Networking with Jason Alba: Part III

We’re interviewing Jason Alba, of JibberJobber.com, an Internet software Career Toolset that helps people manage their relationships.

Here are the questions from the last two days:

What are the 3-5 incorrect perceptions about networking?

I’m starting at “ground zero” in terms of networking. What are the first action items I should do to start building a network?

Good answers to the questions, too!

Here’s today’s question:

Why should networking be something that I do all the time in my career?

Well, it already is something that you do all the time. Don’t you have a relationship with coworkers, bosses and people that work for you? Don’t you have a relationship with customers or vendors?

Again, this goes back to the idea that you need to have a paradigm shift of what networking is. Once you begin to think of it in terms of building relationships, the idea of networking is more fun.

Additionally, if you think of all of your friends and acquaintances as people in your network, you can think of past friends, coworkers, college buddies, etc. and realize that your network is pretty big (maybe stale, but there’s a great opportunity to re-establish relationships).

A Pimpalicious addition:

Remember that “lifetime employment” is a thing of the past. Since it is our responsibility to manage our own careers, we can’t expect companies to care for us — we need to do it ourselves. So maintaining our relationships — in spite of time zone differences, work locations, work companies, or personal circumstances — is critical to ensuring that our work is fulfilling to us.

Check out JibberJobber.com and Jason’s JibberJobber blog and we’ll get the next question tomorrow; same time, same place.