Prioritizing Your Networking Contacts

          

 Managing your contacts can be overwhelming. You may want to consider prioritizing your contacts into “A’s”, “B’s”, or “C’s” according to the level of influence they may have on your job search or your career. You’ll want key influencers on your “A” list. This could include recruiters, hiring managers, industry leaders, and well-connected former co-workers in your field. Keep in contact with your “A’s” more frequently than those in the other categories.

Your “B” list can include family and friends, and professionals such as your hairstylist, doctor, and dentist, etc. The latter come in contact with a large number of people on a regular basis. You will naturally be in somewhat regular contact with your immediate family and close friends. Your contact with your hairstylist will typically be every 4-8 weeks, and your doctor and dentist at least annually, if not more often.

Your “C” list may include those professionals and others that you meet through networking events and other activities. They may not have much influence for you in your career. You may not decide to keep in contact with these folks.

Which phase of the job search or which phase of your career will determine the frequency of contact with each group. And, you may find that some contacts may shift from “A” to “B” etc., depending on your needs.

In my next blog post, I will share tips on creating a system to manage your contacts.

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