Nervous about, or navigating networking?

Are you one of those people who loves networking, or does it terrify you? Plus, the Music Highlight

Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash

Last week, some of you took part in a poll I created regarding networking and the results were interesting: 70% said they liked networking, 20% said they weren’t fans and 10% weren’t sure about it.

How do you feel about it?

I kind of started networking by accident. As some of you may know, I teach English as a profession - the past five years exclusively to adults. Here is a small part of my networking story.

It was 2009, I had just moved to Switzerland. Here is an excerpt from my then blog:

I was full of dreams for my new life. I had found a job before I came – or so I thought. The crisis arrived in Europe and then Swiss employers decided to stop employing people for a period of time. The school that had promised to take me on informed me they could not anymore. I was suddenly without a job.

One day, when I was feeling sorry for myself, I decided to Google ELT materials and look at things I like to feel better. Ken Wilson’s blog came up and I started to read it. I then got in touch with him and he told me not only to start my own blog, but to make a Twitter account to connect to more teachers. Up until then, I didn’t have any contact with technology apart from emailing and googling. Twitter? I thought. A social media platform where people share details of their lives…to connect with teachers? I did it, not without hesitation though. I wasn’t sure how it would help me – not at all doubting Ken, but I wasn’t sure if I’d have anything to say. I started connecting to other teachers and seeing what they posted: useful links, their blog posts and posts of others too, new tools in technology to use in class…I loved it so much! And I haven’t looked back ever since.

That is around when I started going to teacher conferences all around Europe and I started meeting those people that I had connected to online. And it was amazing, because you suddenly saw, in real life, the people that you had connected to for months before and shared your personal things and felt like you had known your whole life! And I met more people who weren’t on then Twitter, today’s X. And more and more…and you kind of don’t feel shy anymore, because you are sharing experiences from your teaching with people who have a lot in common with you.

But then I started my PhD…and the conferences were a bit different. And scarier, I thought. I wasn’t sure if academic conferences were as friendly and welcoming as the teacher conferences I went to for so many years. I had also heard horror stories about how academia is a dog-eat-dog world. And it can be, but if you stay away from all that, you can really find a welcoming community, as I did. And people who are super supportive!

Some tips that I have seen work for me:

• Don’t be afraid to reach out to people you admire and not only! Cold email them. Arrange a Zoom call with them. More often than not you will have great experiences!

• Go to conferences and talk with people. If you feel you will say something silly (it happens to me too), it’s your mind playing tricks on you - people will be super interested in what you are saying and will also give you feedback on your research! If you feel toxic vibes, move away politely and find someone who makes you feel safe.

• Make sure you follow up after conferences: get their contact details and write to them, tell themm what you liked about your discussion and their research.

• Make a nice, clean profile on social media and join groups. Take part and engage.

Do you have any other tips?

The Music Highlight

And here is yet another gem by Spandau Ballet! This is one of my top 80s songs.