Career Boosting Tip #6: Networking Advice: Be interesting

Whether you are job search networking or business networking, one sure fire way to slow yourself down is to be boring. Boring isn’t memorable. Boring doesn’t entice someone to want to follow-up. Which is not to say that you should be obnoxious, or outrageous.

So, what are some ways to be interesting:

• Be Yourself: What is it about job search and networking? So many people try and morph themselves into what they think they are supposed to be - and that is transparent.
• Be Your Best Self: Not only am I suggesting to be yourself, but go one step further, and be your best self. Turn that light on. Be alive. Be energized and enthusiastic. Increase your wattage and people will notice. 
• Have an Opinion: If you have an opinion, share it.
• Be Plugged In: Usually, your networking is done in context…industry, interest groups, community organizations. Know what is going on. Demonstrate that you aren’t just floating by.
• Genuinely Care: If you do nothing else, remember that networking is about relationship building, and the best way to start a relationship is to take a genuine interest in someone, and ultimately, help them get what they want. Be an active listener. Ask genuine questions and remember the answers.
• Be Useful: Useful people are interesting. Are you a hub of information? A source of other contacts? Is your finger on the pulse of the industry? Can you open doors? Provide expertise? Slam dunk any of the above and you will be interesting.

You get the picture.

Career Boosting Tip #5: Develop Your Top 20 Relationships

Did you think I had given up on this Top 100 list? No way. Just resting. Really.

Remember back in Tip #3 - Mine your Inbox for Contacts, I talked about working through your email archives to keep track of your contacts. Well, here is the follow-on. It applies, of course, to your universe of contacts, not just those people hanging out in your Inbox.

1. Make a list of your best relationships…not necessarily your best friends mind you. I am talking about professional relationships. Those people who know you and who have the power to help your career along. Like who? Well, if you know The Donald, great, but in the real world, think about..

• Individuals within your organization who are 1 or 2 levels above you, within your department and outside of it. You need to have some kind of exposure, or relationship, or at least the very real possibility of creating one over time.
• Peers within your organization who are on the move and in a non-competitive area.
• People who fit the above description but who are external to your organization. Again, you need some kind of contact or relationship with them.
• People whose opinion, input, coaching, and advice you really value.

2. Prioritize your list. If you have more than 20 names, focus in on the Top 20. The people who might be in a position to refer you to new opportunities, assign/hire you to career expanding work, go to bat for you, introduce you to someone interesting, etc.

3. Now, get thinking about how you can be useful to these people. For in-company relationships, it is often about doing great work, delivering on what you promised, and communicating and interacting at their level. Perhaps you can now or in the future refer quality people and companies to your contact. You might be a conduit of information. Get creative. Even if nothing occurs to you, the idea is to reciprocate.

I know. You may be thinking that this all sounds a bit mechanical. Here’s the bottom line. Your whole career can be made by just a few key relationships. Those key relationships may be within your grasp right now. Even if they aren’t, building your networking / relationship building muscle is an important skill.

Career Boosting Tip #4: Do more than "dust off" the resume

Update your resume. Yes, I know, so obvious. But, I am suggesting more…

First, your resume should be relatively up-to-date. What does that mean? I recommend that anyone who has been in a job for more than 6 months should update their resume to include their current role. You never know who is going to call. Or what internal or external opportunities might come around. (Or, what negative surprise might you one Monday AM.)

More importantly, the process of capturing what you have done and what you are currently working on is an important, ongoing career management imperative.

To do more than dust off your resume, consider…

• Focusing on outcomes, the difference you have made rather than solely on duties and responsibilities
• Capturing your true professional strengths and putting them on the resume. Don’t be shy.
• Developing a summary pitch about what you offer and where you fit. You can’t and shouldn’t be all things to all employers, so don’t try. Figure out what you do and do very well, and capture that.

 Of course, we would be delighted to assist you with BoldCareer’s resume writing services. However, you can do it yourself as well. It takes an investment of your time, but one that will pay off. Make it part of your to-do list to boost your career this year.

Career Boosting Tip #3: Mine your Inbox for Contacts

There is no getting around it. Building and nurturing the relationships in your professional network are key career boosting activities.

If you are like me, your email inbox receives a constant flood of emails from all kinds of people. One of the things I find is that I have significant email interactions with some people during the year, but they don’t make it into my contact management system. I have a process for doing so, but it isn’t foolproof. Not only do you not want to lose the details of those contacts, but you might also want to work on building that relationship. Here are 2 steps:

1. Work through your email inbox and see if there are any people you want to stay in touch with who slipped through the cracks in terms of not making it into your contact management system. Look at the From field and the cc field as well. This might include both internal contacts and external. The external might include…

Vendors. Customers. Consultants. Industry experts. Media contacts. Event organizers. Strong candidates. Headhunters. And interesting people you were introduced to, met or had some interaction with.

And don’t forget that cc field. There is often hidden treasure in being included in email conversations with people you didn’t physically interact with. (For example, if you were dealing with Person X, and X sent email communications to you and Person Y and you responded to X and Y responded to X, there might be an opportunity for you to touch base with Y to solidify the contact.)

(BTW, let’s not forget those things called business cards. If you are sitting on a pile of unprocessed business cards, this might be a good time to work through those as well.)

Make sure the contacts you would like to be part of your network are included in your contact management system of choice. If you go through this step, it will also refresh your memory about who you did interact with during the year. Even if they made it into your contact management system, you may have forgotten about them.

2. Flag the people that you think, suspect and hope might help further your career development plans.

And that’s it for now. (For extra points, you might want to send a Happy New Year message to some of these people just to touch base.)

Technorati Tags: career coach, career development, networking

Career Boosting Tip #2: Journal

You can feel the momentum and inertia of all of your professional and personal roles building and we aren’t half way through January yet.

There is a natural energy to the New Year. If you haven’t already, Schedule time in your calendar for some planning.

Personally, I write in my Moleskine, but whatever works for you.

Book some uninterrupted time to try and learn from the previous year and shape the new year.

Take stock:

• How do you feel about your job and career progress? 
• What did you learn about yourself? 
• What do you want more of? 
• What do you want less of?

Plan:

• What would you like to change, be, do, and make happen? 
• If you already have a personal plan, how are you progressing?

These aren’t resolutions. What I am suggesting is a few hours of quiet time for a personal check-up to seriousl ask yourself, how am I doing?