Who is it more daunting for; an older person talking one at a time to 20
seventeen year olds who they don’t know, or for the 17 year old talking
to 20 older persons they don’t know? On Tuesday a RING event was held
at the CQUniversity. This RING event was an off-shoot of Rockhampton
Innovative Networking Group. Peter Lynch, one of the founders of RING
has taken the concept to schools. Rapid Interview Networking Group
involves an outer ring of students rotating every four minutes around an
inner group of business people. The idea is to give the students more
confidence in communicating with business people, primarily in
preparation for future job interviews. However I believe the benefits
can be more far reaching for both student and business representatives.
The students shared their aspirations for what they want to do after
completing high school. Not only career but where they wish to live,
what passions they want to pursue and what steps they plan to take to
achieve their aspirations. Only a couple were not sure what direction
they wanted to take. For these hopefully they used the RING event to
help formulate some plans. Maybe some of the others are now thinking of
broadening their plans. For the business representatives the rapid
interviews provided the opportunity to listen to the dreams of the
youth, maybe re-kindling thoughts of what their plans were when leaving
high school. From their experience they provided students some advice;
something as simple as what to include in their resume, what further
study that might like to consider, who they should contact to help them
take a step towards achieving their aspirations, etc.
It’s an exciting and uncomfortable time for students leaving schools and
entering the workforce. Hopefully the students found the RING event
talking to strangers about their aspirations will make future job
interviews a less daunting experience and one they can more confidently
approach. I’m reminded what a professional speaker once said; you’re
life is enriched by the people you meet and the books you read. Tuesday I
had an enriching morning, hopefully the students left feeling that way
also. Hopefully more schools will also take advantage of RING as well.