Yep, I was a guest speaker last week, and I still can't really believe I agreed to it.. I'm not talking a small group of 5-10 people either, there were around 60 people in the room, yikes right? Oh, and the projector and PowerPoint that I was supposed to use? Yeah, they didn't work until the last 10 minutes.. Needless to say it was an interesting first experience! Even though I was the "teacher", I learned a lot! Let's back this up a bit, why was I guest speaker? Who was the audience? What did I cover? All valid questions with quick answers.. except the first question. I'm still trying to figure that out myself ;) - The audience was made up of college students within my major. I covered my college experience, ranging from internships to classes and organizations. So why was I a guest speaker? My former professor asked if I would come and talk about my experience to younger students. Many of them have questions about jobs, classes, internships, volunteering, networking, organizations, and the travel that I had done as a student. Since I am a very recent graduate of the program, she thought they'd gain a lot from my experience and hearing a recent students point of view. My first response to my professor was, "I'm not that interesting, they'll be getting out of class early..", but she insisted that my experiences would be great for the students to hear. Alright, so what did I learn? 1. Public speaking is not the worst thing you're going to have to do in your life. It isn't! So stop thinking it is! - I admit, I got very nervous and probably prepared way more than was necessary, but once I got there and started talking it wasn't bad! I'd never spoke in a situation like this. A meetings? Yes, but never in a class room or as a guest speaker. I just decided to jump in. That's my suggestion, just jump in and do it! Chances are you are going to have to talk in front of people more times in your life than most people would like to, so practice when you can! 2. Knowing your material is key. Expert status isn't mandatory, but I can only imagine how easy it is for those people to talk on their subjects! - How many people have had to present something and decided to "wing it"? Read over it once? Fill in information on the fly? Yeah, I'm going to say nearly everyone! Don't lie! I'm one of the lucky ones, I guess you'd say, because all of my major specific classes were about sports or event planning, two areas I'm very interested in. When we had to do presentations, if I didn't prepare, I could pull out examples from things I'd seen during my internships, or what ESPN had been reporting on lately. For some of my non-major specific classes, that wasn't the case. I remember doing a presentation in chemistry lab that I did not prepare enough for. Luckily the TA was very nice and asked basic questions. Our group struggled along and got an okay grade. The point is, when I was talking about my college career and experience it was all things that I know like the back of my hand. I could talk confidently about it. When you can do that the presentation is more believable and it's way easier to talk about in front of people! 3. You aren't going to reach everyone. That kid with snacks and headphones that showed up ten minutes late, in no rush? Yeah don't even try. - Some people don't care, and that's okay! As I looked through the classroom I saw a lot of things, note takers, nodding, and faces of engagement (which was great!), but I also saw the people on their phones, blank stares, and some resting B faces where you don't know if they are intrigued or annoyed. - I can have a pretty serious RBF and not even mean to, so I try not to judge ;P - After the class some came up and talked to me and others bolted as soon as they could. Unless you're talking to an audience that bought tickets to see you, most likely not everyone is going to be there because they 100% want to be. Ignore those faces or actions and focus on the people who are engaged. 4. Plan for technology to fail. Not just a minor fail, like full on fail, nothing you planned on is working. Better to be pleasantly surprised than disappointed. - I had a PowerPoint created with main points bulleted and a few pictures to references, but guess what? I couldn't use it. Fine, I could just pull it up on the desktop and at least I could use it for reference right? Wrong. They tried to fix the projector during the class, which of course meant that they needed the desktop and all the cords plugged in to it. Yep, I stood in front of a class with no screen, PowerPoint, or notes really. Thank goodness I had gone over my presentation a couple times prior to the class so I had an idea of the flow without any notes or slides to help. I always say, "Technology is great....when it works". 5. Put forth some effort and energy. Sounds cliche, but I have my reasons! - Do you like listening to monotone speakers? Probably not, so why would you want to be one? It's also more fun to listen to someone who is smiling, moving around, and showing some personality right? I sure think so! I was uncomfortable at the beginning and with the tech issues I fumbled around for a minute, but then realized that I had to cover the information one way or another so mine as well dive right in! Being familiar with the information helped with this, obviously, but I tried to move around a little and not make everything roses and champagne. I included some funny horror stories and made some jokes about myself. Put yourself out there and put some energy into it! Five years ago I would have found every excuse NOT to speak in front of people. Three years ago I would have said maybe with a group. One year ago I would have been shaking and beat red, probably making it as short as possible. Now, well I still shake a little and I definitely have "flight" thoughts before I have "fight" thoughts, but I'll do it! After I spoke last week I was actually thankful that I did it. Even though there were not that many people that had questions or talked to me after class I still felt good knowing that I had helped that small percentage that asked questions and had taken notes. Some have even emailed me since I spoke with questions or asking for advice. I'd love to hear what y'all have learned from public speaker! Or if you still have those "flight" thoughts when the opportunity presents itself!
