Catapult Your Holiday Networking into the Stratosphere

A Sure-Fire Way to Upscale Your Contact List while Sipping Eggnog and Merry Ho Ho Ho-ing your Way through the Festive Season … and Beyond!

People always seem to freeze up and look petrified when, in my role as career coach, I remind them that the holiday season is the best time of year for networking. This deer in the headlights response is usually triggered by that outdated and horribly awkward, asking for a job misconception around networking.

This usually occurs innocently enough when the erstwhile networker launches, after a few pleasantries, into what they think is the key networking question: Do you know of any job openings?

Most don’t realize this is the LAST thing you want to ask at any seasonal do!

You may be scratching your head now, wondering what planet I’m from. But, just for a second, twist the situation on its ear.

Put yourself in the potential contact’s shoes.

At your job -- or when you were in one -- when people ask you about jobs in your company, is it likely you would know enough about all the different areas of your company/organization to give a truly informed answer?

For most, the answer would be no -- unless you’re in Human Resources or a small enough company where the managers and staff get involved in hiring. (In those situations you’d have hit paydirt!)

But don't worry. It’s not that people are running away from you because they think you’re a needy, imposing pariah! It’s because they feel badly because they don’t know enough to be able to help you!

Bottomline: People like to help!!! And they are often very happy to tell you about their job and company, so long as they don’t feel pressured to try and find you a job.

Phew… so now does it make more sense why so many people resist networking?

Which leads me to the NUMERO UNO thing you need to change to get better job-finding results through networking:

Forget about job searching and focus on INFORMATION GATHERING instead.

Mentally, put on a DIFFERENT HAT: Imagine you’re an Investigative Reporter or a CSI guy/gal looking for and then following up on leads and clues! This is the time to be curious, not salesy.

This is the most important distinction you can make when launching a conversation over the canapés.

Sure, it requires a bit of pre-planning and, likely, a shift in your typical conversational style but here are 4 great questions to get you started (after a brief rapport-building chitchat – you know, the stuff you usually talk about before you shuffle off to find another target because the first conversation died as soon as you mentioned you were looking for work!The old standbys: the weather, the food you’re eating, your kids or the most publicized football/hockey/soccer game!):

Ideally, go with the flow: Let part of the natural conversation spark the most relevant segue into one of these. Then try to finesse it somewhat as you start to gain momentum.

1) Your stance: during a natural break in the conversation, when you’re leaning over, to spear another meatball or lift another drink from the passing tray…

• Question 1 (casually): So …(pause and munch/sip) … what kind of work do you do?

NOTE: in this day and age when a number of people are still unemployed, one must be careful here, because if your target is also looking for work, you will need to switch tracks and launch into a potentially great sharing conversation where you may be able to help each other with leads.

2) Your stance: Above all, be naturally curious about this person. Let that curiosity lead your questions but also comment appreciatively or with interest to whatever your contact is sharing… even if you have no idea right now whether or not this information will ever prove useful.

• Question 2: Sounds like an interesting line of work. (And, if they haven’t already mentioned it yet) … Where do you work? (and, if you’ve never heard of the company before and the contact’s stated job doesn’t tell yo