Networking, socializing, talking to people you don’t know – your social skills can come to play a much more important role in your career than you may think.  Perhaps you were caught up in imaging a gel, perhaps you just really want to get our coffee refilled and return to that spreadsheet, or perhaps it just isn’t in your nature to go out of our way to say hi to new people but expanding your circle is not just important – but in my perception – critical to your success as a professional.

Making connections (or friendships) at work, on a sports team, or in a graduate program will only benefit you in the long-run – and maybe even in surprising ways.  I write today to provide you two allusions as to why making these connections are not only beneficial to you but to others as well. First a story of how my friendships (or connections as we say), as seemingly frivolous at the time as they were, are now paying dividends post-graduation.  In preparing a summary of the research I plan to carry out over the course of my PhD program, I had to select an insect pest to allow to eat upon my grapevine to in order to obtain expression data for the gene family I am studying.  In conducting an online search, it was rather challenging to get hard, quantitative statistics on grapevine insect pests and numbers related to economic impacts, acres ravaged, etc., to provide a more substantiated reasoning behind my insect selection. 

But then I got to thinking ‘You know, Jill’s family actually owns a vineyard, why don’t I just ask her?’  Jill, a friend from college got back to me right away with a number of pests I could use that eat on their vines.  Then, Mitch, a commercial horticultural specialist in Pennsylvania, and Nettie, an extension agent for NC State, came to mind, two other friends from college.  All three of them have given me great insight and direction into what insects to use for my project and are established (though young) professionals in their various fields.  Ways in which friendships have contributed positively to my work are more numerous than just this story, and frankly, without hanging out with these people at the bars and apartments of Penn State years ago, my life would be harder today.  Reaching out to a friend for help is much simpler than navigating google for three hours to no avail, plus, such connections can provide you with firsthand, nuanced information that you may have not even considered previously.

Now for a story on how these connections can be used to help others and advocate for agriculture and science.  Recently a friend from high school, Jimmy, was considering his next step after college graduation.  He reached out to me and was curious how I decided if grad school was the right next step for me.  He picked my brain on many topics and was relieved to have someone around he knows and trusts to help guide him throughout the process and be able to get straight answers.  Before the virus, while visiting at my childhood friend’s Steve’s house with Jimmy, Steve’s brother, Al, said he had some questions to ask me.  Being an accounting major, he was very curious about a variety of topics ranging from global population in 2050, to GMO bans in Europe, to loss of agricultural land and farm subsidies in the United States.  In these instances, it is up to us as professionals in such topics to share our knowledge with people to educate our friends – especially when they are curious to know.  Not only do our friends and connections help us, but it affords us an opportunity to help them, science, and society.

None of these connections would have been made possible without me branching out and trying new things throughout life.  This group of friends spans friends from elementary school, high school, fraternity brothers, connections from college clubs, and college friends from attending classes.  Such a diverse set of connection-forming-mechanisms I hope helps to convince you that no avenue should be seen as a wasted opportunity to one day make a connection that benefits you or others.  I hope that it spurs you on to reach out and make a new connection this week too – well, maybe when the virus is over anyway!

Written by TPS Fellow Cullen Dixon