The Importance of Networking at the University
The college of the 21st century is a peculiar place. The way we learn and study has gone through a lot of refinement and modifications in the past century. The classroom now extends beyond the four walls and student collaboration transcends the campuses. The modern world demands you to conform to these movements, it is either that or be left behind. The appellation for this dynamic is called networking. But taken as an ordinary word, the concept is not only essential for college education success but also post-college life and career.
According to Wikipedia, networking is a form of socialization. Before modern coinage, it has always been a tool for interaction and progress. The university student, both male, and female must take advantage of its many benefits. However, society must deal with other issues alongside the rising need for networking. Such issues like gender equality and the issues facing women in college. Since there is growing concern about the inequalities of opportunities affecting women in the business world in other areas of society, it is important to examine how networking can help them cope with the challenges.
Women Helping Women
One of the very important aspects of networking is that it allows individuals to help others. No one truly arrives at their goals without some form of assistance. Most job interns get their first jobs through a good word put in by a school mate, or a colleague at a former job, or a letter from a former boss. Women may not be getting enough representation in colleges. Most student unions are headed by men, heads of departments are men and other administrative offices are no different. Networking goals for women would include active participation in committees, school organizations with particular emphasis on sharing ideas tailored to their particular needs as women. Networking will stretch far to provide women with thesis help when they are at that point in their academic career.
If other women in authority take a special interest in the career growth of female students and help them build confidence by constant interaction, the ideals of helping other women become strongly entrenched. The idea is for more women in colleges to bond together and help themselves grow.
Exchanging Fresh Ideas
It is a dynamic world of work out there. Students get ready for the challenges by networking. They share new ideas for job hunting, tips for passing interviews and new developments in one’s chosen career. One very crucial aim of networking is finance. Many students accrue debts throughout their schooling, student loans, and other financial issues. Women that are in the workforce can help those still in colleges with reasonable plans on how to manage finance and pay off their school debts. Helping them get a job is usually the best help they can give.
Although women are numerically a majority on college campuses the problem of sexism prevails. Sexism manifests in many ways on college campuses including pervasive double standards and as well as violent power dynamics. A networking culture in school can help women in this area as well. Women do not have to deal with these issues in individual isolation. Conforming to male social standards is seen by many college women as a better alternative to submitting to rigid female gender roles. Networking could help release the tension on women.
Networking Makes You More Visible
Standing out is a constant struggle. It begins in college and continues throughout our existence. Standing out requires updating our knowledge and reviewing from time to time our values and value in any establishment. One beautiful importance of networking is you become more visible even after college. It is important to leave a mark in the minds of colleagues. While in college it is important to cultivate viable social skills and contacts that may be valuable in the future. Women should learn to build bridges. The difficulty for women in college is breaking the stereotype that views them as ‘slutty’ if they are gregarious and try to get as many friends as possible’. The belief that an outgoing lady has loose morals is a lie and is a sexist idea.
Ladies can bond with their flatmates, fellow female classmates and even their female lecturers. They can also extend this professional relationship to their male colleagues. Networking can turn the world, from a ‘mans world’ to a woman’s own where women do not necessarily have to banish men from their contacts but can let go of their inhibitions against other women in authority and help one another.
Open Doors to New Opportunities
It follows that since networking makes you visible, it invariably open doors to new opportunities. You never know when an opportunity that can advance your career will show up at your doorstep. Some begin a freelancing career as a result. They are approached by recruiters and from there the possibilities become endless. Some college campuses have the opportunity to have seminars and business conferences organized in their university. These events often draw collegiate students who are seeking to broaden their prospects. The point is, advancement in one’s career does not only occur when we land a new job, but it could also be when we meet an important person in our field that can change the direction of our career. This change in career path may lead to a change in mindset giving you your first opportunity to start your own business. Often the demography indicates a low response by women. Why this is so may not be far from the issues that have been raised earlier. Still, networking can solve this problem. A willingness to break free from stereotype and join the movement. The status quo, however, is a stumbling block.
In 2013, Catalyst released a report that found that women held less than 15 percent of senior positions among Fortune 500 companies, a number that hadn’t changed significantly over the previous four years. Board of Directors’ seats remained the same for women. The female representation among directors comprised less than 17 percent of the Fortune 500 board members. This margin is too wide. However, with networking, this issue can be solved progressively. Those women in higher positions can take as mentees younger women. They can help groom these young women to fill up these roles. This change will not just happen overnight, there has to be a deliberate desire to bring it to life. This grooming is best started at the college level.
While there is hope that organizations that deal with women’s issues are doing their best to change the situation, women in college can do their part by networking. By creating avenues for collaboration and sharing, more women can help others get to a level where they can create an almost equal playing ground for both genders.
Networking Expands Your Support Network
Everybody needs somebody. At every stage of your career, you need support. For instance, if you are interviewing for a job and you already have a strong network, it is only a matter of speaking out in your forum. The chances are high that there would be a person in your network who has gone through a similar process and who can provide you with tips and suggestions on how to conduct yourself and what to expect. Men, by their nature, do not have much difficulty in this regard. But women in college may not be so willing to share.
The concern is for women in college to cultivate the spirit of networking. Sadly the stereotype that men lead, and women follow, always gets in the way of networking for women. Somehow if there isn’t a man in the group —which is not a bad thing anyway— then women believe all that will happen in that group is bickering and gossiping. Whereas the benefits of networking far outweigh the downsides.
Networking Gets You Ahead
Getting ahead in life is the goal. And this is the central goal of networking too. In college, students often come together for anything ranging from group discussion to preparing for exams. Such a relationship goes on for the duration of their study. The mechanism of networking works in college as it does on the job after school. It helps you get better grades in college, and in the workplace, it also gets you promoted when you receive favorable recommendations by someone in your network. They do not even have to work at the same job as you. Your hard work complemented by a good recommendation may be all that you need.
At every point in the journey of women in colleges, they have to come up against this roadblock: sexual harassment. It is a sore in the face of society. Women in colleges either succumb to the pressure or avoid opportunities that bring them face to face with the menace. However, in recent times, women have been more forthcoming in speaking up against harassment. Networking can even make it easier for justice to be served and the menace stopped.
Like-minded men and women should give support and protection. As the foregoing has shown, women need to get involved with themselves. More and more women are taking up the mantle, they are on boards of companies and they head administrative offices. College women can band together and include these in their network for progress.
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