You may be young and new to networking but that doesn’t mean you’re alright with coming off as bumbling and inexperienced. So how can you avoid coming off like an awkward newbie? Plenty of blog posts and career sites offer helpful networking tips on how to do it right, but these are like magazine fashion spreads laying out the latest trends. They give good guidance but what you really need is someone to yell ‘get back inside and change immediately!’ when you are about to walk out the door in something atrocious. Same with networking: specifics matter.

Luckily, HR pundit Liz Ryan has written a piece up on the HuffPost that should help. It offers ten specific networking faux pas that you really should avoid if you don’t want to come across as among the uninitiated:

Writing to a stranger to say “I read about [your new job/your promotion/your blog] in the paper — let’s talk about ways to collaborate. Here are six of my articles for you to read, then call me!” Meeting a new person at a networking event and saying “Say, you should come over to my office [thirty miles away from your office] so we can talk and learn more about each other. We have a conference room and coffee!” Writing to an unsuspecting employed person through LinkedIn to say “Do you know which hiring manager in your company is in charge of hiring Purchasing Agents?” Sending out marketing blasts en masse via Facebook. Spamming every person you ever met in your life with your appeal for sponsorship for your Walk or Run or Bike Ride or Canoe Race. Writing to someone with a note saying “We met at a networking event last year and I just found your card. I wasn’t job-hunting then but I am now and I’d love to get together and get your advice since you work in the same field. How about next Thursday?” Going to a networking lunch or coffee with a person who didn’t know you from Adam before you made the outreach, and saying “I know we’re both busy, so let’s get down to business. I need you to [introduce me to the most important person you know/critique my resume/read my business plan].” Calling a person you haven’t talk to in seven years to say “Doesn’t your sister work at Acme Dynamite? I’m job-hunting and saw a good job there. Can you ask her to recommend me?” Friending a very slight acquaintance on Facebook and then suggesting forty-five groups they need to join and sixty applications they can’t live without. Bushwhacking an ostensibly social conversation for biz-dev purposes, like the young woman who called me up and suggested coffee to talk about her career — only to spring a not-to-be-missed business opportunity on me in mid-cup of coffee.

Do you agree with Ryan that these are networking errors to avoid?

  Tag: Accounting jobs | Banking jobs | Manufacturing jobs | Life Sciences jobs | Human Resources jobs | hr jobs | marketing jobs | Procurement jobs | Supply Chain jobs | Secretarial jobs | Office Support jobs | Risk Management jobs | Chemical jobs | Process jobs | Electronic jobs | Environmental jobs | Quality jobs | Quality Assurance jobs | Compliance jobs | Training jobs | IT Management jobs | Programming jobs | Systems Administration jobs | Brand Management jobs | Product Management jobs | Market Research jobs | Commercial jobs | Contract jobs | Planning jobs | Construction Management jobs | Real Estate jobs | Pharmaceutical jobs |