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When I think about the connections I’ve made and the relationships I have maintained I can’t come up with a clear and concise answer for how to keep connections. There are a lot of factors that go into maintaining these relationships. Location is huge and how you connected is pretty big too. It is always going to be easier to maintain connections that are in the same town, or relatively close to where you are located, than staying connected with people who live far away. It can be done, but it is just a little more difficult. I’m going to break this down into a few sections and hopefully my experiences will help you all, or will at least be a reference for ideas for you! Connections near you:Connections in the same city, or within an hour or two, are the simplest. You should stay in communication with them and talk about common things in your area. Some examples are listed below: Professors: Let’s start simple. Even though professors might not be the first people that come to mind when thinking of networking connections, they deserve to be talked about. Professors can connect you with alumni or other people in academia; they can (and probably will) be references for you either for graduate school or for employment in your future. Talk to your professors, establish a professional relationship with them, or at least with a few of them. I have been fortunate enough to attend conferences with a couple professors and have had them as advisors for student organizations I was in leadership positions of. (Speaking of conferences and student organizations, BE INVOLVED! More on this coming soon to the “college life” page!) – This semester I am not in class with two of my professors, but I make it a point to stop in their office once a week and at least say “Hello! How’s your week been?”. I usually ask them about something happening on campus or something they are involved with as well. In turn, they ask what I’ve been up to, how classes and work are going, how graduate school searches and applications are going, etc. and we stay really connected. Use your professors and advisors as resources! Industry professionals that are in your area are also not too difficult, but are a little more of a stretch if you don’t see them every week. My advice for this would be to just randomly check in with them. If you can visit their office, great! If it is a simple email, that’s great too! – I had an adjunct professor one semester that worked in the Athletic Department for the University. I saw this as an amazing opportunity to pick her brain about her job and the path she took to get where she is. The first or second week of classes I talked to her and told her about my interests and goals (at the time I was not very specific with what I wanted to do, but knew I wanted more experience no matter where it came from). She is an amazing woman and has helped me so much since that day! I talked to her regularly before or after class and when the semester ended I job shadowed her a couple of times. She told me about some volunteer opportunities within the athletic department and with her specifically. I volunteered to help immediately! After that semester I emailed her when school started the next year to schedule her and her coworker as guest speakers for my student organization I was president of at the time. From there, I asked about more volunteer opportunities, which ultimately led me to interning with her for the past year. I have learned so much and found an area of sport that I enjoy more than I ever thought I would! I’ve used her as a reference for graduate school and asked for advice for graduate assistantships as well. This all happened because I introduced myself, shared my interests, and asked how I could gain more experience. Not every experience will turn out this way, but you never know if you don’t try. Miss every shot you don’t take right? :) Connections not near you:Connections outside of your city or area, this one is incredibly difficulty to make suggestions on so instead I’m going to just tell you about some of my experiences, even the bad ones! First, I, along with my executive board, planned a networking trip to Nashville, Tennessee in Spring of 2014. We visited the Nashville Sounds (Triple A Affiliate of the Oakland A’s), Nashville Predators, Vanderbilt Athletics/IMG Representatives, Ryman Auditorium, and the Nashville Sports Council. (Keep in mind that from this trip my networking experience was a little different because for two months prior to going I had been emailing these people to set up tours, meetings, parking arrangements, and whatever else needed to be planned. You can absolutely have this kind of experience too, but at the very least you can see how I handled some of these relationships afterwards.) After we did all of the tours and meetings I hand wrote thank you notes to EVERY person we spoke with. Just to give you an idea, the Predators had 10 people in our meeting room at one point, they ALL got a thank you note. (See my post on how to write professional thank you notes here!) I also added most of them on LinkedIn. I say most because some of them I either didn’t personally talk to, or I felt I didn’t get to know well enough to warrant a LinkedIn connection notification. I think it is important to not use LinkedIn by adding a professional after hearing their name one time, you should have a relationship and feel confident that when they see your name they will know who you are. As time has gone on I have not stayed in contact with some of them for various reasons, but there are still two or three people from that trip that I keep updated on what I am doing and they keep me up to date on job opportunities or experiences that they think I’d be interested in. Some of the ones who I have not stayed in contact with are because they have switched jobs (out of the sports industry), I’ve lost their contact information because of a job change, or simply because they don’t respond or seem disinterested. It happens. You won’t be able to keep close connections with everyone you meet. Those who I have stayed in contact with though I try to email about once a semester or more if there is something that I really want to talk to them about. I also keep a close eye on them on LinkedIn. Recently one of the men I met from Nashville Sports Council took a different job in a different area of sports. I liked his job change on LinkedIn and researched the company. When I send him my next email I will ask about the move and the new company. I don’t just want to talk about myself with these connections, I also want to talk about them and what they’ve been up to. Second, there is no such thing as a bad connection. It’s kind of like publicity; they say no form of publicity is bad