Comments on: Readers’ Forum: What’s is good networking REALLY?

By: The Dangers of Social Networking During a Job Hunt | Professional Resume Services

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 04:04:31 +0000

[...] no one has left you any inappropriate comments or tagged you in any questionable pictures. Social networking sites are a great way to keep in touch with friends from your past or family members who live far away, so [...]

By: Suzanne

Suzanne — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 21:53:45 +0000

I’m glad networking is just about twitter or yammer, I would feel lost.

I think doing a good job for internal and external customers is the best form of networking. People remember good service.

By: JaneA

JaneA — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 04:16:48 +0000

Thanks for the reminder. I seem to recall that Dick Bolles said something about the strength of weak ties in What Color is your Parachute.

I guess that the key word is “healthy”. As I see it, running round in a “networking” meeting in “me-me-me” mode isn’t healthy.

By: Don Harkness

Don Harkness — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 17:39:59 +0000

I can’t be as specific as Nick is as to reference, but I agree. I read somewhere not too long ago that people connected to their opportunties 3 steps away, helped by strangers in their network via someone they did know. That rarely do your immediate contacts connect you to the hiring manager or decision maker. Their help is to be good networkers and spread the word so to speak and/or noodle your need over and zero in who they think can be a better contact than themselves, and know you well enough to share that contact.
I know that’s true for me. I have found my jobs through networking but in all but one case, the key contact came from someone I was connected to by my main contact. They didn’t come from my main contact.
There’s a somewhat related piece of advise as well. Don’t assume. Don’t assume that for example that if you are a C level person looking for a C Level opportunity, that your winning contact will come from a C Level person. You can’t assume who knows who. An entry level admin can know a CEO brother in law.

By: Nick Corcodilos

Nick Corcodilos — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 13:15:10 +0000

@JaneA: Deeper connections are what it’s all about. But don’t discount healthy, light connections.

Duncan Watts wrote an outstanding book about the science of networks that points to an interesting phenomenon: if and when you actually want something from your network, it’s the people on the periphery that are most likely to be useful to you.

Watts is not a self-help guy. He’s a theoretical mathematician who writes so the rest of us can understand it!

Check out the book:

http://www.asktheheadhunter.com/booksstimulant.htm#sixdegrees

By: Bruce Sher

Bruce Sher — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 01:08:08 +0000

2 useful things to think about networking.
Doing it well you develop new interests.
Do networking well: You’ll be interesting.

By: JaneA

JaneA — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 22:52:21 +0000

I was so relieved when I discovered that networking wasn’t the sort of shallow, quantity-rather-than-quality thing that I’d previously thought it was. Like Unemployed and Clinically Depressed, I struggle with that kind of setting, too. I prefer to make fewer but deeper connections.

I just wish I could get people I know to take this seriously, but they seem very resistant to the idea. Too threatening, perhaps. Maybe it’s easier to send out resumes shotgun-style and just complain when nothing happens.

The other side of the coin, though, might be that we who “get it” have a lot less competition.

By: Cindy B.

Cindy B. — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 19:25:26 +0000

I really favor the idea of making my network a face to face deal. I know what they need/are looking for and get a true sense of who they are.

Flip side: I go to networking trainings and EVERYONE seems to be trying to build the biggest list! It just doesn’t work for me to network outside of the area where I live.

I am a Career Coach working with community justice candidates. We need to keep it real … and three thousand miles away is not real for me.

By: Nick Corcodilos

Nick Corcodilos — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 17:05:04 +0000

@LKitsch: Interesting how the success of politicians breaks out. But in NJ we have a third category.

I was mayor of my town for 3 years, and very active on my town’s behalf on the state level.

The third category of politicians is “corrupt.” Perhaps that’s a sub-category of “transactional,” as in, “Let’s transact a deal. Here’s some money. Use your relationships to get me what I want.”

In the short term, this seems to succeed. In the long term, those politicians just get “a long time” in the slammer.

By: LKitsch

LKitsch — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 16:37:53 +0000

I have to say that I cannot take credit for that term. I first heard it many years ago in regards to politicians:

Some politicians only call donors and community leaders when they are looking for contributions or favors. Those guys are “transactional.”

Others call donors and community leaders all the time, just to check in and see how things are going, or to get their opinions on a pending piece of legislation. Those guys are “relational.”

In the long run, the relational politicians are more successful than the transactional ones.