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Managing the Networking Meeting

Beyond The Basics: Career Strategies That Work Part II by Janet M. Shlaes, Ph.D.

Networking is an essential component of every career and job campaign. In the new millennium, "who you know" will continue to be just as important as "what you know." Individuals who fail to focus on initiating and maintaining professional relationships will find their career goals difficult to attain. The good news is that networking and relationship building are skills that anyone can learn to master.

Setting up networking meetings with friends, professional acquaintances, and referrals is the first step in the networking process. Where many individuals tend to get stuck is in knowing what to do and say once they have arrived at their networking meeting. Networking novices often make the critical mistake of being passive in their initial meetings. It is important to remember that your networking contact has agreed to take the time out of a busy schedule to meet with you. It is your job to be focused and prepared for your meeting. Since most networking meetings tend to be short (30 minutes or less), it is critical to prepare an agenda before meeting with each networking contact.

Creating Your Networking Meeting Agenda
Achieving Your Agenda Goals
Networking Meeting Follow-Up

Creating Your Networking Meeting Agenda:
Your networking objectives will be determined by the purpose of your meeting. Is your intention to trade information and build a relationship or are you currently involved in a full-time job search? Who is your contact and what type of information is your contact likely to be able to provide? There are many possible outcome goals for a networking meeting.

Do you want your contact to:

• Introduce you to others who can help you in your search?
• Introduce you to a recruiter who may be able to help you?
• Help you evaluate organizations that you have targeted in your search or introduce you to individuals who work in your targeted organizations?
• Supply you with relevant current information about your targeted industry (mergers, new technologies, expansions, acquisitions, etc.)?
• Provide information about specific openings in their firm or in your targeted organizations?
• Help you create or improve your self-marketing plan?
• Provide background or strategic information for a specific employment interview?

Achieving Your Agenda Goals:
Once you have determined the purpose of your networking meeting and have created agenda goals, you will need to be fully present and active in your networking meeting.

Specifically, you need to take responsibility for:

• Making your networking contact feel comfortable through your initial greeting and reassurance that you are just looking for information and advice and do not expect them to have a job for you.
• Projecting competence, self-confidence and a desire to reciprocate in whatever way you can.<.li>
• Clearly and briefly describing your background, skills, professional experience, accomplishments and added value.
• Effectively and efficiently communicating your career focus or potential career focus, including targeted organizations and/or positions.
• Helping your networking contact to help you by asking for specific information and/or referral or recruiter contacts.
• Setting up an agreement for follow-up with your contact.
• Being aware of when your networking meeting turns into an interview for a current or future opening and being prepared to take advantage of this opportunity.

Networking Meeting Follow-Up:
Follow-up is a critical component of every networking interview and many networking phone calls. Your dual goals for follow-up are to communicate your appreciation for your contact's time, effort and help, and to maintain your reciprocal networking relationship. Your networking contact will be more likely to think of you and pass your name on to others when your name is in their conscious awareness. In order for this to occur, it is your responsibility to keep in touch with your contacts and keep them informed about the progress of your job search.

In order to stay in touch with your networking contacts, you need to:

• Send your contact a brief, engaging, professional and well-written thank you letter or e-mail. In your thank-you note you can include a reminder regarding your agreed-upon follow-up procedures and any information that you may have that they would find useful.
• Phone your contacts approximately once a month in order to update them on your job-search progress, inquire about new leads or ideas, and to pass on any information that they might find useful in their own career development process.
• Inform your contacts when you start your new position. Thank them for their help and express your desire to be helpful to them in any way you can.

The more focused and strategic you are in your networking meetings and follow-up communications, the more willing your contacts will be to provide you with needed information, referrals and ideas. Remember, most people love to help other people and remember when others helped them at various points in their own careers. Through your networking meetings, you can create the opportunity for your contacts to feel good about helping someone in their career and/or job search. Once you've landed your next position, you can continue the process and positively impact others in their careers and job campaigns by continuing to actively network.

Updated 4 January 2000