I was having a conversation today over lunch about networking and brought up a book by Harvey MacKay titled "Dig Your Well Before You're Thirsty". His perspective on networking is that you should do favors for other people so that when you need one there will be more than one person whom you could call on for assistance. You build a network of contacts who owe you a favor. When you need something, call in a favor. The important thing to remember is that this takes quite a bit of doing on your part, which brings me to reciprocity, one of the topics I often discuss in the context of networking. You get out of networking what you put into it. Network before you need a job, don't wait until crunch time to try to build your network. Find other people who have shared interests, viewpoints, etc. and keep in contact. Sending an article that might be of interest to someone can go a long way and keeps the line of communication open.
Ilan Smith
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