I know you’ve heard this one before: It’s called net-working, not net-sitting or net-eating. A lot of people take this to heart and pursue their networking with a business-like zeal. You know what, though? Maybe we’ve taken this too much to heart. Maybe we need to think a little bit about “net-playing“.
I was meeting with a new friend, Lenya Cristiano, the other day. She is an accomplished business analyst who specializes in being a liaison between those of us with technical minds (the nerds) and the rest of the world which has no clue what we are talking about half the time. She is looking for a position in the health care industry where she can apply these awesome skills. We were chatting about networking practice and I asked her to which groups she belonged. The first thing I was expecting her to tell me about was the Chamber or maybe some sort of industry association.
Nope.
She told me about networking with the other parents at her daughter’s hockey practice. Huh. Now I didn’t see that one coming. If you think about it, though, it’s the perfect answer to what we are trying to do with networking — make friends. She’s found a group with whom she already has a common, personal interest. I always recommend finding out who the other person is outside of their business. Lenya already had that one down cold.
And probably is having a lot of fun doing it.
Photo credit: zappowbang
