Evan has been interning with us at Networlding. He is just graduating this year from The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. I met Evan through University of Dreams, the organization I mention on the front page of this web site. He was a college marketing intern for them this last year enrolling dozens of students to sign up for internships at University of Dreams.

He is a wonderful marketer with a big wish to work in Chicago. My goal now is to help him with that opportunity, either with Networlding or another great marketing organization in Chicago. We would like to have Evan working with us at Networlding and Networlding2.org but we are still looking for funding to make that happen. We only hope we can get our funding in time before someone else snatches him away from us!

Meanwhile, following is Evan's thoughts on our e-learning program. We hope it will help you make a decision to not only buy it and use it for your career but, even more importantly, teach someone else to use it and so on and so on. This way we will achieve our vision--to make the world a better place when kids get "Smart Jobs." 

Networlding E-Learning

Pros

• Networlding’s emphasis on quality over quantity rings true, I have a lot of contacts but utilize only a few on a regular basis (1.2).

• The video tutorials of Linkedin are very helpful, probably a boon to those that aren’t computer savvy (1.4).

• Having printable materials to refer to throughout the lessons as well as when you finish them is a great idea.

• This is an excellent tool for graduating college seniors like myself, a lot of people talk about how important networking is but don’t offer a step by step plan like Networlding does.

• Using Linkedin as the main Networlding resource is great because it’s free, as a soon-to-be poor college graduate that’s key.

• I like the weekly quiz format because it keeps me interested and I’ll go back to a lesson if I’ve forgotten a certain fact or concept.

• The Support Exchange Model is a very useful tool to have, I’m often at informational meetings or seminars where it can be hard to find common ground with an employer, this is perfect.

Cons

It could be helpful to have a glossary or index of good networking books to read at the end of the last chapter.(We have added this to our program. Thanks for the recommendation, Evan!)

Final Thoughts

I honestly had a lot of trouble finding bad things to say about the E-Learning resource. It is a very well organized and logical way to go about networking.  It’s something that I’ve never been exposed to.  My career services center at UNC has an alumni database and employer database, but does not offer resources on how best to go about networking.  This is the perfect resource for students like me that know the importance of building and maintaining business relationships, but are not sure how to go about it.

If the price is $97, then this is completely worth it and at $49.95 it is even better.  If it was possible to have this as an option for students in career services centers it could do wonders.  For those just starting a job search with limited contacts it gives guidance and methodology where guesswork would have been used.