Networking

This is a picture of John Galliano, whom I would like to professionally emulate. Not only does he design for a line under his own name, he also designs for the House of Christian Dior. He is not afraid to take risks and others usually end up following him in the process. Galliano's name is known worldwide for the fresh and inspiring looks he creates as well as for simply being the fashionable man he is.

This past Thursday the Business Communication students joined together to network with business professionals working in New Orleans. 

Three of the people I met, Andrew Goodwin, Allison Plaisance, and Michelle Huck, work together for Loyola's mentor program. All three of them are accountants.  Allison and Andrew both work for Ernst & Young while Michelle works at Bourgeois Bennett. Michelle double-majored in International Business and Accounting. Andrew majored in Accounting and Allison majored in Biology. They all get to travel through their companies with most of the destinations being in central America. Collectively, the group liked Nicaragua the most.

I was very excited to meet Jan Moppert. She works here at Loyola as the Associate Director of Internships and knows all about networking. She was very welcoming and seemed interested in helping my friend John and I pursue our dreams, mine being fashion and his being acting.

I met Daphne Main, who also works here at Loyola.  She has her doctorate degree and teaches accounting here at Loyola.  I look forward to having her class in the near future.

I felt that my strongest asset at the networking event was my elevator speech.  I perfected it ahead of time and was able to come up wit something pretty interesting.  I mentioned my passion for clothes and the fashion shows I did in the past.

In the future I will be more outgoing at events. It's a little intimidating and takes some time to get used to.  However, I'm sure the more I have to network myself, the more comfortable I'll be.

Overall, it was a great learning experience and I'm glad I had to opportunity to meet the people I did and work on my networking skills and etiquette. 

When researching networking I found a useful site called Take Away the Worry with a page all about ways to network yourself in the current times. Some tips they give are to use the web, start your own club and join clubs at your job, hang out in interesting places, and get to know your neighbors and co-workers.  I'm excited to perfect my networking skills and meet new people along the way.