On Jun 20, 2008, at 3:53 AM, Fred Beecher wrote:
You can get this by going to conferences as well. Especially with
Crowdvine
coming into high usage. Search for interesting/famous people to talk
to,
then go find them at the conference. Also, just participating in
online
communities like this list will help give you those connections.
I gotta run to work but just have to respond to this one point in
particular. By school networking/connections I did NOT mean swapping
business cards at a random event or facebook friends, or email lists.
I'm referring to the shared experience that alumni from the same
school have as a basis for starting up conversations and opening doors
to jobs. Grad school can be brutal but it's also intensely social, way
more than a buddy list online. It's also that alumni networks tend to
have first dibs on new job openings or word of mouth sharing. It's
that look you get when you say you're from a certain school or the
kinship that you feel identifying someone else also from your college
or program which (for whatever reason) makes that other person trust
and vouch for you a little more than the next guy, thus opening the
doors just a bit wider for you. There's a kind of brotherhood or
loyalty/pride/collegiate nationalism if you will that's hard to
articulate but quite powerful. That's what I'm referring to.
And can we please stop referring to a graduate degree as "a piece of
paper"? I find that personally offensive and downright insulting. I
didn't spend $100K for a piece of paper. I spend 100K for a launchpad
to a career and all that it comprises. If graduate education is not
for you, then please don't trash it with dismissive terms.
(unless it really is a piece of paper degree from a mail-order
catalog :-)
Uday Gajendar
Sr. Interaction Designer
Voice Technology Group
Cisco | San Jose
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