Social and Professional Networking in Campuses
One of the ways in which campus students create professional and social networks is through using part-time jobs and internships. According to Hora (2019), internships have been crucial in establishing the quality of student’s performance based on what he/she had learned in class. In essence, internships give university students a chance to interact with the out of the class environment. It is this during this period that a student can create a solid, professional network with the new associates one interacts with during the internship program. As Hora (2019) further suggests, apart from fostering a student’s personal growth, the internship has been on the forefront in facilitating student professional growth. Internships have been termed as a transformative experience in a student’s life. Students are able to be socialized and introduced into a new professional culture and as a result, able to develop a new pre-professional identity. In the course of the internship program, students are able to draw their self-identity basing on the new information they come across in the workplace. Students are able to encounter delirious and vital factors that they find fit for their professional development. Meeting new friends at the workplace coupled up with encountering real-life situation plays a crucial role in developing not only a professional network but also a social network since a student is able to meet new friends and associates at the course of his/her internship program.
Use of social media channels has facilitated the creation of both professional and social networks for many university campus students. Chisenga & Chande-Mallya (2012) described social media “as collaborative online applications and technologies that enable participation, connectivity, user-generated content, sharing of information, and collaboration amongst a community of users.” Evidently, this definition of social media entails a diverse characteristic that is typically associated with social media. With advanced 21st century technology, there exist thousands of social media platforms which have millions of active users. According to Wang et al. (2015), the use of social media among university students is heavily prevalent. Besides being highly prevalent, social media usage has also been proven to be very vital to university students since it improves their social fluency, compensation for low esteem, shyness and anxiety as well as the facilitation of social bonding. Social networking sites has enabled individuals with different interests to be able to communicate and share their thoughts. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have enabled students to create a human-bonding relationship whereby a wide array of information is easily shared between specific and unspecific individuals across the planet. With its high prevalence among campus students, most students have, as a result, been able to create a social and professional framework through the use of social media platforms.
Creating a social and professional network is vital for any campus students. One of the key importance of having a proper social and professional network is that it facilitates information sharing. Fillottrani et al. (2012) suggested that information integration has been viewed as one of the tools that significantly influence decision making for any individual or organization. Just as Chisenga & Chande-Mallya (2012) added, information sharing, facilitated by a professional network, will enable a student exchange useful idea, able to get moral support, having a second opinion as well as participating in a collaborative problem-solving technique. With t5he social media platforms, students are able to access a pool of per knowledge which will be crucial to them as they tackle day to day campus challenges. With a proper social network, a student is able to seek relevant advice from various people he/she trust before making a final decision. Besides facilitating the decision-making process for many students, information sharing, which has been enhanced through the proper social and professional network, students are able to grow and become innovative. Purpose of the campus is to facilitate student’s growth, physically, emotionally, mentally or spiritually. By accessing a pool of information, students can be able to be exposed to a pool of new challenges and experiences. These challenges and experiences enable students to be more innovative and employ various techniques in tackling these challenges. Besides, people experience that students learn from these professional and social networks will enable them to develop a strong knowledge and understanding regarding various situations present in today’s societies.
Besides enhancing information sharing, social and professional networks boost self-esteem, promotes credibility as well as creating connections. Socializing and making new friends tends to be a vital aspect of human nature. As Hora (2019) posits, the development of new relationship inevitably leads to the increase of self-esteem as well as self-confidence. Making new friends and associates tends to boost one’s confidence. Consequently, confidence tends to attract a pool of associates. For a student, by creating a viable social and professional network, one can be able to build a great network that will facilitate their career progress (Jwaifell et al. 2013). More opportunities will be created through the sharing of information as well as interacting with new people. Besides building the self-esteem, the social and professional network will give a student a pool of connection which will be a crucial stepping stone for the student career progress. After campus, students are expected to look for jobs and exploit various opportunities that may present themselves. In order to be in a good position to be exposed to most of those opportunities, building a good professional and social network while still on campus will be crucial for the student. Therefore, with a good social and professional network, a student will be in a good position to seize opportunities that might present themselves after campus. Information sharing, partnerships and joint ventures will make it easy for one to seize and exploit various career opportunities. Above all, social and professional networking promotes credibility by improving one’s reputation. In this case, students can market themselves not only online, but also through physical interactions, whereby, he/she can interact with both friends and strangers. Personal marketing will improve their reputation and credibility. A student will be able to access professional guidance, with a huge potential of accessing a great opportunity after campus.
References
Chisenga, J., & Chande-Mallya, R. (2012). Social media and professional networking: a case of information professionals in the SCECSAL region.
Fillottrani, P. R., Calo, K. M., Cenci, K. M., & Estevez, E. C. (2012). Information sharing-benefits. Journal of Computer Science and Technology, 12(2), 49-55.
Hora, M. T., Parrott, E., & Her, P. (2020). How do students conceptualize their college internship experience? Towards a student-centred approach to designing and implementing internships. Journal of Education and Work, 33(1), 48-66.
Jwaifell, M., Al-Shalabi, H., Andraws, S., Awajan, A., & Alrabea, A. I. (2013). The intensity of social networks group uses among the students of Jordanian universities. Global Journal of Computer Science and Technology.
Wang, Y., Niiya, M., Mark, G., Reich, S. M., & Warschauer, M. (2015, February). Coming of Age (Digitally) An Ecological View of Social Media Use among College Students. In Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (pp. 571-582).