On the 11th of October, multiple Old Blues (previous members of Christ’s Hospital School who have graduated) and Senior Grecians (Head boys and girls) returned to their secondary school to give a talk to current pupils on networking and to launch Old Blue, Senior Grecian, Tracey Abayeta’s book ‘Networking Made Easy’.
Tracey Abayeta, Hannah Fosker, Mary Agbesanwa, Andre da Silver-Jenkins and Jenny Boateng were invited back to speak to the current pupils at Christ's Hospital years after graduating.
The book contains the five steps to networking and all attendees were introduced to them, the first being to ‘speak up about what you want’ and the last being to ‘follow up’, which could be one of the most important steps to networking as you cannot simply rely on one conversation to take you all the way to your goal. You must follow up with your connections and give them a reminder of your first conversation so that they can act on it.
Temi, a year 11 student, said, “I learned that we need to step out of our comfort zone and not be afraid to talk to people to make connections with other people for our future,” when asked what she learned from the event.
This book launch and networking event was an unmissable opportunity for the students of Christ’s Hospital to network and connect with people from a variety of fields and industries with spans of experience and knowledge to share.
During the talk, three students were selected to come to the front to be examples as they expressed their career interests to the attendees. One of the students who was called to the front, Amer, year 12, expressed his interest in Financial Consultancy and Actuary (risk management).
That evening, Amer was able to speak to three different people who suggested further connections to him and deepened his understanding of his fields of interest.
When asked what the highlight of his evening was, he said, “It was being able to network with so many experienced people and learn from them.”
After the talk, students were given the opportunity to act on what they had learnt and talked to people in a variety of fields and experiences.
Many students found that even if the person they spoke to did not belong to the particular industry they were interested in, they could have a connection to someone who is, and that is the power of networking.
Students were able to ask about specialised tips for specific careers and university courses as well as openings for internships and apprenticeships and were encouraged to start using the networking platform, LinkedIn.
A valuable lesson from this is that it is never too early or late to chase after your goals and aspirations. The door to your success could be just a conversation away.
