Networking Night

On Monday, I attended the Networking Dessert hosted by Leader's Council. As a member of Leader's Council, I worked with a committee to plan and organize the event. Our committee's goal was to bring representatives of organizations across campus together to network. Ohio Northern University is a small campus, but it is hard to have organizations of different majors work together. Thus, the Networking Dessert was created. 

The Dicke College of Business Administration gives its students the opportunity to network often. Networking is one of the most important skills to attain to grow your connections. The other colleges at Ohio Northern University do not place the same emphasis on networking. I found it interesting how you could easily tell which students were business majors. My teammate, Peyton Warnecke, is a double major between exercise physiology and management. Almost instantly, she made the comment, "You can tell which ones are the business majors because they have their act together." The invitations specified to dress business professional. Thus, all the business majors were in their suits with hair done and minimal distracting jewelry. Although, the message did not translate over to the other majors the same way. Some of the students wore miniskirts, jerseys or business casual clothes. For the business students, these outfits stood out like neon lights, but those students were not given the same training as us. It makes me even more grateful for our wonderful professors who invest in our 'real-world' preparation. 

The purpose of the Networking Dessert was to discuss issues facing your organization and find possible solutions with other organizations. Personally, I never talked about the issues facing my organization. I didn't want to talk about negative circumstances when most of us are already stressed enough. Instead, my groups talked about the important tasks our organizations take on and the exciting conference trips we attend. Throughout my conversations, I met many people with who we shared a mutual connection, and we sparked conversation through those connections. I am very grateful to have the opportunity to attend events of this caliber while I am in college. This preparation is going to give all of us an advantage in the real world.

What is your favorite part about networking?