When it comes to planning your job search campaign, perhaps no word is used more often than “networking.” For many folks, it means attending job fairs, networking events and any social or business occasion where people congregate, introducing themselves and giving out their business cards.
Of course, skilled networkers know there is much more to the process than that.
My good friend and networking expert Michelle Donovan is the co-author (along with Ivan R. Meisner) of The 29% Solution. Meisner is the founder of BNI, the world’s largest business networking organization. Michelle is known as “The Referability Expert” in Pittsburgh. She is the owner of Referral Institute in western Pennsylvania.
Meisner and Michelle correct a commonly held view that there are six degrees of separation between you and anyone else on the planet that you would like to meet. Not so fast boys and girls! This is an urban legend which grew out of the work of Stanley Milgram. It is true that some people are indeed connected by six degrees of separation, just not “all of us.”
What these authors detail is “…With reading, training and coaching, people can develop their networking skills, increase their connections, and become part of the roughly 29 percent of people who are, in fact, separated from the rest of the world by just six degrees.”
Highly recommended!