Why You Hate Networking

Why You Hate Networking When Maryam Kouchaki, a professor at Kellogg business school, first moved to the US from Iran to study for her PhD at the University of Utah, she felt incredibly awkward whenever she tried to network with other academics. “The distance between cultures is so difficult,” she says. Even when she simply wanted to tell someone that she admired their work, she froze up and then afterward, got the urge to wash her face and hands. “I would go to my hotel room and say to myself, ‘what am I doing here?’”