I want to call out something a former intern of mine did this month. She was an amazing employee and we tried to recruit her onto the team when she graduated but didn’t quite have the right role for her. She ultimately took an opportunity elsewhere, wanting to grow her skillset and breadth of experience so she could possibly bring more value back to our company in the future. We left on great terms with a ” keep in touch.”
Now, this is probably my introverted (and sometimes anti-social to a fault self), but I don’t know if I would have actually been in touch. Just out of school and entering the workforce . . . networking still sounded like a curse word to me.
Yet she reached out to me last week wanting to catch up and this evening we met at my favorite restaurant for drinks and dinner. We chatted about work and life and her possible career paths — it was exciting to see that we both wanted to keep the door open to work together again when the timing is right.
There are buckets of advice on this — follow up, stay connected, you never know when new opportunities will come up and those relationships pay dividends — but for the first time on the other side of it, I want to reiterate it again: take all that cliche advice. She’s now fresh in my mind as I’m planning for the future and it’s nice to keep updated on how she’s growing in her career.
Stay on people’s radar even when you move on — to a new job or to a new city or a new anything. I could do much better at this myself and I’m grateful for the reminder.
With Love,
Natalie