Monday, January 26, 2015

How to Stay Social in College

When the going gets tough in school, it's easy to convert into a hermit, burying yourself in your work. While you'll need to get that work done, dedicating yourself entirely to it will harm you in the long run. Networking and getting hired both require social skills, and letting them slide during college can damage your career. After all, you go to a community college for the people. Fortunately, there's a few easy tricks you can use when you're attending college in Toronto to keep making friends while still getting your work done.

Make a Facebook Group
I'm going to go ahead and presume everyone reading this is on Facebook. Well, if you don't know, you can create private, invite-only groups that can trade messages and files. You should make an effort to create one for your program if it's small enough, or individual classes if it's not. Firstly, this is an excellent tool for accessing your collective group mind. From figuring out if classes have been moved, to confirming details of assignments, it's an excellent way to quickly and easily stay in touch and stay on top of things. More than that, though, it acts as a message board for your post-school network, and keeping it in use post-graduation is an excellent way to stay in touch as you navigate the working world.

Join at least one club, or even start one
On any campus, there are boatloads of student-run organizations, so you'll be able to find one that pertains to your interests, be it the newspaper, movies, art, or something else. It's an excellent way to connect to individuals you share interests with, and if you can put yourself in an organizational role, or create the group yourself, it will look good on your subsequent resume.

Organize study and work sessions
This is a potential use for that aforementioned Facebook group. You'll think and study better as a team, so organizing these groups allows for both an efficient work and social experience, as you pool our resources to pull through your program, and bond with one another in the process. For example, studying together means you have to be able to teach a subject to someone else, an excellent trick for having you remember it yourself. And having another person's input is perfect for making sure you really have thought of everything you need to know.

Just hang out
The simplest method to execute here is one of the most effective: Don't go home when classes are done. Find some people you're in classes with, and stick around with them. Have lunch, converse, find a table somewhere, just be around them. If you're intimidated, then think of it as developing a skill. Whether for a job interview, or for interacting in the work place, you need to be sociable sooner or later. What better time to practice it than in college, when you have an easy shared experience to bond you with people?

No comments:

Post a Comment