Conquer the access to untapped resources by connecting with people. Chevening Network Question

Hi. Here is my network essay for Chevening scholarship. I appreciate any help in the structure, coherence and grammar corrections.

networking for identifying problems and finding solutions

Networking is about connecting with people, identifying with them in a way that allow us to influence and get mutual benefices. In many situations I used information and resources from my diversified relationships to identify problems and find potential solutions.

When I was a teacher, I used the wisdom of a group of teachers in which I was inserted to show my willingness to know my students from their parents, listening carefully to validate their values and show respect and asking the right questions focusing in a positive language. One day a parent told me how gloomy he was seeing bad results of his son in mathematics and thanks to that wisdom I answered that his son was resolute and had good marks in other subjects, then I asked if he could help me in an activity to help his son and at the end we overcome it. With this and other approaches, I engaged the parents and influenced them to take initiative on learning. Today I maintain contact with other teachers and parents through social media to exchange ideas that enhance learning.

Since 2015 working as geophysicist searching for possible aquifers for water supply, I had the opportunity to travel in all provinces of my country, see and experience its cultural diversity. Understanding that people are different from each other, that organizations are not equal, that position is not always proportional to influence and that meaningful connections don't happen suddenly, led me to be proactive, start conversations, be inclusive and don't think that everybody behaves the same as me or think that it is all about me. My diversified contacts are vital in some of my work tasks when I am on the field. For example, when I need to buy something to fix the cars or tools for geophysics, I always have access to the right places to do it and ways to get it.

At Mopeia (a district of Zambezia) when I was making Vertical Electrical Soundings for construction of 20 boreholes, I had to use my network skills to help someone out of my professional area who wanted to bring to life his project related with good agricultural practices. He explained to me that the idea was to help his village ameliorating food production. I gave him bases to write his project and contacted some people that I met when I was working at Machanga (a district of Sofala) who implemented a similar project to help him. The project came to life, was well accepted in his village and helped him gain new perspectives and grow professionally.

In the future, as a Chevening awardee I will have the opportunity to learn and collaborate with the brighter brains of UK industry and have the chance to join to the Chevening community and alumni. As part of these communities, I will share my perspectives and experiences, lead myself and others, set new goals and contribute to the development of geophysics in my home country.

Walter, a proper networking essay indicates the method by which you develop organizational and personal networks that run in relation to your profession. Networking with parents regarding helping their child does not qualify as a networking skill but does qualify as an influencing trait so maybe yo can use that in your leadership and influencing essay as an example instead.

The Mopeia project is also not conforming to the requirements of the prompt. You told us how the network worked for you, but you did not qualify how it was created and maintained so that it was in place when you needed to use it. Nothing in the essay exemplifies a real networking skill and examples on your end. I strongly urge you to read the examples of networking essays here and revise your essay in a manner that makes it more similar to the Chevening requirement.

@Holt
Thanks to your help I revised the essay and included the missing points. Thanks

Hi, due to essayforum policy, I can only re-open the thread of 2018/2019 and continue posting. This is my Networkingessay for 2019/2020. Pease help me to make it more competitive. Thanks in advance. It needs to be Urgent for a new review too.

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To obtain my internship and finish my bachelor, the university wrote a recommendation letter for me addressed to the National Directorate of Water (DNA). In this contact, I met Eng. X, a project manager with more than 30 years of experience who introduced me to company where I had my internship, which is where I currently work (HMR). Fortunately, I had the opportunity to work with him on four projects and we always maintained contacts to exchange information about the work progress and life situations.

When I was working in Muidumbe District, I shared experiences with Eng. Y whom I met in the birthday dinner of the district Administrator. A week later, he called me to introduce me his friend who wanted an industrial borehole to use the water for irrigation as well as for building the facilities of his company. He wanted me to help him to obtain the authorization from Regional Administration of Water in the North (ARA-Norte) to drill the borehole. I called Eng. X and he gave me the contact of one of the ARA-Norte water resources technician who explained me the requirements (one of the requirements was to carry out a geophysical survey). I assisted him on the preparation and submission of the application that led to the authorization to drill the borehole.

In October 2017, one of my ex senior geophysicists at HMR whose currently working at Schlumberger, invited me to be a member of social media group of geophysicists and geologists mostly specialized in hydric resources. The group was created to exchange experiences lived in different places, tips and opportunities related to our fields and other areas. HMR is one of the leading consultants in water supply sector, due to this, I have travelled in all Mozambican provinces making hydrogeological studies and building relationships. The major part of the members have a good feeling about me because I am a very active member as I always have experiences to share.

In September 2018, I was sent to the District of Ile to find points to drill boreholes for water supply. It was my first time there, the data I collected was different from everything I had seen and I was having a weak performance. I decided to seek for help in the group and two geophysicists (one from Gondwana Empreendimentos e Consultorias, Lda and another from HidroGeo, Lda) that already worked in this district told me that the data I was collecting was normal and they gave me tips to overcome the situation. Using their tips and analysing previous reports, I could successful complete the surveys that resulted in positive boreholes.

The nature of my profession requires me to have an adventurous spirit, travel for different places and build relationships based on mutual generosity. I am quite sure that the Chevening community can use these contacts in hydrogeological field and others. As a chevener, I will interact with this enormous community creating partnerships to help me explore the untapped resources of Mozambique.

In many situations, I used ...

"validate their values ..." validating their values,showing respect and asking the right questions

Walter, there is a clear disconnection between the contacts that you made. The contacts sound almost disposable in your presentation because you have a different set of contacts indicated per paragraph instead of having a fluid merging of contacts as time went on. So this tells the reviewer that your networks have an expiration date. you forgot to indicate how you continue to maintain your old contacts even as you continue to make new ones.

Your social media contacts are the weakest in representation in this essay. I don't suggest that you use those because the situation was too negligible in presentation. The situation you presented did not require the use of contacts or a network. It was just an inquiry, which does not qualify as nor require a network contact. Unless you can show a more serious use for this social media network, you should skip mentioning it.

Speaking of mentions, you blanked out specific names in the presentation. As I always tell the students here, if they are not referees for your recommendation letter, then you should not mention them at all. Remember, you need to present one professional contact and one academic or community service contact. In this instance, it appears that you will be presenting two professional contacts, since their names were specifically mentioned in this essay. Consider the drawbacks of mentioning them directly. You can always just use their position titles in place of their names.