Networking doesn’t have to be hard. Trust me for a moment. I’m an introvert. I am NOT people oriented. Yet I connect with people all the time, intentionally, for a variety of purposes. Most people are a whole lot more friendly and helpful than you might expect. (even me!) For those rare times where you run into somebody who’s not helpful, or not friendly, OK, move on, pick someone else. Don’t dwell on what doesn’t work, move on to what does.

One of the keys of networking is affinity. If you have affinity with someone who you’ve never met, well, you have an automatic hint of connection. For instance, common interest (common groups on LinkedIn) or common connections. Same schools. Same geography. Even same industry can be a step in the right direction.

Now here’s my statement that I want you to test me on. “You have affinity with everyone you want to connect with.” You may have to search for it, but I bet you have it. Just like “six degrees of separation,” you are a lot more connected than you might first think.

Now, when you get ready to connect, take full advantage of that affinity.

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Last updated: 9/29/2014

You can find all my Job-Search related articles here. Please remember, a job search is normally an?ordered set of steps. If you try to skip steps, it usually doesn’t work out well.?