While reading the online WSJ this morning, I found a blog posting about networking made by Dawn Jordan, who is a former operations VP at Bank of America, and currently unemployed due to a laid-off.
She mentions that at the networking events she recently attended, the majority of people she had met were unemployed, so she thought it less possible to meet with prospective employers to land a job. But one day, she realized that networking with fellow unemployed folks can be as beneficial as meeting with prospective employers, because those fellow unemployed can give her the advice that they learned their own job search experience and share their network of connections with her.
Her posting was interesting enough for me to rethink how I've been doing my own networking effort, and to think twice about the real purpose of networking. I had thought that networking is a stressful, yet effective activity to land a job I want; meeting prospective employers, introducing myself to strangers, and trying to get a connection to get job interviews. I had probably done this most of my time at any networking event. It took my sprit to approach to strangers and try to carry a decent conversation with a person who I barely know. And at the end of the day, with business cards in my hand, I'd suddenly exhausted and wondering how many of these names actually help me get a job interview, despite the fact I spent hours to network.
After reading Dawn's posting, I realized that the networking doesn't need to be like this. Yes, it is a place where you can get connected with prospective employers hoping you can get a job at one of them, but it is also a place where you can get to know people, chat, share ideas, help others, and sometimes reconnect with. By thinking this way, I guess I can relax more, and enjoy meeting people in these events.
One other thing I use for my networking is the online networking community, Linkedin. I was introduced to this network by a classmate when I started the MSA program almost two years ago. My network has been growing since then (it is still small, though), and I enjoy using this tool. It is amazing how I can get connected (or reconnected) with people through this network community. Some of my classmates from previous semesters are regular users. One of them announced that she recently passed the CPA exam through a message sent to us through Linkedin and invited us to get together to celebrate the achievements each of us made since we had left the semester a year ago. How nice is this? The online networking may not produce the exact same effect as face-to-face networking can do, but it should be possible to get connected with new people. It is also a great place to "reconnect" with people. I use this online networking community primarily to reconnect with people I want to keep in touch with.
If you have experience that online networking is as good as the face-to-face networking, or if you have advice as to new ways to use it, please share your thoughts in the comment section.
