Building a strong networking skills - Chevening essay on networking

Please help proof read my draft on networking question - Chevening essay!

Chevening is looking for individuals with strong networking skills, who will engage with the Chevening community and influence and lead others in their chosen profession. Explain how you meet this requirement, using clear examples of your networking skills, and outline how you hope to use these skills in the future.

MY NETWORKING SKILLS

Networking which is the act of meeting new people in a business or social context does not only strengthen the relationship among the parties involved but also help in achieving maximum results in tackling problems in a professional settings.

Since I bagged a B. ENG degree in electrical/electronic engineering, I have managed to build a strong network of engineers in Nigeria. Just after my graduation, I signed a contract with an electrical installations establishment as a technical assistant. My establishment is registered under the Licensed Electrical Contractors Association of Nigeria (LECAN); a body whose roles are to ensure that materials for electrical jobs are up to standard with the required quality, and also to check the emergence of quacks in electricity works in Nigeria. My position as the team leader of a team of four technical assistants in my establishment has made me to be in regular contact with other engineers in the field of electrical engineering in the country.

I established my network by contacting the regional coordinator of LECAN in our region for a seminar/workshop on 'How to identify fake and substandard electrical materials and build a strong professional ethic' for members of my team. The seminar featured other engineers from other regions whom our regional coordinator had invited. Every member of my team had the opportunity to meet and share contacts with other professional colleagues present at the workshop. The regional coordinator whom I now have his contact and kept in touch with on regular basis invited me to a biannual regional meeting of LECAN held at the State's headquarters. At the meeting, I had the opportunity of meeting with and exchanging contacts with the National coordinator of LECAN in the North central zone hence, my network is extended.

My establishment benefited from the network I built with the National coordinator when he introduced me to the manager of Odus Electrical, Ughelli. Odus Electrical is a renowned distributor of electrical materials and appliances in Delta State. With this contact, my establishment has always had access and bought quality materials for her jobs thereby making her one of the highly sought after establishments for electrical installations job in our region in recent times.

I wish to extend this networking skills I have built and acquired over time to other Chevening scholars. I am envisaging a network where scholars in my field would be directly involved with LECAN, making useful suggestions and a possible market system where quality electrical materials could be traded thereby maintaining a solid network between the countries involved.

In networking skill, you need to emphasize on how your well maintained network is useful to solve the problem which you encounter in professional setting. Unfortunately, in your essay you merely told how you create a new network without mentioning how they are being used. You don't have to explain what is LECAN, because it is irrelevant to this networking and consuming the words count. Unless you can explain how useful your network in LECAN could possibly help you in your work, you better remove it. Try to explain a challenge which you encounter when you become a team leader and how you can make use of your network to solve it. Good Luck!

Mudiare, whatever you do, do not remove the reference and explanation with regards to LECAN. That is the foundation of your networking skill and is vital to the essay. Explain its importance to the reader because he will not be familiar with the group but, upon your explanation, he will understand how important this network is to the accomplishments of your tasks within your profession. What I would like you do instead of removing the LECAN reference is to try and find a different network to refer to that is an offshoot of this membership. LECAN has given you access to a number of profession related associations so I can't understand why you are referring to a relationship with a vendor as the extension of your LECAN contacts. You need to refer to another organization affiliated with LECAN instead. Talk about how that network was created through the LECAN commonality. Based on your relationship with these 2 networks, how has your career improved? What situations were you able to resolve through these contacts? What have you done to continue to cultivate your relationship with them? Make sure that your current relationship with these networks sound alive and usable. The kind that you can call upon at a moments notice if need be. Then explain the importance of the second organization to your profession. That way, when you discuss the Chevening scholars and how these contacts will be useful to them, it will be very obvious that the network will truly be of benefit to Chevening and its scholars.