network like a pro the art of networking ‘Meeting and greeting people at business events is a frightening concept for many. How do you let people know what you do and what you might offer them if you don’t get out and promote yourself? Networking is an essential business skill which can be learned.’ Jen Harwood The skills required to enable young women to ‘network’ At 11 o’clock, on Friday 2 December 85 Year 10 girls in both business and social settings are something that gathered in the Margaret McRae Events Space. Little did After the event the Year 10 girls wrote thank you we sometimes take for granted, but which can be we know that we were about to experience something cards to the Old Ruytonians who had participated challenging to develop. On Friday 2 December last year, truly unique - something that had never taken place at in this event. Here is an extract from a return in our End of Year Programme, our Year 10 students Ruyton before. We were lucky enough to be visited by letter sent by one of the Old Ruytonians. participated in a workshop with Ms Jen Harwood, a Jen ‘The Jenerator’ Harwood, an international business motivational speaker, author and business coach, who speaker, who revealed to us ‘The Art of Networking’, ‘As I left the School … I walked out with several has particular expertise in the field of networking. something with which most of us were previously other Old Ruytonians. We all agreed that we had During the morning Jen worked with the Year 10 girls to unfamiliar. In the space of 90 minutes we learnt how to enjoyed a great afternoon and were proud to be develop their understanding of strategies such as network effectively as a means of promoting ourselves associated with Ruyton. As you travel through life, handshakes, first impressions, talking about yourself, and making useful and meaningful connections with I hope you will be able to look back on your time how to get conversations started and move in and out others. Jen gave us so many helpful tips, from the right at Ruyton with the same pride and pleasure.’ of groups, how to use social media to build your way to handshake (firmly – no ‘princesses’ or ‘wet fish’), personal brand and also how to protect it. The highlight to the importance of making good eye contact, and Sue Colvin (Bower ’66) of the day, however, was the afternoon session, when even how to subtly enter and leave conversations. She over 50 Old Ruytonians joined our Year 10 girls help encouraged us to exude confidence, and to be strong them practise and develop their networking strategies. and independent women in the workforce. Jen’s This involved a series of networking ‘activities’ in which workshop really opened our eyes, and made us truly the girls and Old Ruytonians participated. This was a understand the importance of social connections now, wonderful opportunity for Ruytonians, past and and well into the future. present, to talk to each other, learn about each other, and develop networking strategies and connections. Yet, the icing on the cake would only happen later that afternoon, as we were blessed with a visit from some Mrs Cathryn Furey , Assistant Principal, Director Old Ruytonians. This provided us with a chance to test of Learning out our newly-acquired networking skills and gain some feedback. But the true value of the experience lay in the opportunity to meet so many strong, inspiring women – several of whom were entrepreneurs and successful in business themselves. We were able to learn about them and about their time at Ruyton, as well as getting invaluable advice for our futures. We were all so grateful to have the Old Ruytonians come back and visit us that afternoon. As Mr Zavattiero reminded us, ‘They literally have your back… you’re standing on the shoulders of giants’. Ciara Brennan, Year 10 (2016) 10 the ruyton reporter