networking

Why We’re Bad At Networking: Too Much Talk of Networking

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Sometimes these posts come out of nowhere.  And they launch series.

I was discussing social capital on Twitter, as best one can at 140 characters a post while taking a walk, and one thing led to another.  Someone brought up why networking wasn’t preached enough (which is the subject of this post) and I realized it’s time to discuss why we’re bad at networking in the first place.

True it may not be “us we” that’s bad, but an amazing amount of people kind of are bad at it.  Worse there’s no excuse for it as we have the tools, technology, information, and we’re naturally social creatures.  If someone can use Facebook to declare their love of beer pong, they can network (as long as they remember to take down the beer pong stuff, seriously people).

So why is it some of us are just so bad at it?  Especially as so many people talk about it?

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How Blogging Helps Your Career #9 – The Coffee Shop

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(The roundup for the “How Blogging Helps Your Career Series” is here)

So you’re blogging away.  You get feedback and suggestions.  You comment on other posts and others comment on yours.  You even meet people that contribute to your blog and vice versa.

Somewhere in all of this you find your running a small or community or are part of one.  And your mind hearkens back to every single person who ever told you you should network more.  Instead of that rising desire to scream at them “yes, I know everyone tells me that!” you realize you are doing that.

By blogging.

Blogging invites people in, invites them to communicate, creates dialogue.  By blogging you can do a lot of networking without thinking about it (and over-thinking about it).  Sure blogging lets you shout to the world, but it lets people talk back, dialogues begin, and some blogs even become comfortable places to discuss things.

You’re networking.  And that can help your career and ambitions.

Blogging is a coffee shop.

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The Recruiting Nightmare #5 – Networking Nuttiness

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Fine, fine, so making job postings, evaluating them, and getting them out is kind of hard and challenging.  So a recruiter can rely on networking, correct?

It’s easy to assume that.  We hear all the time that networking is the solution to us finding jobs – and in many cases it’s right (well, partially).  So it has to be the solution for recruiters as well.

Not exactly.

Networking relies on you connecting with other people who connect you with other people and so on to finding the right recruits.  Sounds simple enough, right?

The problem breaks down in that whole “other people thing.”  Networking only works if the people in your network do it as well, and do it well enough.  As is noted endlessly in job searches, seminars, books, and my own writing, a majority of people aren’t too hot at networking.

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