I hate networking

I hate networking.  These are not my words, but those of a client I was working with this week.  We were talking about the best way to find a job during a recession.  I firmly believe that networking is the key, you may get lucky with Monster or CareerBuilder but chances are your next job will come from someone within your network or in tour network’s network.  Over the past couple of months, I have been blogging about LinkedIn, Twitter and FaceBook and how important it is to build your online network.  My advice today is to get offline, stop twittering, stop reading blogs (except mine, of course) and start pressing the flesh and have real conversation not ones that are limited to 140 characters.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Twitter and LinkedIn but there is no substitute to good old fashioned networking.  You need to state your case and promote yourself in the real world. 

I know networking is touch and unpleasant and causes a ton of anxiety for a lot of people.  I consider myself an extrovert and I still get butterflies before going into a networking event.  The way I get over it is by making myself do it.  The more I do it the more comfortable I become.  Just this past weekend, I “forced” myself to attend a local chamber of commerce function.  I was nervous because I did not know anyone there but I wanted to cement some relationships with folks that I have been trading emails with for months.  I did not go to this event because I love to promote myself, I did it because I knew how valuable it would be for me and my business to establish these relationships.

Here is my advice, substitute an hour’s worth of online time with some real life networking time per week.  You have nothing to lose, and a lot to gain.