Author: Davis Bushnell, Globe Correspondent
Date: June 28, 2001
The Boston Globe Page: G1 Section: Business

With the Internet's appeal and people making acquaintances at a potpourri of venues from soccer fields to commuter trains, new twists to networking for new jobs or new careers are evolving. As a result, networking groups, particularly for women, are replacing casual get-togethers leavened by gourmet coffee and bagels. In short, networking is fast becoming a very serious business, pursued by many people on almost a full-time basis.

"It used to be that you knew your community because you'd spent time growing up together. Now, we are often tossed into a group of strangers and need to know how to swim. Maybe that opportunity will be a business session, but it also may be at the gym, waiting for a bus, or riding on a train," noted Diane Darling, founder and director of DigitalEve Boston.

Darling's group, which was formed last September, is part of a network operating in 22 cities and five countries. Although it is open to anyone, DigitalEve gears speaker programs and workshops on networking and job-related subjects to women primarily.

While meeting new people in person or in chat rooms on the Internet is relatively easy, the old, hard task of telling others precisely the type of job desired is frequently given short shrift by networking job seekers, according to employment specialists and executive search firm managers.

"I need to know upfront who you are and what you're after," said Nick Hurd, managing director of the Boston office of Russell Reynolds, a national search firm that specializes in finding senior executives.
Even a new networking device, a short video starring a would-be executive, often misses the mark because "it isn't targeted to an individual's specific experience and specific goal," Hurd said, adding that he sends back e-mail messages that lack focus. A job seeker who is focused, though, can take advantage of new networking wrinkles, Hurd and others said.

The Internet has a lot of potential if it is used discriminatingly, such as for researching industries and companies in which a job seeker has an interest, said Fred Nothnagel, director of WIND, or Wednesday Is Networking Day. The 11-year-old group holds weekly sessions in Wilmington and Foxborough.
With that information in hand, a person can be more knowledgeable, and perhaps put some points on the board, during an interview, he added.

Also, new trends and skills that are in demand can be gleaned from surfing the Net, said Pam Lassiter of Weston, a career management consultant who is working on a book, "New Job Security," that will have a chapter on career networking. New networking strategies include a new mindset for people who are between jobs, suggested Judy Sharma, trainer-career strategist at Woburn's Career Place, run by Middlesex Community College of Bedford and Lowell. It holds networking sessions every Friday.

"Someone who is unemployed should be thinking and acting like he or she is self-employed," Sharma said. "A good response during interviews is, `I'm self-employed, or between opportunities.' "

Some senior executives who have been let go are now networking among executive search firms like his, said Mark Polansky, managing director of the New York City office of Korn/Ferry International. That was something rarely done in the past because, he said, it was assumed that headhunters would call laid-off executives first.

"But even though these executives have made it a habit of developing relationships over the years in trade groups and at other companies," they're still determined to buttonhole everyone they can for job leads, Polansky said.

Because there has been a wholesale shuffling of people at high-tech companies, some middle managers who have been laid off, especially, are trying to gain an edge by doing something that probably wasn't done as frequently in the past - contacting former bosses and clients and asking for help in finding new work. That strategy worked for Susan Shelby, the new public relations director at Andover's Tiburon Networks, a telecommunications start-up.

"I've stayed in touch with former public relations agency clients, and one of them is my current boss," said Shelby, who lives in Hamilton. "Fortunately, I hadn't burned any bridges, and I think more people are thinking like I am" in that regard.

Individuals who are adopting networking "as a total lifestyle are the ones who are getting ahead," said Darling of DigitalEve Boston.

Davis Bushnell can be reached by e-mail at davisbushnell@compuserve.com