I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again; the faculty and staff at UNH are a pretty fantastic bunch of people. Don’t get me wrong; I’ve had a few less than great experiences, but overall the ratio is strongly in favor of good. For those of you who don’t know, I have worked on campus since my sophomore year, and I wholly recommend it to anyone who wants to have a job that (at least somewhat) works well around your class schedule. And why wouldn’t you? Regardless, I currently work for the Career Development Center in the Bartels Student Activity Center and for the Henry C. Lee Institute. Although working in both places keeps me pretty busy, I wouldn’t trade it for anything because of the exposure I’ve had to so many different people and backgrounds as a result of my jobs.

Networking is a key part of the college experience in my opinion, and the easiest way to accomplish this is through getting involved with a club or organization or two. You don’t need to sign up for everything to get to know people, in fact I definitely advocate getting heavily involved with one group rather than trying to do so many things that a few weeks in, you decide to do nothing because you’re overwhelmed. Some people are superhuman and can get away with doing a million different things, but for me The Charger Bulletin, class, and work filled the voids I had. (Friends too, because friends are a good thing to have.) I can attribute a lot that I have done in my time at UNH to one person that got me involved on the campus and jump-started my networking skills.

I met Zack Rosen when I was interested in WNHU, and even though my interest waned in the long run, I ended up maintaining a little contact with Zack through Twitter (social networking anyone?). The summer between my freshman and sophomore years, I saw a tweet from @ChargerBulletin looking for people interested in recording video podcast for The Charger Bulletin. I replied and soon after was recording a twice-weekly podcast. That was fine and good, but soon enough Zack asked if I was looking for work, and soon after, I was working for the Center for Experiential Education ten hours a week running the center’s social media. This introduced me to an entirely new group of people, and although I don’t work with all of them any more, when I see any of the people I met in that first job, we very cordially greet each other and catch up a little because of the friendly work environment we had.

Soon enough, Zack was training me in web design and little did I know, I was quickly becoming more and more involved on campus and with The Bulletin. By the time March came around, I was an occasional staff writer, still recording the podcast, and was responsible for posting all the articles from each issue online at www.ChargerBulletin.com. When the application part came for becoming editor-in-chief or assistant editor of The Bulletin, Zack slyly brought up the subject, and I quickly responded that I had actually been considering applying. Fast-forward a year and some months and look at me! Not only do I still work for the same office (almost, because it’s now the Career Development Center instead of the Center for Experiential Education, but there’s still a few of the same people, and some great new ones!), but Zack recommended me and that led to me being contacted for another job (the HCL one). Zack has been an invaluable contact for me, and one of the best friends anyone can ask for. I have gained too many other friends and contacts to list here, and I would hate to make someone feel left out, so I’m not going to list anyone else. Rest assured, if you think you made an impact on me, you did and I would’ve listed your name here.

Anyway, the point of all this is that when you’re sitting in your room playing video games or doing nothing, you could be out meeting someone who will change your life in a great way. If I can list so much as a result of just one person, imagine if I had listed what everyone who I had networked with had done for me. This editorial would have filled this entire paper! Get out there and meet people; it’s one of the most fulfilling and rewarding things you can do! (P.S. thanks Zack!)