Archive for February, 2012
Making Your Network WORK!
Monday, February 20th, 2012
An old friend stopped by my office yesterday. He is someone I hadn’t connected with in many years, but he happened to be in the building near my office for a meeting and he wanted to say hello. As two Penn State alumni, and now two employees of the university, we had a lot of things to talk about and catch up on. It was amazing to me how quickly we could pick the conversation back up as if we had just spoken a few days prior. Our interaction gave me pause for reflection. In the daily grind, it is very easy to lose contact with friends and former colleagues, as well as family and people who may at one time have been a very important part of your life. In a personal sense, this is rather sad. In a professional sense, this is simply not good maintenance of your network! You never know where opportunity may lie. Whether it is your next career, or the chance to take on something amazing in your personal life or the community around you.
In a world that’s connected virtually, reaching out, re-connecting, and making new connections has never been easier. The obstacle remains, however, that most of us have trouble juggling our demands to figure out where we could possibly squeeze in an extra 30 minutes in our week to make connecting a priority. Like anything else, you have to schedule it! Block 30 minutes a week on your calendar for connecting and networking. Whether it’s through social media, e-mail, or phone, you don’t know what could come of it until you do it. At very least, you might make someone smile by letting them know you are thinking about them or remind yourself of fun memories and the reasons you chose to connect with an individual in the first place. At Smeal, we talk frequently about our community values and the power of the network. Good networking isn’t just about making connections to further your own interests, it’s about helping others further their interests as well. In our ever changing global environment, we must help and support each other to be successful. But, ultimately, it’s up to you to make your network WORK! Make time to connect with someone today. You will be glad you did! WE ARE…
–Stacey Dorang Peeler
Tags: connect, network, Smeal MBA, social media
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Fill it up!
Friday, February 17th, 2012
If you visit the Penn State Smeal MBA Program you may notice something new in the MBA Commons. Our Career Services team has added a “tank” filled with blue and white stress balls to the decor. The balls represent the hard work of our students in their career quests. The white balls represent a first year student securing a summer internship, and the blue balls represent a second year student accepting a full time job offer. What a fun way to show pride in our student’s accomplishments! This also allows those students still working on securing offers a chance to see their classmates’ progress represented visually and gain even more motivation to be the one who drops the next ball. By May we expect to see that tank over flowing… stay tuned!
- Scott Sylves
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