What’s Your Real Problem With Networking?

By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter

Imagine yourself at a cocktail party with your wife/partner/husband. People are mingling actively. Talking and moving on to different people after a few minutes.

Someone walks over to the two of you and says they are friends of the host. You nod and ask a few polite questions.

“How do you know our host?”

“What do you do?”

“Have you done it for very long?”

And suddenly it happens.

They ask, “Can I borrow $50.”

You’re taken aback, make an excuse for why you won’t lend them $50 and then move on to chat with someone else. As you speak with that person and several others, your disturbance about being asked for money pervades conversations with others and actually keeps you up a night or two later.

“I hardly know them and they asked for money,” you think before eventually going to sleep.

Isn’t this how most people network?

You call or email someone. Maybe you name-drop someone; maybe you don’t. Within 5 minutes, you’re asking whether this stranger or old acquaintance knows someone and can recommend you for a job.