October 2001

Welcome to The Net Effect!

This is the first edition of a monthly newsletter for people who are interested in how to maximize your networking interactions. While the information is important to all, it's especially important for those seeking jobs. Feel free to forward this to your friends and colleagues that would find this useful.

With the economy shifting, everyone --- individuals and companies --- need to know how to walk into a room of strangers and strike up a meaningful conversation, one that will lead to a new customer, job, or partnership. This newsletter will share some tips.

In this issue:

Best Practices

Recommended Reading

Upcoming Events

Best Practices

Homework - do as much homework as you can BEFORE you attend an event. Who is the audience? What is the occasion? Is there something unique about the setting? All of these can be conversation starters.

Free food - contrary to popular belief, networking events are not free food. You are there to meet others. Snack, but be sure you are free to shake hands, hand out your business card, or write information down.

Email - please be sure all your emails have a signature at the bottom. It's frustrating to get a message with a request, but no phone number. ALWAYS, have your phone number at the bottom of an email.

Business Cards - Be sure these are easy to read. If you are job hunting, carry a card anyway. There are several places you can get cards. You can even print them on card stock from one of the office supply stores. The purpose of the card is to give people a way to contact you.

Attaching a resume - when you attach a resume for review, please don't name the attachment "resume." When the recruiter or HR person looks downloads the file, they have zillions that say "resume." Name the file, "last name, first name."

Recommended Reading

See the web site for some articles that will be helpful. www.effectivenetworking.com/effnet_resources.html

I'm also compiling a list of books. They will be posted on the website shortly.

Upcoming Events

October 4th - Dallas: Society for Technical Communications. 6:30 p.m. at the Crowne Plaza North Dallas/Addison Hotel, 14315 Midway Road. www.stc-dfw.org

October 10th - Boston: Tie Atlantic. "CONNECTIONS: THE POWER OF NETWORKING"
www.tie-atlantic.org Panelists include:

Vani Kola, President & CEO, nthOrbit

Desh Deshpande, Chairman, Sycamore Networks

Diane Darling, Executive Director, DigitalEve

Les Charm, Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies, Babson College

October 11, 16, 18, 29 & 30 - Boston Networking for job hunters. These interactive workshops help people ask the right questions to know if they should ask for a follow up meeting or move along.

Happy Networking!

Diane Darling
Founder and President
Effective Networking, Inc.