Amanda Jang: “Why are you calling?” … “It’s a business matter.”
As a student who’s constantly surrounded by other students and faculty, I’ve never thought about the way I socialize and interact with others since we’re all in the same social bubble. Having little experience with reaching out to strangers in the professional world, I was initially uncomfortable and awkward with how to reach out to companies through cold-calling. These skills are exactly what I’ve been learning in my BUSN 179 (Effective Communication in Business) class. Professor O’Keefe created an effective plan with steps on how to establish connections with strangers in the business world. One of our major assignments for the class calls for two Career Conversations with business professionals in the fields we hope to work for some day. From gathering contact information, to emailing, cold-calling, and next-steps, I’ve gotten the opportunity to speak to high-level employees from Adobe and Facebook.
One of the biggest takeaways from this class definitely has been developing the confidence and understanding of how to develop these relationships through various means. Through this assignment alone, I’ve learned and received so much advice from these individuals’ firsthand experiences in their field, and have even discussed potential internship and job opportunities in the future. While I understand communication like this may seem intimidating at first, taking a class like this will definitely prepare you and allow you to hone in on your networking skills for relationship-building later on.