Networking - win friends and influence people
I can hear your groans from here. Networking, the sort of thing we all hate to do, the sort of thing only unpleasant, pushy sales people do to try to sell you things. Well I'm talking about something different; networking to me is a thoughtful, well planned and focused activity plan, simply to tell interested people about your next career challenge and to find out if they can help you to succeed.

Preparation
It sounds simple, and it is, except that you have to be well prepared before you start otherwise you'll actually end up worse off than before you started. First you have to be absolutely clear about exactly what your next career challenge is. After all, how can someone help you find a job if you can't be clear describing what that job is?

Not only do you have to know what your ideal job is, but also you have to be able to communicate clearly the skills and experiences you have that prove you could do the job you're looking for. You then need to practice it, out loud - ideally with a friend or family member - until you can talk through the above quickly and easily without being embarrassed or afraid.

Get Started
You now need to draw up a list of your initial networking contacts. Note the key word "initial". You absolutely don't have to "know the right people" to start networking, you just have to start with the people you know. These could be old bosses or colleagues, friends, neighbours, college friends or family members (not forgetting extended family members).

As it's quite unlikely your first round of contacts will have the right job waiting for you, the key when you start is to ask if your contacts know anyone else they could refer you to, to continue your search.

It's all in the maths
The notion of "six degrees of separation" is the hypothesis that anyone on Earth can be connected to any other person on the planet through a chain of acquaintances with no more than five intermediaries. Assuming this is true, it shouldn't take you long to find the right person with knowledge of your ideal job.

If you have, say 10 people who you contact initially, and each of these people gives you just 2 other people to talk to, you will then have a total of 30 people in your network. If each of the 20 new people do the same, you will then have 70 people in your network, the majority of whom will now be closely related to your ideal job.

So, what's stopping you?

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