Cracking the Connection Code: Networking for the Introverted
We've all heard it before: "Just get out there and network!" If it was that easy, we would already be doing it. So why is it so hard? Well, you're an introvert, aren't you? Enough said. However, unless the prospect of a really long job search excites you, you have to get out there and connect with people who don't know you but who could benefit from your expertise. Below are a baker's dozen tips to help you crack the connection code. 1. Attend with a purpose in mind. Be choosy about the events you attend. Pick the ones that interest you most. It could be a ribbon cutting for a new business, a chamber of commerce mixer, SPCA benefit, or pink slip party. 2. Take a friend. Make a game of it. Challenge each other to beat your stated goals with the winner treating for ice cream. 3. Plan ahead. Set a networking goal to talk with at least five people and collect business cards from three individuals in your industry, profession, or career of interest. 4. Split up. Rule #1 is you can't talk to your networking partner until you've met the goals you've set for yourself. That means you can't sit with each other, hang around the food table together, or accompany each other to the rest room. However, you may smile encouragingly across the room. 5. Surprise, it's not about you! Walk up to someone you don't know. Ask the other person an opening question. It can be something as simple as, "What made you decide to attend tonight?", "What brings you to this meeting?", "Do you attend often?", or "What kind of work do you do?" 6. Focus on them! Ask compelling questions: "Tell me more about your work or business." "What is a good referral for you?" "What are you hoping to achieve tonight?" Get them talking about themselves and then offer a little information about yourself. 7. Create a compelling commercial. When it's your turn to tell them about yourself, take fifteen seconds or less to capture their attention and make them want to know more. Help them understand what you hope to achieve at this event and how they can help. 8. Take little steps. Don't force yourself to join a large boisterous crowd. Instead seek out a friendly looking individual who isn't part of a group. Smile and extend your hand in greeting. He's probably as relieved as you are to connect with a friendly stranger. 9. What's in it for you? Everything! Seventy to eighty-five percent of jobs are found through networking. It's not who you know; it's who your friends know that makes the difference! So use this networking opportunity to make friends. 10. Visibility is key. As an introvert, I've learned three important things about networking: You've got to get out there and be seen; the more you do it, the easier it gets; and the more people who know you, the greater your chances for making meaningful connections. 11. Get on the fast track. Join a networking group. Your comfort level and connection quotient will grow astronomically when networking is part of your regular routine. 12. Smile! Be approachable. Make others want to meet you and get to know you better. 13. Make a date to follow up. Make it your goal to connect with at least one person that you would like to get to know better. Invite him or her to meet by telephone or for coffee. Look for ways to make the meeting mutually beneficial. You have a whole world of valuable contacts to share and new ones to make, so apply these networking tips. Before you know it, you will crack the connection code! Mary Jeanne Vincent is the author of Acing the Interview tip cards featuring answers to the 20 top "Killer" interview questions. Included are tips for interviewing in the new economy, techniques for taking the sting out of illegal questions, and tips for avoiding 10 deadly interview mistakes. Go to http://www.2bworkwise.com for free job search articles, to sign up for the free WorkWise ezine, and to find out about other valuable, easy-to-use career tools and personal career coaching. You may also reach Mary Jeanne at 831.657.9151.
Related News
Good News for Your Retirement? - Motley Fool
Good News for Your Retirement?Motley Fool -9 hours agoLike pensions, hybrid plans use formulas based on salary and length of employment to determine the total benefit owed to each employee. ... |
Braving the Fear of Networking - phillyBurbs.com
Braving the Fear of NetworkingphillyBurbs.com, PA -11 hours ago... putting résumé on an Internet career site – 4 percent, sending out resumes at random –7 percent, and going to the employment office – 14 percent. ... |
Still seeking a university place? Help is at hand - Belfast Telegraph
Still seeking a university place? Help is at handBelfast Telegraph, United Kingdom -14 hours agoWriting for today’s UCAS supplement, Employment and Learning Minister Sir Reg Empey urged students unhappy with their grades to give serious consideration ... |
Help for school leavers - Huddersfield Examiner
Help for school leaversHuddersfield Examiner, UK -14 hours agoSCHOOL leavers who are undecided about their career choices will get a helping hand at two events next month. Kirklees and Calderdale Careers Service is ... |
Corrections Corporation of America Recognized as Employer of ... - MarketWatch
Famous spies and snitches - CNN
CNN |
Famous spies and snitchesCNN -10 hours agoUpon arrival, Vanunu served in the Israeli army before finding employment at the Dimona Nuclear Research Center in the Negev desert. Happy to have a job, ... |
GIA's Career Search Engine Goes Global - Jewelers Circular Keystone Online
GIA's Career Search Engine Goes GlobalJewelers Circular Keystone Online, NY -5 hours agoThis online service represents the largest free online employment database in the jewelry industry. Currently, eight different companies representing 13 ... |
CSM Awarded $1 Million High Growth Job Training Grant - Bay Net
The cost of changing jobs - Canada.com
Canada.com |
The cost of changing jobsCanada.com, Canada -10 hours ago"The idea that careers are changing and there are no lifetime jobs any more was sold as good for workers as a way to jump-start their careers, ... |
Best employers - New Vision
Best employersNew Vision, Uganda -Aug 18, 2008... to develop their careers, with payment coming as second priority.” They regretted, however, that the graduates were not interested in self-employment. ... |
|
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Are You In A Groove Or A Rut?
Ruts: the routines in our work and lives that have become uninteresting and bothersome.
Do What You Love, Love What You Do
Everyone dreams of a life full of love and adventure. But we fill ourselves with reasons not to follow our dreams. Instead of protecting us, they imprison and hold us back. Life will be over before we know it, so now is the time to really live life and love.
