This exercise touched on a few points that my group had discussed extensively. I have furthered their discussions with some of my own personal thoughts throughout this blog post.

The digital platforms students are currently using to develop their professional network can vary depending on the student. For example in my case I use LinkedIn as a way to network with other business students or even connect with my old classmates. While some people may even use YouTube as a type of job which can lead to a professional network in that sense.

Student should consider what is the difference between institutional and personal resources. This is because some students may mix their personal emails with their work emails (not keeping them separate). This can be unorganized and lead to errors. Additionally, students should be aware of the things that they post, and who will have control of it. This is because once you post something on the internet then it’ll be quite difficult to remove it.

Data privacy and security can affect a PLN by a number of ways. Some people may not be comfortable with having their information out there for the internet to see, while some have no shame at all and would post about everything they do with their lives. Data privacy is very important today due to the number of people doing online transactions now. This is especially apparent with my current job as I am doing mutual fund trades on behalf of the client, therefore the level of security most be high in order for the client to feel comfortable with someone else holding their money. This can promote PLN since I am building a stronger tie with these clients, this trust is built over time. An example of a security breach in recent times is the Rogers Outage which affected many people, this breach has created many lawsuits and furious people switching carriers due to this whole situation. This can show how data privacy and security is very important for each and everyone’s PLN.

In my network, I mainly focus on putting information about myself on LinkedIn. This is a great way to show your credentials and what my career looks like to strangers. Which in turn, can lead to future clients or business partners (they can see what I have to offer, this can help with my reputation over a long period of time).

If I were an employer looking into hiring myself, I would see on social media that I have a few pictures with my friends, my family, and some of my hobbies. I would have nothing to hide as I’ve skimmed through my feed before long ago just to clear out some of my old “cringe worthy” posts that can affect my first impression with the hiring people. Other than that they would occasionally see me posting about food on my stories’.

All in all, this was a great way to see what my classmates did with regards to what network they use, how they dealt with data and privacy, and other smaller points throughout this discussion. I was able to learn a lot about what other people thought and compared them to myself and how we may differ in some points. This was a wonderful way to learn about my classmates and bond with them, thus, creating a stronger tie with each other.