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- Aug 23, 2010
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At the expense of of sounding stupid, here I go.
I've always been confused when people tout the benefit of "networking" - what exactly do they mean by this? When I was in school, my professors talked about networking like it was a life and death matter. Those who didn't go to networking events were doomed to be jobless, while those who perfected the "elevator speech" would get ahead. I attended a few of these events but stopped going by the end of my P1 year. To me it was extremely silly to think someone I met at one of these events, talked with for at most a few hours, would be able to "get a job" for me. How the heck do you know how capable someone is, and how their work ethics is just with a few hours of "networking"? Some people sound like they're about to conquer the world, while in reality when you work with them, they just suck. No work ethics, making up stuff to sound smart but no real knowledge, etc. Someone could be extremely sharp and be impressive at these events, but if their work ethics sucks, then it sucks. Not to mention you have no idea how well they'll work in a team. Has anyone really gotten a job from these events?
On the other hand, there is the "networking" from friends circle and fraternities. Do people really refer their friends or brothers just because they're from the same circle? If I've never worked with my friends, I would not feel comfortable referring them as it can really tarnish my reputation, unless it's my absolute best friends whose knowledge and work ethics I know inside out. An exception is professional organizations involvement - as you spend time with these people, you can see how well they work with others and how committed they are in carrying out projects. I would probably feel more comfortable referring some of my former board members, as their personality within the organization and while doing projects probably closely reflects how they would function in an actual pharmacy.
IMO, when you work somewhere and are referred by your co-workers, that makes absolute sense and to me, that's not "networking" but rather just proving yourself and earning your worth. That's personally how I got a job after residency, by strong references. Since I went to school OOS and my family is not in health care, I had no connections and no one to "refer" me, except for my co-workers - it was a job search starting from scratch. For those who are either pre-pharm or in pharmacy school working as a tech or intern and knowing pharmacists that way, I don't consider that "networking" either, as described above. If you've shown your potential AT WORK, you deserve your references. But the whole referring friend, fraternity brothers (whom one has never worked with), and going to networking events just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Same with LinkedIn TBH. I use it to search for jobs, but other than that I don't see a whole lot of use for it.
I guess I'm just curious to see if I'm totally off here. Would you ever feel confident in referring a friend (who you know well from school/personal life but has never worked with)? Would you give someone a job by speaking to them at networking events? My mantra is that if I haven't worked with you, I would never refer you.
I've always been confused when people tout the benefit of "networking" - what exactly do they mean by this? When I was in school, my professors talked about networking like it was a life and death matter. Those who didn't go to networking events were doomed to be jobless, while those who perfected the "elevator speech" would get ahead. I attended a few of these events but stopped going by the end of my P1 year. To me it was extremely silly to think someone I met at one of these events, talked with for at most a few hours, would be able to "get a job" for me. How the heck do you know how capable someone is, and how their work ethics is just with a few hours of "networking"? Some people sound like they're about to conquer the world, while in reality when you work with them, they just suck. No work ethics, making up stuff to sound smart but no real knowledge, etc. Someone could be extremely sharp and be impressive at these events, but if their work ethics sucks, then it sucks. Not to mention you have no idea how well they'll work in a team. Has anyone really gotten a job from these events?
On the other hand, there is the "networking" from friends circle and fraternities. Do people really refer their friends or brothers just because they're from the same circle? If I've never worked with my friends, I would not feel comfortable referring them as it can really tarnish my reputation, unless it's my absolute best friends whose knowledge and work ethics I know inside out. An exception is professional organizations involvement - as you spend time with these people, you can see how well they work with others and how committed they are in carrying out projects. I would probably feel more comfortable referring some of my former board members, as their personality within the organization and while doing projects probably closely reflects how they would function in an actual pharmacy.
IMO, when you work somewhere and are referred by your co-workers, that makes absolute sense and to me, that's not "networking" but rather just proving yourself and earning your worth. That's personally how I got a job after residency, by strong references. Since I went to school OOS and my family is not in health care, I had no connections and no one to "refer" me, except for my co-workers - it was a job search starting from scratch. For those who are either pre-pharm or in pharmacy school working as a tech or intern and knowing pharmacists that way, I don't consider that "networking" either, as described above. If you've shown your potential AT WORK, you deserve your references. But the whole referring friend, fraternity brothers (whom one has never worked with), and going to networking events just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Same with LinkedIn TBH. I use it to search for jobs, but other than that I don't see a whole lot of use for it.
I guess I'm just curious to see if I'm totally off here. Would you ever feel confident in referring a friend (who you know well from school/personal life but has never worked with)? Would you give someone a job by speaking to them at networking events? My mantra is that if I haven't worked with you, I would never refer you.
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