Providing career opportunities and professional development for students is the goal of the Management Organization for Business Students, also known as MOBS. 

MOBS, a student-run organization on campus that focuses on learning professional skills, kicked off the largest event they’ve ever put on, Womxn’s Week, with a networking event. Starting the event off with a networking event was well thought out by the MOBS team, according to MOBS Co Vice President of Operations Nancy Trinh who said, “The first start to tackling any industry in the job force is networking.”

According to Forbes, the growth of your career is largely connected to the growth of your network. Meeting new contacts can help people further their careers by creating more opportunities.

Trinh said that MOBS held the event in partnership with InHerShoes to maximize the effectiveness of the skills being taught. InHerShoes is a non-profit organization made for women with the goal of making them more courageous 1% at a time. 

“We wanted to bring a bunch of people who identify as women together to essentially support each other and provide enough information,” MOBS President Aditi Nishith said. 

According to Amanda Mesler with The Guardian, women in executive positions are treated unfairly and ignored at times. To combat this she believes women must be given the chance to create networking groups with other women across industries.

To learn about networking and what it is before actually doing it, the event was separated into two parts. It started with a panel on the power of networking moderated by Aleksandra Bibik, the InHerShoes Bay Area event lead.

 “When I finished university, I studied in Switzerland and during university, I didn’t really have too many networking events,” Bibik said. “And I always felt like I really was missing that, so I’m super excited to help out in that direction, thinking, ‘I know what you need when you don’t have that guidance,’ so I’m super excited for that.”

Speakers on the panel consisted of Jacqueline Koob from the technology industry, Syrena Bui from the business industry and Laurel Komos from the creative and design industry. They used this time to teach attendees what networking is, how to do it and how to succeed at it even during COVID-19. 

Koob said that when networking, to “always just kinda be yourself and be aware and open to those opportunities.”

The opportunities Koob is referring to can pop up at any time. Syrena Bui said that as a student a great place to network is at student organization events and in class. For some people, like Laurel Komos, taking your dog for a walk can be a networking event in itself.

“My dog is my biggest networking catalyst right now,” Komos said. “Like go take your dog to a dog park and everyone around you has a dog. It’s like, ‘what’s your dog’s name? What kind of dog is that? Tell me more!’”

Gaining skills is important to MOBS, so for the second part of the event, they let attendees practice what they had just learned: networking. When one first learns networking, it can be uncomfortable to walk up to a person and start talking, according to The NYU Dispatch. Having an environment where there is less pressure is helpful when learning how to network. 

Three separate breakout rooms containing three professionals each from the technology, business and creative industries were created with the goal of allowing attendees to meet with people of shared interests. 

“I have attended many virtual events and have applied my networking skills in order to make connections,” said Tamara Alvarez who attended the event. “But I haven’t attended a virtual networking mixer where you can move to different rooms, this was my first time and it was amazing.”