Networking at Network RI

Sorry that it's been a while since I posted. I hope you enjoyed the last post about the article on the Quonset Point Jobs Website. I have heard that at least one of you has used it to find jobs available down there.

I have decided to concentrate on commenting on the blogs that I have in the blogroll on this site (look at the right hand column for blogs of interest). There you will find some very interesting blog posts.

Today, I would like to comment on the most recent blog entry for T.A.O.U (The Art of Unemployment)Blog, Step Up the Networking (May 21). This is a great blog which references an article from The San Francisco Chronicle titled, 4 Career Networking Tips that Work.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/05/20/investopedia44266.DTL&type=jobs

Read this article first. Basically the four tips discussed in the article are:
1. Become the type of person other people want to meet
2. Be more interested in other people than you are in yourself
3. Be more concerned with collecting business cards than handing them out
4. Join clubs.

Be sure to read the TAOU blog for yourself instead of just reading my response to it. Go there now if you are curious.

OK, now that you have read the post, how does this relate to what we do at Network RI in Providence and how can we take advantage of these tips for networking?

First, let's look at what the definition of "networking" is. From www.thefreedictionary.com, networking is interacting or engaging in informal communication with others for mutual assistance or support.

When I thought about the article and the blog, I started to think that there are two categories of people you may want to network with. The first are the people you already know. The second are the people you meet everyday. How is the contact different? How is it the same? Today, I will focus on just the first group and think about how the tips relate to connecting with those people I already know.

The TAOU blog suggests that by making an effort to keep in touch with friends from school and former colleagues at work, we can find some valuable job opportunities that we wouldn't necessarily hear about otherwise. Think about how many people we could connect with from high school, college, and any jobs that we have had through our lives to this point.

When I thought about this, I realized that I really never kept in touch with many high school and college friends and that I rarely contacted previous employers and colleagues. How many opportunities may I have missed by not making connections? Probably quite a few.

With Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networking sites, it would be fairly easy to try to connect with people I have known. I wouldn't want to contact everyone I have ever met or known, but I may want to contact a few of those people I think about and with whom I had much in common.