Dig Your Well Before You Need the Water

Colleagues,

This timeless axiom perfectly describes the mess you’ll be in once you’ve cycled through the 7-Step Job Search Methodology, gotten the interview, received the job offer, accepted it, and started working at the target company without nourishing, expanding, and regularly pinging your network.

For many, the problem is complacency. Once you’ve ended those horrible months of waiting for just the right position and then you get it, the tendency is to think like this:

“Well, I worked hard. Very hard. It was a long, uphill battle, but I fought my way to the top and now I’ve landed. I’m now so exhausted now that the only thing I can think of is digging into my new work assignment. I don’t have time for networking anymore; I need to refocus my priorities, and the priority right now is getting paychecks again.”

Does this sound familiar? It's all too easy to lapse into complacency. But if you do, it can have the effect of sabotaging all of your previous networking efforts or at the very least cause you to have very little to show for them.

How do you handle that?

Many professionals in my network simply schedule some periodic networking time during their new work week — even if it’s just a few minutes here and there to make some phone calls, meet someone for lunch, or reconnect via e-mail. When you're newly employed, it doesn’t take much effort to keep your network “alive”, but whatever that effort is, it must be on a regular basis — something you consistently integrate into your weekly routine.

You can do it … I know you can!

Best wishes and keep networking alive,

Coach Rod