Networking

First of all, I'm a terrible networker. I often times am not very good at networking at all. So, this assignment was pretty difficult for me. The problem I have with networking is that I never know what to say to people. I am not a big talker. This leads to uncomfortable silence that are often times awkward. The best networkers are the people who can talk and ask questions without coming off as awkward. I can often times randomly meet people, but than I often lose touch and the only time I meet this person was the first time I introduced myself. To be a good networker (in my opinion) you need to meet the person or keep a friendly online contact at least more than once, and this more often than not does not work for me.
So, the week and half after I got the assignment to meet new people and network, I decided to go to the Career College Fair the Wednesday and Thursday after I received the assignment. This was my first step in trying to improve both my communication (missing basics) and my networking skills in the business world. I have never been to a Career Fair, so it was a very new experience for me. As I walked around the fair trying to get up the courage to go to talk to someone, I noticed, that some people did not have any reservations about talking to the recruiters. I decided if these people can do it, I can too. I walked up to a recruiter and asked them about the company. He explained in great detail many computer terms that I had no idea what they were. I just nodded my head. After I thanked him for his time I walked away. That did not go well at all. However, I am not a person who takes defeat bad. I shook off the failure and after another minute or so, went to another recruiter and started talking to them. The second try at networking went better than the first, but I wasn't really interested in the company and I don't think it went well at all. The second attempt did not go so well either, but I thought I was getting a little better.
Finally, I went to a third recruiter. He was a recruiter for a railroad company looking to hire all types of engineers. I was interested in the company and I think it went pretty well. I learned more about the company and was given a worksheet about the company if I was interested, however they were mainly looking for sophomores and juniors for their summer internship. Yet, the recruiter encouraged me to apply next year and even took my resume! I was happy, I had started networking. Maybe he was just being nice, but I was excited I had started to become more comfortable in trying to network. That didn't mean I was good at it, but I was getting better. I had found a network that if I wanted, I could pursue and have someone know who I was.
After that success, I went to one more booth before I had to leave, in hopes to achieve a network, I got a piece of paper instead. However, the piece of paper had all I needed to know about the company (Rosetta Stone) and talked about the different internships open to me. It was very informative and I found that I was very interested in one of the research opportunities. The career fair was a good experience for me. I didn't get any neat objects, all I got were papers, however, it was a very good experience and helped me in developing my networking and communication skills.
I can't wait until next week for the engineering expo, in which I will have another opportunity to improve my networking and communication (missing basics) skills.