Offer Letter Limbo
Recently we concluded the placement of a Senior Sales Representative for a publicly traded company. The role was ripe with potential as the company products were being widely embraced by current and new customers. The recruiting process went smoothly as the candidate progressed through several rounds of face to face interviews with company executives.
Job Hunting Tips: Organizing Your Attack
Looking for work is an energy-devouring ordeal, often leading to running in circles and not getting anywhere. A systematic approach can help you focus on your goal, avoid wasting the energy you need to conserve for interviews and employer contacts, and lower your stress level.
Last Year Physician Resident Checklist
Here is a last year resident checklist not to forget:
Job Interviews -- How to Follow Up Effectively
Getting a job is not just about your performance in an interview. The post-interview follow up you do has a critical role in a successful job hunt. Here's how to do it effectively.
Petite Modeling: is There a Career for You?
PEtite modeling is a tough industry to break into. Especially since most modeling agencies won't represent models unless they're 5 feet and 9 inches tall or taller. Have you had people tell you're cute? Do you hear all the time "you should be a model"? But you just don't qualify for the strict standards that most modeling angencies have?
Cover Letter Sample -- For the Corporate Flight Attendant
Writing a cover letter to send with your rsum can be both confusing and frustrating. What exactly should you say? Are you saying too much? Are you only speaking about your needs vs. the company's needs? Oh, what to do! In this "short" piece, I will list some ideas on how to craft your cover letter. I have also provided some important links -- for additional assistance -- particularly if you find yourself still needing outside help.
Q & A How to Find a Great Search Firm
Q & A
The Dog Days of Job Hunting
Does a headline like this scare you?
Phone Interviews: Prepare to Ace Them!
More companies are saving time and effort by doing initial telephone interviews before committing themselves to hours of time assessing and evaluating applicants. They are doing this because, frankly, it's a good way to save a team's time from interviewing obviously unqualified people. From your standpoint, this means that you need to develop an additional interview skill.
Booster & Drainers
Like huge anchors on cruise ships, other people can hold you down. Not intentionally, but their negativity impacts you. It's hard to be winning at working when you're anchored in place. It's hard to see the next great idea and enthusiastically embrace it, when you're feeling a sticky heaviness. And it's hard to think creativity when you're feeling empty.
Like a balloon with air pouring out, deflated and flat at the end, I hung up the phone, drained. For the most part I'd offered a supportive ear with occasional contributions of asked for advice. Several days in a row, he called or stopped by my office, with a second, and a third, and a fourth verse of the same song. After each encounter, my energy felt zapped. It got to the point where Jay's presence alone started my energy leaving, replaced with an empty heaviness as if his negative energy was seeping into me.
It took me awhile to figure it out, but Jay was an energy drainer. I've learned over the years, if I spend too much time around people with negative energy to share, my optimism, and enthusiasm for work (or life) are adversely affected.
You may know people in your own work life who hold you down, zap your enthusiasm, cheer you into self-destruction, and occupy so much of your time and energy that you can't offer the best you to anyone, including yourself. And you know people who do the opposite.
My solution? Use that feedback. Spend less work time with the drainers, and more time with people who offer you an energy boost. Once you've identified how it feels to be around energy boosters, look to fill gaps, especially on work teams, with people who bring positive energy to a meeting, who are fun to be around, whose enthusiasm and positive approach lifts your spirits, enhances your creativity, and adds to your work life. Find and stay close to these energy boosters.
I use a simple measurement to identify energy drainers and energy boosters: the laugh factor. The more laughter I find in the process of doing business, the more energy I know is in the room. The more energy in the room, the more gets done. I look for people I can laugh with, have fun with and share ideas with. My work results are better when I'm around people who make me feel energized when I leave them. Yours can be, too.
(c) 2004 Nan S. Russell. All rights reserved.
Goal Setting - Road Map To Achieving Your Career Goals
Goal Setting & Research
Crafting A Stellar Career Summary For Your Resume
Are you a career changer? Or, are you satisfied with your stable career but interested in updating your resume? Are you aprofessional who has tried different things but are still searching for the kind of work that best suits you? Whatever yourcareer situation, what your resume most needs is a stellar career summary.
Telecommuting Resumes
Your resume needs to outline your skills and experience, as most know. What some may not know is that employers want to know what you'll bring to the table. They don't want to know what your daily duties were. They want to know what you did for the companies you worked for that makes you extraordinary. Did you save them money, did you make them money, how were you the best at what you did, etc. Yes, employers want to know what your experience is, so duties are good to add. Again, the name of the game is SELL YOURSELF! This does not lose its importance in a resume.
Common Rsum Mistakes
Using a general rsum.
Career Change: Success Tips
Successful career change is based on first making an honest assessment of your skills and experiences. Then you match them against the current market conditions. Finally you set realistic goals. Here are five strategies to keep in mind when changing careers:
Plan for a longer job search.
Changing industries requires research, which requires time. Assess your financial situation and make realistic decisions. You may have to consider an interim position or part-time work or even volunteering to bridge to your new career and gain valuable experience.
Five Mistakes That Can Derail Your Job Search
No matter how much time and energy you invest in job seeking, critical mistakes can derail your efforts. Consider the following job search scenario. Each of the mistakes described below can put your job search off track, but all are easy to avoid.
References: Choose Wisely
Sophisticated job seekers know and understand that sometime during the interview and hiring process you will be asked to supply references. With this in mind, here are five concepts to focus on in developing your reference list.
Get Off Your Butt and Out of the Rut
It's amazing to see so many people who are prepared to sacrifice their lives for the sake of their careers.
|