Networking is an important part of your job search.  You may be tempted to sit in your home office blasting out resumes, scouring job boards but that’s not going to get you a job.  Networking terrifies lots of people, even professionals with years of experience.  But you can do it.  Sharan Tash, President of The Professional Networker, Inc. has this advice when entering a room full of people you don’t know.  Come prepared.  Have a 30-second elevator pitch to quickly introduce you to others.  When registering for an event, introduce yourself to the person taking the registration.  Wear appropriate attire and be aware of your body language.  Enter the room with confidence.  Scan the room to see where clusters of people are and determine who the influencers are.  Invite others to join your conversation and be the host.  Don’t manipulate the conversation.  Be a good listener.  Be able to exit gracefully and try it all over again.

I know it’s hard.  But it will get easier.  You know you need to get out in front of people.  Find out who is doing what and where you can leverage your expertise.  A quick google search gives you access to everything from AARP to the YNPN (Young Nonprofit Professionals Network).  Whatever your line of work or geographic location you’ll find networking opportunities.

For a complete listing of networking events in the Chicago land area along with lots of great networking advice, go to www.thepronetworker.com.

Posted by: Camilla Dadey

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 13th, 2007 at 3:38 pm and is filed under Networking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.