In the classic film, “The Graduate,” the character Benjamin Braddock, played by Dustin Hoffman, is a befuddled young man, totally unsure of his future. One of his father’s friends has one word of advice for his future: “plastics.”
“Exactly how do you mean?” he asks.
“There’s a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?”
When you look at all the plastic in our lives since the movie was released in 1967, the advice is nothing less than prescient.
Today’s job hunter should likewise focus on one thing: networking. Will you think about its importance for your current and future career? While nobody can predict with certainty which career will be right for you, it is a pretty sure bet that you’ll find it and progress over time if you develop your networking skills.
When it comes down to it, networking is recognition that who you know counts. Moreover, what they say about you, and to whom they say it, counts even more. That isn’t to say that you need to be a part of some nefarious old boys’ club or dependent on an influential uncle to help get you a job.
It’s easy to stay at home, or sit in our office cubicles, convincing ourselves that what we know and produce is of primary importance. Meeting new people and nurturing existing relationships often seem like hard, intimidating work with little immediate payoff, and so we keep putting it off.
“It has become our custom to be so respectful of each other’s space — or instead, so fearful of rejection — that we no longer know how to begin a conversation with strangers, let alone keep one going,” writes Debra Fine, author of ” The Fine Art of Small Talk: How to Start a Conversation, Keep It Going, Build Networking Skills — and Leave a Positive Impression!”
You probably remember when you were very young and your parents told you not to speak to strangers. They ingrained a fear that can be helpful to you as a child. As an adult, if the reticence remains, it can become counterproductive.
Consider active networking and reaching out to others in these three ways.
1. LinkedIn. It’s critical to think of social networks like LinkedIn, not as databases to mine for information or find people to populate your list of contacts (and it is great for both of these), but as vehicles to create human relationships between yourself and those with whom you have at least one thing in common.
It might be that you attended the same college, shared a major or grew up in the same town or city. It might be that you’ve worked in the same industry, attended the same events or belong to the same professional or trade organizations. It could be anything, but it must be something.
Here’s how to start: When you invite people to “link” to you, use a personal message rather than LinkedIn’s boilerplate “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.” That said, depending on how you invite someone to connect, you may not be given an option to not use the boilerplate. In that case, take pains to send an immediate follow-up message. In the space of a sentence, explain how you came to the person and your hopes of following him and interacting.
Remember that you’ll be stronger down the road having had some interactions and the beginning of a relationship than you ever will be as a stranger coming into someone’s life suddenly just to ask for something.
2. Professional networking. Take pains to figure out where professionals like you interact with each other. Places, such as LinkedIn’s Groups, meetups, lectures, conferences, symposia and conventions, should come to mind. Figure out how to get into the room with the people who are your peers, whether or not you are currently bringing in a paycheck.
3. Small talk. Get a conversation going by asking open-ended questions that don’t reveal your own thoughts. For example, ask, “What are you hoping to hear at this talk?” “What brought you here? “What do you know about this place, speaker or topic?” “What challenges are you facing in your company?” “What things would make life easier?”
Of course, once you learn something about someone else, you can commiserate, offer your own suggestions about how they might go about solving an issue and share insights about things you have in common.
Remember that relationships are formed around people having common interest. That means you need to find those people with whom you share something and build from there. And once you know that you do, share something. The walls of fear and isolation can begin to crumble and in their place you can erect the bonds of friendship.
Happy hunting!
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Here’s How to Network Your Way to Success originally appeared on usnews.com