Re: Professional Networking Etiquette
First of all i think its a great topic and it should be made sticky in this forum as it will help a lot to people who are looking to learn more about professional networking.
when i graduated i used help from several people in trying to find out about their opinion on couple of industries that i wanted to pursue my career, and almost all of those people gave me some new angles to to consider regarding the industry. I think the most important thing a new graduete (or soon to be graduate) has to do is **to be more specific of what industry he wants to get to know more about **and talk to people about it as nobody likes to hear someone come up to them for an advice by saying "well i am graduating in X months and i am looking for job, can u help me???" It sounds a lot better if u go to someone ( someone in same industry that interests you or someone whose opinion you value regardless of industry that person belongs to) and say i am interested in finding a job in Financial Sector or Healthcare or Education or non for profit sector, and this is how i want to go about it, can you show me a better way or is there any different angle to approach this industry than what i am doing?
In my case i have made up my mind about 18 months before i graduated on what indutries i wanted to start my career in, and in my job search i was very specific to look for job in excluseviely ( about 70% of overall Job search effort) those industries.