Inexplicably, not everyone understands networking; I once told a friend how excited I was to have met an attorney and was going to meet with this person for coffee. "Is it a date?" I was asked. No. Not a date. It's possible for a man and a woman to have a meeting related to business. Business alone.
At the same time, there are people who really don't understand that networking isn't just asking someone for a job. It isn't supposed to be asking for a job; it's about becoming known in the area of your interest, learning more about that area and the people working in it, discovering whether it would be a good fit for you, getting referrals to meet more people and hoping that someone you meet knows of a position you can apply for or thinks of you when they have an opening.
I occasionally encounter people working for companies I'm interested in, but when I ask about the prospect of a meeting, they look confused and tell me they're not a hiring manager. Which is fine. I'm looking for information about the company. What's the corporate culture like? How long have you worked there? What makes you stay? What do you like about the company? Your job? Do you know someone who works in an area more closely related to my area of interest? Could you refer me to that person?
Yet there are still people who are inappropriate; within the last year or so, the friend of a friend got a great new job. It was in a creative industry, doing work she loved, for a fairly small, cutting-edge company. She was really excited about it. For the first couple of months. Until she clicked on a file on the network drive. Containing material that wasn't work safe. And showed the owner and a colleague in a compromising position. She and another colleague who had viewed the same video sued the company for sexual harassment. Each received a settlement, a condition of which was resigning from the company.
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