Networking for Career Change

Career advisors tend to sum up all their advice in one word: "networking."

Too old? Too big a resume gap? Bypass the hiring process through networking.

Inevitably my clients groan: "Networking? I knew you were going to say that. I hate to network."

Frankly, I don't blame them. The realities:

(1) In my experience, people who have strong networking skills will reach any career goals faster than people who don't.

(2) You need two kinds of networking. You can network for information and network for contacts. Sometimes one evolves into the other: you attend an industry meeting and someone says, "I've been looking for someone with your skills. Since you asked..."

(3) Networking for information means asking people in a field, "What do you do? How do you do it?" It's not about asking, "What would you recommend to someone like me?"

(4) You network for contacts by crystallization: starting with someone you know and moving outward. You find someone who knows someone who...

(5) These days it's hard to get an appointment with anyone who doesn't know you. And you almost always have to pay mentors. See
Mentoring for the 21st Century

Forget what you learned thirty years ago, i.e., People are flattered when you ask for information. These days everybody has read the Parachute book and they're more likely to be annoyed.