Job Tuition

Give a Compliment, Start a Relationship, Land a Job

April 22nd, 2007 by Andrew

It’s all about who you know, or who you get to know.

There’s no big secret to social networking. Nobody can sell you a book or DVD that will automatically make connections for you. It’s all up to you.

Fortunately, there are lots of easy ways to improve your networking skills. You can do many small things that will add up to a powerful social network.

Here’s something that happened to me this week. Let’s see what we can learn from it.

I gave a compliment

I was on a website, and I really liked what the author was doing. I decided to send a quick email of appreciation for this good resource. It took less than a minute, and I didn’t really think about the email after that.

A few hours later, I got a reply from the website’s author. He complimented my own writing and said he was looking for writers for other sites. We discussed the proposal via email for a couple days. I’ve got a tight schedule, but I was really intrigued by the invitation.

I decided to jump in. Now we’re partners on a website venture. It’s not a big job, which means it doesn’t pay a lot (yet), but it also doesn’t take a big time commitment. I hope to learn a lot and have some fun in the process.

What we learn here

Compliments pay off. Not every compliment will end up in a job offer. In fact, the vast majority won’t. But most compliments will plant a positive seed with the recipient.

This is a great way to kick-start a relationship with someone. Give them a simple, sincere compliment. Surely there’s something you like or appreciate about the person or his work. If there’s not, maybe you really don’t want a relationship with him.

Once you’ve given the person a compliment, don’t give up there. Pay them another compliment down the road. Don’t become a stalker, but let the person know that you really appreciate him/her.

The recipient will likely become interested in you and begin to digest your work. You’ve thus started down the relationship path. Keep up this hard work, and you’ll begin to grow your social network.