Highly Effective Networking: Meet the Right People and Get a Great Job

Chapter Six

Plan Your Job Search—and Your Networking

Ask a job hunter what their plan is, and sometimes they’ll look at you like you’d lost it. “Plan?” they say, “What do you mean, plan? My plan is to find a job.”

Or they’ll say, “My plan is to use the Internet.” It’s like asking someone the question, “What’s your plan for building your new house?” And having them answer, “My plan is to use a hammer and saw.” That’s not a plan. That’s a list of tools. A very short list.

On their last job, that same person always planned their projects carefully: goals, time required, resources, costs, contingencies, the whole works. But now, in job search, they seem to forget everything they know about organizing work. They act as if the search is something ...