a strategic art that depends on a thorough knowledge of the process and good communication skills. First and foremost, you need to determine whom you need to meet to help you find a job or climb the ladder internally and then how and where to meet them. And, if you are employed, you need to have both an internal and external relationship-building plan. You never know how long that job will last!

I. What to do Befor

Cradle to grave security is gone. The new AT&T will never be called “Ma.” Your key to controlling your career and your destiny is to build high-value relationships. You’re in charge. The question is, “What are you doing to insure your future?”

People like to hire and do business with people they know and trust. It helps if they like you; however, that’s not as important as the confidence or warm and fuzzy feeling they get from already knowing you or being referred to you by someone who does. However, just knowing people isn’t enough. You need to meet and develop and maintain relationships with the right people.

When you are in transition, you have an affinity with the word “networking.” You know you are supposed to do it because outplacement firms, coaches and even your family tell you so. Then you land a job, and you get so caught up in it 24/7 that you forget networking is a valuable lifetime process.

I experienced this firsthand in the late 80s at the first A&T where people had joined the Bell System “for life.” When the down sizing started, many employees (who had left promptly at 5 pm daily to do their own thing) asked me what this “networking thing” was about.

And, not all of them learned the first time. An attendee at a workshop I was doing for an outplacement firm told me he regretted that as a speechwriter for a Bell executive he didn’t use that time to build relationships. “You would think I would have learned,” he said. “I didn’t. This is my second time around since I was let go from Bell. I guarantee you that now I’ll do everything I can to make it the last time.”

Far more than glad-handing and giving out business cards, networking is a strategic art that depends on a thorough knowledge of the process and good communication skills. First and foremost, you need to determine whom you need to meet to help you find a job or climb the ladder internally and then how and where to meet them. And, if you are employed, you need to have both an internal and external relationship-building plan. You never know how long that job will last!

I. What to do Before

hey get from already knowing you or being referred to you by someone who does. However, just knowing people isn’t enough. You need to meet and develop and maintain relationships with the right people.

When you are in transition, you have an affinity with the word “networking.” You know you are supposed to do it because outplacement firms, coaches and even your family tell you so. Then you land a job, and you get so caught up in it 24/7 that you forget networking is a valuable lifetime process.

I experienced this firsthand in the late 80s at the first A&T where people had joined the Bell System “for life.” When the down sizing started, many employees (who had left promptly at 5 pm daily to do their own thing) asked me what this “networking thing” was about.

And, not all of them learned the first time. An attendee at a workshop I was doing for an outplacement firm told me he regretted that as a speechwriter for a Bell executive he didn’t use that time to build relationships. “You would think I would have learned,” he said. “I didn’t. This is my second time around since I was let go from Bell. I guarantee you that now I’ll do everything I can to make it the last time.”

Far more than glad-handing and giving out business cards, networking is a strategic art that depends on a thorough knowledge of the process and good communication skills. First and foremost, you need to determine whom you need to meet to help you find a job or climb the ladder internally and then how and where to meet them. And, if you are employed, you need to have both an internal and external relationship-building plan. You never know how long that job will last!

I. What to do Befor

aught up in it 24/7 that you forget networking is a valuable lifetime process.

I experienced this firsthand in the late 80s at the first A&T where people had joined the Bell System “for life.” When the down sizing started, many employees (who had left promptly at 5 pm daily to do their own thing) asked me what this “networking thing” was about.

And, not all of them learned the first time. An attendee at a workshop I was doing for an outplacement firm told me he regretted that as a speechwriter for a Bell executive he didn’t use that time to build relationships. “You would think I would have learned,” he said. “I didn’t. This is my second time around since I was let go from Bell. I guarantee you that now I’ll do everything I can to make it the last time.”

Far more than glad-handing and giving out business cards, networking is a strategic art that depends on a thorough knowledge of the process and good communication skills. First and foremost, you need to determine whom you need to meet to help you find a job or climb the ladder internally and then how and where to meet them. And, if you are employed, you need to have both an internal and external relationship-building plan. You never know how long that job will last!

I. What to do Befor

p I was doing for an outplacement firm told me he regretted that as a speechwriter for a Bell executive he didn’t use that time to build relationships. “You would think I would have learned,” he said. “I didn’t. This is my second time around since I was let go from Bell. I guarantee you that now I’ll do everything I can to make it the last time.”

Far more than glad-handing and giving out business cards, networking is a strategic art that depends on a thorough knowledge of the process and good communication skills. First and foremost, you need to determine whom you need to meet to help you find a job or climb the ladder internally and then how and where to meet them. And, if you are employed, you need to have both an internal and external relationship-building plan. You never know how long that job will last!

I. What to do Befor

a strategic art that depends on a thorough knowledge of the process and good communication skills. First and foremost, you need to determine whom you need to meet to help you find a job or climb the ladder internally and then how and where to meet them. And, if you are employed, you need to have both an internal and external relationship-building plan. You never know how long that job will last!

I. What to do Before You Work an Event

a. Create a Plan
We network for four reasons: Advice, Information, Referrals or Recommendations and Support. Your relationship-building plan helps you focus on what events to attend and why. It also helps you debrief after each event to further focus your efforts.

i. What is the focus of your business or career?
ii. What is your main function?
iii. How does what you do benefit your employer/customers/clients?
iv. Who is your target market?
v. Where can you meet them?
vi. Where can you meet people who can introduce you to them?
vii. Whom do you want to add to your network?

b. Become a Student of Impression Management
People decide 10 things about you within 10 seconds of seeing you. It is based on your image, a combination of appearance and behavior. Every color you wear sends a message. Know what impression you want to create and how to create it. Do you want to say authority, responsibility and knowledge? Then, wear navy blue. Successful? Then wear darker gray. Dependable, practical, stable – brown. Powerful, dignified, sophisticated – black.

Always check out the company’s culture and that of the department you would be working for before deciding what to wear for an interview. When I was at Bell Labs, management and engineers had very different dress codes, and it would have been a faux pas not to know that when interviewing.

Keep in mind that a suit jacket with long sleeves, slightly padded shoulders and a collar makes you look one-third more powerful. You can always take the jacket off in an interview. You can never add it if you didn’t bring it.

Body language also speaks bef