Blog Post 4: Connecting with a Mentor + NCUIRE

Howdy y'all,

I hope everyone has been doing good as we close out the spring semester!

So for this blog, we were asked to talk about our networking experience based on our interactions cold networking in the professional sphere, and networking at the ASU NCUIRE symposium. I think the biggest thing I want to emphasize between these two interactions is scope, and for those who are looking to network read this more as "what do I hope to accomplish".

For networking in a more professional space, it is really important not only to do so in professional air but to also do so in a way that reflects the culture of your prospective connection. When considering, it is important to identify what is considered "the norm" when networking, and also to identify what are the boundaries. In my case, I am in the applied computing field and because there are such a staunchness regarding industry secrets, proprietary knowledge, and security best practices, reaching out and immediately inquiring about a company's practices is not wise. I had to consider this when reaching out to some employers, and when discussing these employers I am also wise to not give a direct name of their business or of their employees who I shared correspondence with. Given this, I understood this connection more in the space of "I am going to initiate this conversation in the hopes of employment". While I might have wanted to do this more for say collecting data for my thesis that is ultimately crossing that field boundary, I had to kind of temper my expectations.

In contrast with this is how my networking was at NCUIRE. With this being a student event expectations were lowered in terms of professionalism but a more "frank" attitude was also welcomed. Being too professional in this kind of setting is really weird lol, so I think I did well to just inquire about folk's projects form the perspective of just another student. This meant that what I sought to actually seek in my connection was a bit more flexible. While I don't think I could message somebody after with my resume and an employment request what I could do is inquire into how they were able to undertake independent research. These are the kinds of questions that are not only appropriate for the culture but also the context, and I think for me personally I found that a bit more helpful. Obviously, this will differ from major to major, but this was my experience at the very least regarding networking!