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10 Tips for Reluctant Networkers

Written by: Alvah Parker

Article Overview: These tips are from The Networking Survival Guide by Diane Darling and were in the Boston Globe

10 Tips for Reluctant Networkers

These tips are from The Networking Survival Guide by Diane Darling and were in the Boston Globe on April 1, 2004.

1. Give a firm handshake: Two pumps and let go

2. Do not arrive hungry. It is difficult to juggle food with handshaking and business card exchange.

3. Come with five or six questions you’ve rehearsed out loud that will get the dialogue started

4. Get there early. It is much less intimidating to arrive first than to enter a crowded room where people are already engaged in conversation

5. Videotape yourself in a mock interview to uncover your bad habits. Ask your closest supporters for honest feed back.

6. Maximize your time in line by talking to the person in front or in back of you.

7. Be prepared: Take a network kit: a pen that you can lose, a Sharpie - to embolden your name on the name badge - breath mints and business cards.

8. Keep your drink in your left hand so your right hand won’t feel clammy when you shake hands.

9. Keep your business card in your right pocket and the ones you collect in your left pocket.

10. Follow up: Keep the business cards you have collected and pursue your leads courteously and with respect. The biggest mistake is not following up

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Article Tags: boston globe, business cards, networkers, networking, survival guide



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