Networking Your Way to an Awesome Job
Originally published in
Jonathan Lewis
Founder/Host, iOnPoverty
Networking Your Way to an Awesome Job –
An excerpt
“I build relationships with everybody I touch. I hear what people say. I ask them lots of questions. I remember [the details of their lives]. We both get the gift of perspective, the gift of idea trading,” says Anne Marie Burgoyne, the enthralling, walks-the-talk portfolio director at the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation.
Remixing traditional networking into lifelong learning, she urges, “Understand not just the subject matter, but the people matter.”
Networking is not about you, it’s about building relationships. If you want people to think you are charming and smart, don’t work at it. Ask about the other person; take a genuine interest in their work, their life and their mission; become a resource for their cause. Do that and other people will decide for themselves that you are charming and smart.
Start with hard-learned, hard-earned listening skills. Listen to your clients, listen to the impoverished, listen to those who have pioneered (the successful and the failed), listen to your colleagues, listen, listen, listen.
Be a learning leader. Be a listening leader. Don’t settle. Be better than you are today.
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Bristol Business Network 
Excellent points about networking. I always let people know the basis for effective networking is listening rather than talking. You already know what’s in your head, you want to find out what other people are thinking. Eventually they will ask you questions and that gives you the chance to share.