A couple of months ago, Kelly posted about trying to find talented individuals to work with us at BLASTmedia. Last night I had a great opportunity to have dinner with the Dean of Liberal Arts at Purdue University, Mr John Contreni. He treated me and two other Purdue and Liberal Arts alum to a great dinner at the student-run John Purdue Room. After dinner I sat on a panel with the Senior Vice President of Marketing Communications at Smith Bucklin, the President of Indiana Oxygen and the Director of the Lafayette Parks Department to discuss with Purdue students (mostly May graduates) career networking opportunities and how we have grown in our professional careers. It was a good turnout with about 15-20 students attending. I was surprised at the great questions we received and how eager they were to find a job and learn what it takes to be successful. I actually saw a lot of myself five-plus years ago in many of them. As we work to hire new employees and as we continue to grow, it is reassuring as we step out on campuses to see the drive that these students have to be successful. Maybe there is talent out there waiting to be discovered and perhaps they just don’t know how to find us? Hopefully more of these opportunities will be presented to us and we can continue to discover these bright young minds that are eager to jump out into the real world and begin their careers. Let us know – how do you network and how did you find your first job? You might help a young mind reading this blog!