4 Steps to Networking Success

Notes from presentation by Bonnie Chan

at Canada Job ExpoToronto

January 29th 2013

This presentation by Maira Bay de Souza is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

Before we begin ...

Items in this font are the notes I took from what the presenter said

Items in this font are my own comments

Summary

The 4 steps to networking success can be summarized in one word: GROW

Generate

Research

Own

Work

Making small talk

Some tips for making conversation:

Location: “are you from here?”

Family: questions like “is that your family?” (pointing at interviewer's desk with a photo on it) are appropriate. But other questions like “are you married?” might not be.

Hobbies

Community

Making small talk (contd.)

Use open-ended questions such as “what do you like about your job/your community/your family/etc ?”

Excellent tip! This prevents people from answering 'Yes' or 'No'. When people give that answer, you have little time to think about what to ask next. And you might end up in an uncomfortable silence.

When you ask open-ended questions, people elaborate, they talk more. This gives you several possibilities of subjects to talk about next.

Generate

Create your elevator pitch (30 seconds introduction)

Know what you are looking for (job, freelance, full-time, contract, what industry, company size, etc)

The key here is to be specific.

I know this can be hard for some people.

You don't have to write a perfect pitch from the start. Just try writing one and refine it as time goes by and you learn more about what you want.

Research

Find out where the people that will hire you hang out (coffee shop, sports club, etc)

Go there and hang out there too

Do the same for the people that will be your co-workers, or if you are looking to meet a specific person

I've done that and I agree that it is a good idea. Go for it! But please, don't be creepy!

A simple way is to go to events where the people who will hire you go to. Be honest and tell them what you're looking for, but never sound desperate.

Own

Take ownership of your networking

Use the Law of Attraction:

Tell your brain who you're going to meet (example “I'm going to meet 3 people today that will lead me to a job”)

Another great tip!

Work

Take action! Now!

List 3 networking actions that you will take in the next 72 hours:

1.______________________

2.______________________

3.______________________

Thanking

Always thank people for their time and attention

Send personalized physical cards (as opposed to emails and other less personal ways of communication)

I like her idea, but I think you will agree that it might be very costly and time consuming.

Right now, I'm just focusing on following up monthly with all my contacts.

Disclaimer

The notes presented here are what I understood from what the presenter communicated. They might not be 100% accurate, as I was taking notes and listening to the presentation at the same time.

All the information I am quoting from the presenter is their intellectual property. I am reproducing it here under the fair use policy, for quoting purposes only.