Confessions of a Rotten Networker

When I worked, I did not make networking a priority in my calendar. Sure I did some, but I mainly filled my day with everything else. My help to individuals in transition was even less.

Having been in transition, now my approach to networking has forever changed, but it was after, not before.

As you reach out, you’ll find loads of people like I was: Never through transition, low value on networking, etc.

These folks can still help you, but you need to be persistent and guide them on how they can help you.

To help avoid frustration and help them to get your contact to follow-up on your meeting, it all starts with the preparation.

The link below is a networking checklist I created during my transition. I did mine in a notebook, but tough to share via a blog.

http://candidateschair.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/networking-meeting-checklist.pdf

My notebook was valuable because it allowed me to get more efficient as it helped me see what I did previously.

Remember that when people agree to meet with you, they are also agreeing to help you. So help them to help you.

Good luck today!

Mark Richards

www.candidateschair.comJob Search from a Candidate's Perspective - Advice and tools for search organization and networking

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Networking Meeting – What’s Interesting and What’s Relevant

Here’s how I rated my networking activity:

- Getting an introduction – Interesting
- Setting up meeting – Interesting
- Preparation for the meeting - Relevant
- Having the meeting – Interesting
- Actions following the meeting – Relevant

The preparations before and actions following are where to focus your attention as they have the most benefit toward getting results.

Here are three tips to help you:

One: Schedule time on your calendar to prep for a meeting – I cannot emphasize how important this is.

Two: Spread out your follow-up across your week. Try to avoid waiting until Friday to send all your follow-up notes, by then you are usually tired and less effective.

Three: Record all of your prep and follow-up. As your networking continues, trust me that things tend to run together you cannot remember everything – no matter how good your memory!

Here is the tool I developed during my search, to prep and follow-up:
http://candidateschair.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/networking-meeting-checklist.pdf

Hopefully, this will serve as a good starting point for making something work for you.

Good luck today!

Mark Richards
www.candidateschair.com
Job Search from a Candidate's Perspective - Advice and tools for search organization and networking

Candidates Chair LinkedIn Group:
http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration?gid=2328268


http://TwitJobs.co.uk - Jobs Fed Into Your Life

Preparation for a Networking Meeting

Think of every networking meeting as a sales meeting. You’ll never catch a good salesperson just ‘winging it’ – they plan every meeting.

They find out what they can about who they are meeting (this is where LinkedIn comes in handy). They plan the outcome and how to reach it. They respect that someone has granted them time and use it effectively as possible.

You are competing against budget requirements, project deadlines, and anything else that is filling your networking contact’s day… and oh yeah, loads of fellow candidates. Good advance planning will help cut through all of this and help you make the most of each meeting.
Before each networking meeting, plan the following items:

One: Purpose of meeting – what do you want the person to do for you (provide some contacts, connect you into a specific firm, etc.)

Two: Connections with this contact (your colleagues, same school, etc.)

Three: How do you want to position yourself to this contact (e.g. role in large company, start-up, etc.)

Four: Contacts you can provide

Five: Contacts this person can provide to you

I wrote down these items and brought them with me to the meeting – nothing too fancy, just a few items for each item.

To help you understand more about the company the person you are meeting does, see my blog post “The question that ends a meeting quickly”.

Good luck today!

Mark Richards
www.candidateschair.com

Job Search from a Candidate's Perspective - Advice and tools for search organization and networking

http://TwitJobs.co.uk - Jobs Fed Into Your Life