Job Seeker Networking Mistakes

Yesterday I shared a post I wrote about my first networking meetings as a job seeker.

It made me think about my biggest mistake trying to “network.”

For a long time I didn’t get much out of the meetings, until I changed something.

My mistake wasn’t that I didn’t have business cards, or that my 30 second commercial was as bad as everyone else’s.

My mistake was that I went to those meetings with the wrong purpose in mind.

I was hoping to get filled, and get questions answered.

Week after week I went, hoping to get.  And I didn’t get as much as I needed, and I felt unfulfilled.

Then, I realized I should go to those meetings and GIVE.  I listened for opportunities to give leads, or introduce contacts.  I looked for chances to help, and strengthen, and encourage.

When I switched from hoping to GET to wanting to GIVE, the meetings, and the results, completely changed.

I finally looked forward to going to those meetings.

I made more meaningful contacts (since I was a giver).

I always left feeling fulfilled.

And I started to get more. I got leads, and ideas, and encouragement, in a way that I wasn’t getting before.

I don’t know what your mistakes are right now, but if you are networking to GET, I encourage you to take a few months and concentrate on GIVING, and see how that goes… see what’s different.

For me, it made all the difference!