publicity. The more people you know in and out of the industry the more educated you are and the more chance you have to learn of new things going on, companies, job openings, volunteer opportunities, etc. With that being said, there are some times when taking a step back might not be the worst idea. I had established a professional relationship with someone in a leadership role of a professional organization that was within my event planning interest area. This person often emailed a few of us job, networking, and educational opportunities. Which was great! However, after trying to bring this person to campus to guest speak and failing to schedule it, the situation became a little tense. I think it was unfortunate that schedules did not work out and that communication was difficult because of busy schedules by all parties. After a somewhat negative email being received I replied with an email where I tried to be as professional as possible and basically say “I’m sorry that schedules are not working out, but we are unable to have you on campus this semester. Please understand this and maybe we can try again in the fall.” After that I did not hear from the individual and I thought that perhaps my professional relationship with them and their organization was over. Recently I received an email from the same person with information about an upcoming conference and when I replied saying that I unfortunately could not attend because of work, I received a reply that my unavailability was not a problem and if I needed any help with post graduation life to please let them know. – I believe that by trying to handle the situation professionally and taking a step back the connection is still there. If I would have replied negatively or rude I think the connection would no longer exist. Third, don’t overlook academic connections. During one of my conferences I attended I was approached about graduate school. To be 100% honest, I was about as against going to graduate school as a student could be! Even being against it, I engaged in conversation about it anyways. After hearing their pitch and doing some thinking I realized I might actually want to pursue it! The first program director that approached the group I was attending the conference with was from a university and program that really wasn’t for me, however I was very nice and inquisitive about their program. I decided to approach some of the graduate students attending the conference and ask their opinions about their program and graduate school in general. They led me to the director of their program and we had a great conversation. I gave him a business card and was very honest by telling him I really had not done much research on graduate programs, but was extremely interested in the program. He also gave me his business card and told me to contact him with any questions or if I decided to apply to their program. My professor, attending this conference with my group, also had a conversation with the program director regarding my potential interest in graduate school as well as my background and experience (another example of why connecting with your professors is important!). I’ve since then reached out to the director and applied to their program. Fingers crossed! --- To expand on this, the graduate students I met there and discussed all of this with are now people I talk to regularly and have helped me so, so much with my graduate school search! They may be more of friends, but they're also networking connections and have played an important role in my career and academic advancement. Read Part I & Part II of the networking session too!
Networking Part I: What is it? Networking Part II: Where & How?! When you think of thank you notes most people think of writing them for gifts or because people attended something of yours, but once you are in college and start looking for a job they become more than just a thank you. When you're looking for a job or networking with people, following up with a thank you card is one of the best things you can do, it makes you stand out! Taking time out of your day to hand write a thank you note to a potential employer or networking connection shows that you care and truly appreciate their time. It is evident to me when I have walked into a professor's, mentor's, or industry professional's office to see a thank you note I've sent them displayed on their desk or wall. If they are willing to display them in their offices, they clearly mean something more to them! Step 1: Make a list of recipients
If you have attended a career fair, networking trip, or gone through multiple interviews, you probably have more than one person that you need to write thank you notes to. I make a list of all of the people who need to receive them and check them off as I finish them. This way you don't forget someone when you are halfway through writing and you can check them off as they are ready to send! Step 2: Acknowledge their time After addressing the person I am writing, my first line typically includes how much I appreciated their time and when it was. For example, "I wanted to say thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk with me a few weeks ago." You can expand on this with the specific date or location if you want. Step 3: Address what you talked about Did you talk about their job? Schooling? Volunteering? Whatever the meeting was about, mention it in your note. If they have a busy schedule or had several similar meetings recently it will help to remind them of you and your specific interaction with them. Step 4: Tell them what you're taking away If someone took the time to meet with you they, more than likely, want to help you and hope that something they said will be useful to you. By mentioning what you learned from them, it shows that you listened and are applying things from the meeting to your life. An example could be, "Now that I know you're company hires interns for each semester, I plan to apply for an internship the next fall semester!" - It is also important to remember that if they can see you have learned something from their meeting, and are actually using it, they will be more likely to help you again. If you ask them for advice and then don't pay attention or apply what they said, it may be viewed as a waste of time. Step 5: Close with a "thank you" or a future plan I always use a closing line of, "Again, thank you very much for your time!", or "I appreciated your advice and hope to stay in contact with you moving forward!" These steps are the five that I have followed when writing thank you notes and have worked well for me, but they may need adjusted to work for you! You can always add to these steps, I usually do, but they are good building blocks for thank you notes! |
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