will have a multitude of good reasons why they can’t and shouldn’t do it. The challenge is to turn round these misconceptions and show students that networking is valuable, doable and indeed enjoyable.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 21-25 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Experiential Entrepreneurship Exercises Journal |
| Volume | 1 |
| Issue number | SI-ETC |
| Publication status | Published - 2 Aug 2015 |