Why 1 Networking Meeting = 15 Phone Calls and 30 Emails
By Kevin Donlin | December 18th, 2008
Just got back from a networking meeting over coffee with two people: my neighbor and a client.
Both are in the job market.
By the time I had to dash out for another meeting 45 minutes later, I had written down the names of 10 different people I will refer them to and call on their behalf. In addition, they exchanged about 5 names with each other.
That’s 15 solid job leads from one 45-minute networking meeting — one lead every 3 minutes.
How many emails and phone calls would you have to do to get 15 job leads? I estimate 15 phone calls and/or 30 emails, based on my experience helping folks do this since 1996.
That makes networking meetings a pretty valuable use of your time, eh? And don’t even get me started on the difference between meeting live humans and surfing inhuman employment web sites …
How did we come up with so many job leads in our meeting?
Three reasons:
1) Each person had at least a clear idea of the job they wanted; if not a job title, at least a focused set of 3 or so skills.
2) Each person had a list of target employers — places they’d like to work at. A list of 20 is best.
3) Up to 80% of communication is non-verbal, according to research I’ve seen. That means, there’s nothing as effective as a face-to-face meeting when it comes to delivering a message. In this case, that message is all about the job you seek. When you look another person in the eye, you’re more involved in the conversation and more likely to come up with more ideas (I think).
When the people you’re networking with know 1) the job you seek and 2) the names of 10-20 companies where you want to work, you make it very easy for them to help you, because you give them more hooks with which to latch onto the names swimming around in their heads.
Networking is like fishing, people: You’ll catch something faster with 20 hooks in the water than with one. Your hooks are your job titles and ideal employers. Have them ready the next time you meet someone for coffee, and you could come away with 15, 20, or more employment leads.
Why not schedule a coffee with someone today? Better yet, meet with two people, as I did. Take your hooks with you. Then come back here and post your comments on how you did.
(More tips like this one in my Free Simple Job Search Manifesto.)
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