Networking: some home truths
• There is much talk about the 'network effect' when it comes to technology. Look at the Internet to see how powerful the cascading effect of a network can be. The same can be true for your career network. The more you can work the network, the more the network will work for you.
• Everybody has contacts. You may not know that you have them, but you have them. Having contacts is not necessarily about a Filofax bursting with CEO's cards. You can have surprisingly large network without even trying.
• Your network should be evolving at all times during your career and is as much about your personal branding as it is a source of people to contact when you wish to move roles. Your network is unlimited in its extent but also has to have a priority of effectiveness. Those people you know in the capacity of employment and your professional activity are the best place to go in the first instance as they know you as a working colleague, boss, subordinate, vendor, customer or adviser. Beyond this, your social network must be developed. We all have friends and relatives, some in posts able to employ and others who interact with people who could be prospective employers or indeed have knowledge of future employment opportunities. Contact them all and work effectively.
So, I have contacts. What now?
• Networking should be a permanent feature not of any job seeking effort, but of professional life. Indeed if you only start networking to help in your job effort, chances are you will meet with little success.
• The essence of networking is two fold:
- Building up the network - meeting and establishing an ever widening group of contacts
- Taking advantage of that network for specific needs. That could be:
- You are seeking a new position, or freelance assignment and want as many people out there looking for you
- You have identified a company or individual to whom you would like to sell your product or service, or approach for a job, and you are looking for someone who can give you a name, or better still, arrange an interview
- You're looking for someone to wither fill a job or take on an assignment for your company, and you want the assurance that comes from personal referrals
- You're trying to help out a friend or family member who is looking for a job
- You've uncovered a job lead and are looking for firsthand information about the company of the individual who may interview you
- You're contemplating a career change and want to talk to people who are in a field that interests you
- You've run into a career-related problem at work and want to talk to others who've experienced similar problems
(Managing your Career for Dummies, Max Messmer, IDG Books, 0 7645 5253 8)
• It is important - indeed vital - to stress that networking is a two-way activity. You must play an active part in your network.
How to build and use your network
• How you contact people will depend on what you are trying to achieve - the more you are trying to get out of the network, the more personal the meeting should be. Often a simple email or quick phone call is enough. If you arrange a meeting, unless it is a friend in which case a drink in the pub is good venue, then ask for no more than 15 minutes. Chances are most people will give more, but they may not want to commit to more.
• Before calling anyone on your list, identify what it is you want. If you are after a new job, then under no circumstances phone people on the list and ask them. Chances are none of them are going to be in a position to offer it to you.
• What you can do is to ask them firstly if they know of any companies hiring, and secondly if they know anyone in that company. Your aim is to get an introduction to that person.
• American practitioners, for whom (if one believes the books) this sort of activity comes as second nature, stress the importance of always getting at least one name from every contact - and preferably more than one. If each contact leads to two new contacts, your network will expand geometrically.
Keeping tabs on your network
• This will depend on how active you are in your networking. Highly-skilled networkers will use a database and have a schedule of calls depending on priority. Calls, or emails, may be little more than a brief social call and an offer of help if they need it, but they will serve to keep you in people's minds.
• Even if you don't go that far, you will need some kind of tracking system that allows you to keep tabs on who you called, who you met, who referred you to whom. Without it you are going to have an impossible task. The better your tracking system, the more efficacious your network will be.
Networking dos and don'ts
- Don't make promises you know you are incapable of keeping
- Don't have a hidden agenda when speaking to someone. Be up front
- Don't use someone's name without clearing it with them first
- Don't put persistent pressure on someone who has agreed to help
- Do be courteous, return calls, and if someone helps you, acknowledge it
- Do be bold in meeting new people
- Do research before talking to new contacts
- Do return favours
- Do network most at times when you need it least
Further reading
Managing your Career for Dummies
Max Messmer
IDG Books
ISBN: 0 7645 5253 8 £14.99
Available from Amazon.co.uk
Powerful Networking
John Lockett
Orion Business Books
ISBN: 1 84203 038 8 £6.99
Available from Amazon.co.uk
Killer CVs & Hidden Approaches
Graham Perkins
Prentice Hall
ISBN: 0 273 65246 X £9.99
Available from Amazon.co.uk
Networking: The Art of Making More Friends
Carole Stone
Vermilion ISBN: 0 09185 711 2 £7.99
Available from Amazon.co.uk