February 2012


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By Renata Sankar-Jaimungal

Just do it. That simple instruction means so much. It pushes me to overcome my fear. As someone in the marketing and communications field, I am expected to be an extrovert, but my fear is how do I walk out of my space to make connections? You know that feeling. You enter a room full of people you don’t know and you feel awkward and uncomfortable to approach anyone.

Unfortunately in the world of work, networking has become a fundamental part of life and career longevity. Once you understand that it is really about developing mutually beneficial relationships and not so much about making friends, you might be able to let go of some of the personal inhibitions. You don’t have to be the life of the party or the typical extrovert (which I am not). But if, like me, you want to move up the ladder of success, and if you share my insatiable desire to learn, then you have to make some compromises.

For me, it means stepping out of my comfort zone to start a conversation that can go in any direction. It might inform me of a job opening, apprise me of the accident that is causing a backup of traffic heading south or give me a contact that can possibly provide sponsorship for an upcoming project. It might just be a tip about how to remove the wine stain from your jacket.

The challenge is to step out of your comfort zone. The UWI and Republic Bank World of Work programme helps with that.

It focuses on outfitting you with the right tools for the world of work. Around 1200 people attended the recent Resume Writing and Interview Preparation Workshops, and you can look out for the Networking Workshop planned for 15 March with Judette Coward-Puglisi, Managing Director and Chief PR Evangelist of Mango Media Caribbean. Bringing over 15 years of experience, she will introduce UWI’s final-year students to the theory and practical aspects of networking and help you and the other person in the crowd to connect.