Classy Career Girl readers beware! Don’t make this networking mistake that I witnessed this week!
The Background:
A career counselor at my school referred an MBA student to talk to me to discuss my current job as a consultant and how he could get a job at my company. I was happy to talk to him more about it and told him when I was available to do an informational interview.
[Related Post: The 5 Steps to Networking Effectively in Your Job Hunt]
Then I received this response a week later:
“I apologize for the delayed response. I’ve been hoping to get an offer elsewhere for the last two days, so I was waiting for that call before asking for more information on your company. If it falls through, I would love to discuss positions at your company over the phone as you suggested. I will be in touch once I finally receive a response.”
Here is what I gather from this response, and why it was a networking mistake:
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Working at my company is not his first choice, therefore I will not be offering or referring him for a job.
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He doesn’t realize that networking is about how you can help others, not what others can do for you.
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He also is not aware that you don’t network only when you are searching for a job, you should always be looking to expand your network whether you have a job or not. You never know what the future may hold and what connections other people may have for you.
