Iris Patton

Broader networking goals, such as seeking to mentor and strengthen a community, organically provide opportunities to achieve immediate career goals. For instance, building trust/community across multiple departments in one's organization might lead to resources and support for future projects. This further reemphasizes the necessity of viewing networking as more than just a tool to reach a goal, but a symbiotic map of relationships between human beings.

Students might need help breaking down their broader goals into an actionable plan, so I enjoyed the module's suggestion of creating a mind map of people in your network and arranging them according to… >>>

For me, building social "capital" has always taken conscious effort. I enjoy connecting with others, but there is a substantial amount of planning and execution required to maintain strong ties, reawaken dormant ties, and maintain connection with weaker ties. While most of the material from this module consists of new language to describe familiar ideas, I do have to pause and reflect: networking is viewed in the career services world as a tool to be leveraged, when in actuality, it should be thought of as a set of values. If a person shows their network that they value them intrinsically… >>>