Thursday, September 8, 2011

Networking advice from a true master

Remember the recruiter that I follow on twitter whose radioshow I love? Her name is Adrienne Graham, she tweets as @talentdiva and she is the CEO of empowerme.org - she is awesome. Well, she wanted to host a G+ hangout to talk about networking (also, she's an early adopter). She was on a twitter riff the night before with loads of great networking advice (like get business cards and don't go into it thinking you'll get something right away) so knew I wanted to try this hangout. (Don't know what a Hangout is? Still need a G+ Invite? email me)

Uh... and I was the only one who showed up. What? Uninterrupted quality time with one of the leaders in the recruiting field? I must be doing something right! I should add, I was prepared for this hangout. I had some questions, I had some stuff I thought I would share- I was ready for both giving and taking. But really, she just fed me vastly superior gems of advice. Some of it easy stuff- social networking tools don't make up for actually quality time, and you need real relationships with people. Get face to face. And stay in touch over the long run. So yes, coworkers, I'll be coming back by the lab soon.

And some really savvy advice- when I mentioned I was trying to build a network to help me move across the country, she suggested I get a Google phone number in that area code and take my address off my resume. That way geography won't get in the way of my application. She also said I should ask to meet via Skype or Googlechat with people I might otherwise call- it's more personal.

She suggested I get Google alerts for biotech news, and then told me about a cool site called lead411.com that can provide inside info about target companies like upcoming hiring and firing decisions. I'm excited to explore that!

And can we go on about the books she wrote? She didn't even bring this up until I mentioned what a novice I am at really getting value out of networking, but yeah, she's written 4 books on it.

Net result? My goals for tomorrow include:
  • get free business cards printed
  • set up Google alerts
  • check out lead411.com
  • get a California phone number
  • start reading "Go Ahead, Talk to Strangers" which is downloading as I type
I'll break it up by continuing to look for target companies in Seattle and San Diego via LinkedIn, and maybe pinging my network a bit. Today I got a couple new contacts I need to check in with, so tomorrow will be a busy day.

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