Get The Job You Want, Even When No One's Hiring: Take Charge of Your Career, Find a Job You Love, and Earn What You Deserve

Chapter 41. Great Networkers Are Not Great Talkers; They're Great Listeners

Networking is a lot simpler(and less scary)than many people think. You do not need to be a great schmoozer to network effectively. The best net workers are often great listeners, more than great talkers.

Here are the basic steps of the networking process:

1. Use your Contact List to focus on specific people to reach out to each week.

2. Use the Networking Meeting Agenda below and develop your own version of a Networking Script (also described below.)

3. Meet people in neutral locations if possible—over coffee, lunch, or breakfast.

4. Leverage the notion of six degrees of separation—ask for contacts from your contacts, and you can connect with almost anyone.

5. Reach out by e-mail, phone, or letter.

6. The formula goes: Meet, Ask, Listen, Learn, Act, Thank.

7. Follow up after your meeting and keep the conversation going with a two-way value exchange. Don't love 'em and leave 'em. Grow your stay-in-touch network. Use the mini-newsletter format I'll share with you to make this easy and consistent.

Note

Remember: If you're in career transition, networking is your job.

You should be spending at least 80 percent of your job search time networking—and about 20 percent of your time and effort on everything else.

If some one won't network with you, you must not take it personally. Adopt this mindset from the world of direct sales—"some will, some won't, so what, next!" Keep working your network, and don't let the occasional rejection deter you. ...