As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, the importance of who you know keeps going up. Here are five tips for cultivating and growing your network. Note: I don't advocate doing any of this to simply take advantage of other people. Networking only works if you are genuinely interested in the people you are trying to connect with. If you try to fake it just to get favors from people, everyone will know. 1. Use Social Networking Tools Sites like Facebook and Linked In make it easy to find people you've known in the past. In particular, the ability to look at the friends of your current friends can save you a lot of time in hunting down acquaintances from school or previous … [Read more...] about 5 Simple Networking Tips
networking
5 Tips for Networking Geniuses
Your network is the people you know and stay in contact with. The size and quality of your network has a huge impact on your opportunities in life. Obviously, keeping your network "healthy" is instrumental in growing it. What is a healthy network? A healthy network is one where the people who know you, think of your name when there is an opportunity that you might be interested in, a job you might like, or question you can answer, or a favor you can provide. Notice, it isn't just about taking--it is about people thinking of you both when they need something and when they can help you. In this post, we are going to look at five tips that will help make you a networking genius--someone … [Read more...] about 5 Tips for Networking Geniuses
Networking in Large Companies
Nokia has an interesting culture for promoting informal mentoring. When someone new comes on staff, their manager sits down with them and makes a list of the people they need to meet. The manager helps give the new employee an idea of what they should discuss with each person on the list and explains why building that particular relationship is important. Nokia then supports this practice by giving the new employee time to visit with each person on the list--even when that means traveling to other company locations. The result is a very strong collaborative culture that gives new people a jump-start on building relationships that might take years to identify and build in a … [Read more...] about Networking in Large Companies
Standing on Shoulders of Giants
You've probably read the quote from Isaac Newton: If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants. The idea is that we can leverage the work of people before us in order to do things that wouldn't be possible on our own. If you want to create a new type of time-saving computer application, you don' t have to start with inventing a computer. You don't even need to completely understand how a computer works in order to leverage it for your success. Learning to use the results, accomplishments, and skills of others doesn't always come naturally. While you might not be tempted to reinvent the computer, it can be very easy to overlook the input from your friends and … [Read more...] about Standing on Shoulders of Giants
Interesting Reading on Calling/Visiting Cards
Calling cards are basically personal business cards. Brett and Kate have written a nice introduction to calling cards. Time magazine also wrote a short piece talking about how they are coming back. Evidently the Marines art still using calling/visiting cards today. … [Read more...] about Interesting Reading on Calling/Visiting Cards