Building a Network. Why Bother?
Hi Glow up Girls!
I’m Hamayl and I’m one of the founding team members of Glow up Tech, here to bring you another Glimmer of Gold.
At our third day party, we had the amazing opportunity of speaking to Cheryl Chotrani, the Marketing Strategy Manager from Novi at Facebook. Her journey was really one to follow with so many Glimmers of Gold. Her story had one really clear, insightful theme: the importance of building relationships.
From high school all the way to college and beyond, chances are you’re going to meet many, many, amazing and accomplished individuals. Some of them may be close friends and others may be distant acquaintances, but regardless, they’re all connections. Of course, it’s difficult to keep in touch and maintain relations with everyone you meet, especially if you’re more of an introvert, like myself, but never underestimate the benefits of the connections you’re making constantly. Just read on about Cheryl’s story and you’ll quickly grasp the value in building relationships and keeping connections!
Cheryl is no stranger to building a vast network and leveraging her career with the help of the people she meets. Connections have played a huge roll in her life, ever since she applied to Columbia. At the time, Cheryl was working with American Express and was interested in applying to the Ivy League university for not only her MBA, but also her Masters degree in International Affairs. Her colleague at Amex put her in touch with the Head of Admissions at Columbia, which gave her immense credibility and a huge leg up in her admissions. From there, she worked hard for the dual degree and graduated, commencing the start of her international career.
Cheryl has a very global career path. During one of her exploratory trips to Dubai, she reached out to Columbia alumni, and her career really took off from there. Various alumni sent her resume around and one in particular referred her to another connection who ended up becoming her boss! She ended up working in media for the Dubai government and did incredible work in helping to open up western TV channels, such as MTV, in the region.
Her international career doesn’t halt there. Neither does the value in her connections. Her work in Dubai actually led her to her next location, a little over 4,000 miles away: London! While working in Dubai, she communicated with numerous clients and partners, one of them being MTV. Her hard work led MTV to take a strong liking towards her and the way she worked, so the MTV team in London asked her to come on board, which was another critical part in her media career. If it weren’t for the strong relationships she built when working in Dubai, this chapter in her life may have never even happened. Going even farther back, she might have missed out on the incredible experience in Dubai if she never took the initiative and put herself out there to reach out to Columbia alumni. Through these connections, she gained such valuable work experience in the media industry (which grew even more after her NBC job on the east coast), and a tech giant actually sought after her for her next job title. A Facebook recruiter reached out to Cheryl after seeing her extensive career in the media industry, asking her to join the team. That’s where she is now, working as a marketing strategy manager for Novi, Facebook’s crypto-currency platform.
Cheryl’s connections wouldn’t have played such a strong role in her career journey if it weren’t for her friendly and positive persona. The way she presents herself makes the people around her feel really comfortable and welcomed, which has helped her a lot in building not only just connections, but meaningful relationships and friendships. During the day party, she mentioned that she grew up very shy and forced herself to go outside her comfort zone to build her confidence, through activities like piano recitals! Now, she’s a manager at a multibillion dollar company, presenting her data and findings to rooms full of people daily! Her career is definitely not a traditional one and it was incredibly inspirational to hear about how she got from one job to the next.
If you didn’t get a chance to attend, no worries! Keep an eye out for our next day parties at glowuptech.org/events. Make sure to register as a member so you stay up to date with blog posts, newsletters, and event announcements! Follow us on IG, Pinterest, TikTok and Facebook (@glowuptech).
