There is an old saying “it’s not what you
know it’s who you know”. Basically this refers to the fact that being good at
something will only get you so far you need to know someone who is higher up or
well-connected or just has there foot in the door. The phrase refers to
something more commonly known as networking. Networking is something that I'm
sure many of you have heard lots about over your time at university and indeed throughout
your life and the aforementioned phrase highlights the fact that having a big
network will not doubt be beneficial to all of us.
While having a large network of people you know
available to you is very important what’s more important is how the people in
that network feel about you. There is not point know all these people if they
think you are lazy, unemployable or just not good to work with. Your network
needs to be full of people who think highly enough of you to do you a favour.
This doesn't mean you have to be able to do them a favour it means that they
need to see enough in you to suggest that there help may pay off one day.
People are often a lot more willing to help than you may think and if your
network is full of people willing to help you get better then that is a good
first step. During my internship I have seen the benefits of having a network
of people who are willing to help you out. My supervisor often calls in favours
to other departments for information, a helping hand or simply advice. The
advice she gave me was while it’s great to know a lot of people it doesn't
really matter who you know if they don’t like you.
Put simply the point of my post is to always
think how you handle yourself around people you don’t know. Anyone you meet at
any time could be a possible contact in the future so its best that if you ever
do need them as a contact that they are willing to help you. When you think
about I'm sure we all know a lot of people but how many of them would actually
be willing to help you should you call on them hopefully it’s all of them. But
if it isn't don’t set out to gain more and more contact set out to gain more
contact that will be willing to help should you ever call on them.
