Professional networking

After I earned my MBA, I joined the Career Services committee of the alumni association.  This year, our focus is to deliver seminars focused on two things:  professional networking and personal performance.  It's how we add value to both the school and alumni - creating a resource where individual can equip themselves for professional success.

The first component of that is called professional networking.  Interesting concept by itself, but we took some time to define it.  Here's what we came up with:

Professional networking is the creation and maintenance of relationships for mutual benefit and advancement, within the context of your own personal and professional goals.


There are three components to the definition:

• The creation and maintenance of relationships...that's what needs to occur


• for mutual benefit and advancement....that's why it needs to occur and how you choose the relationships to cultivate


• within the context of your own personal and professional goals....understanding your own goals is the first step to successful professional networking

The concept sounds easy, but it really takes some practice.  I'll come back to this in the future, as it's a topic that really deserves some attention.

Bryan