My name is Rosie Sterk and I study Finance and Economics here at UM. My GLI theme is Culture and Politics and for my Beyond the Classroom Experience over the summer of 2024 I created my own project around networking. I decided to explore this topic more because I feel like people emphasize the importance of networking a lot, especially in the world of business, but there is very little direction on why or how to do it. Over the three months of summer I started small with people that I knew, family, friends, professors and slowly I was able to expand my network as my immediate network was able to connect me with people in their network. I learned how to send introductory emails and how willing people often are to share their experiences and journey. I learned the importance of sending followup emails and to professionally connect with them via LinkedIn after. And I learned that these conversations are often more more impactful in person – being based back home in Scotland meant that I was able to experience networking with people over coffee and lunch as well as over Zoom with people in America or around the world.

The timing of this project was perfect. Hearing a wide variety of perspectives, and from people in different stages of their professional careers was great. Across the board people highlighted the importance of not getting too comfortable, to make sure you are always learning and to trust those who believe in you. Networking requires time and effort to make and retain connections, but each person I spoke to said that at least once in their careers, knowing the right person helped them on their way to getting a job.