Networking (in a careers context) is about building and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships useful to you throughout your entire working career.

Why network?

• Acquire quality referrals to people and organisations
• Expand existing pool of contacts
• Provide a common point of reference which will help you to be remembered
• Build rapport
• Acquire information about career opportunities, companies, jobs or industries that are of interest to you
• Provide validation for your choice of career
• Useful for refining your interview technique and improving self-promotion skills.

Why people are reluctant to network

• Lack of understanding as to what networking is about and how it works
• Misguided belief that to successfully network it is necessary to know a wide array of influential people
• Misconception that it is necessary to be outgoing and gregarious to successfully network
• Fear of embarrassment and/or 'loss of face', along with a fear of rejection
• False assumption that friends and contacts will be unable to help
• Anxiety over what to talk about during a networking meeting.

Why people are happy to network with you

• Most people genuinely want to assist others to realise their goals
• Being in a position to assist someone can be very satisfying and make a person feel good about themselves, in essence you are stroking their ego by asking for advice!
• Every extra person who becomes part of that person's network (i.e. you) provides opportunities to 'tap into' many others from your network. It is quite possible that one day you will be in a position to provide this person with advice, information and/or contacts.

How to identify and build your network

Though we might not realise it, most of us network daily. For example, if we need a hairdresser/dentist/builder, we'll usually ask a friend for a referral.

Networks can be divided into two broad categories:

• Professional - current or past work colleagues, managers, customers, competitors, suppliers, professional associations, support service providers
• Personal - friends, neighbours, relatives, doctors, dentists, accountants, lawyers, university alumni, your children's teachers/parents of their friends, stockbrokers, sport club associates etc

Networking guidelines

• Know what you want prior to your meeting - i.e. are you looking for referrals or market intelligence about your target career direction?
• Practice talking about yourself and articulating career goals, values, ideal job etc
• Do your research before your meeting - i.e. who should you be targeting, what do you already know about this person and/or what market intelligence do you already have?
• Earn the right to ask for a favour - networking is a two way situation. Earn the right to ask someone a favour by offering help to others as well as asking for it. If you're always asking for favours but never returning the favour you'll find people will become reluctant to meet with you in the future
• What are you going to do during the networking meeting - make sure you have a list of questions to ask prepared before you go to your meeting
• After the meeting - assess how you went, ask yourself what did you do well, what could be improved, did you get other networking referrals, how well did you articulate your needs, what are your next steps?
• Know the odds - the more effort you put into networking the greater your chances of success. Even spending half an hour per week is a valuable investment in your career and allows you to build powerful strategic alliances.
• Remember well-networked people are seldom out of work for long - their next job is usually only a phone call away!