Taking the Work Out of Networking: Your Guide to Making and Keeping Great Connections

The sample for this book was inspiring so I went ahead and bought it...and then the book started going downhill. She suggests that when you meet someone networking that you start with a self-deprecating joke. While those sorts of jokes are fine in social situations, it’s fatal in networking when you only have seconds to make a first impression. Why would someone want to do business with a person who immediately puts themselves down?Anyway, I tried to return this book but it’s past the time limit so I’m writing this to save money and time for other networkers.

This book is written as much for introverts as for those who know introverts. Karen does a fantastic job distilling practical job and networking advice into a potion that introverts can use to make them a career superpower. I've had the privilege to know Karen professionally and personally for 15 years. Her writing style here is crisp and focused, much like her advice in real life. Great read to wrap up the year and give yourself the motivation to jump into the new year with a renewed sense of networking energy. Read it now, in time for a challenging networking scene: holiday parties.

If the mere idea of business networking makes you want to crawl into bed and pull the covers over your head, this is a terrific book for you. I worked with Karen Wickre at Google, and she is one of the most well-connected people I know. Her new book shares her secrets to building your own network -- even if, or especially if, you're an introvert. Key to her approach are curiosity, generosity, and a devoted practice of staying in contact with your broader circle through "loose-touch habits." She offers tips for building relationships over coffee, email, and social media; managing small-talk; leveraging your network to help others; and using that same network to help yourself (with grace and gratitude). As a social introvert myself, I'll return to this book often when I need a good pep talk and plan for getting out into the world.

This is a terrific reminder of things you already know ("stay in touch") and smart and efficient strategies to do what you know you ought.It's never preachy, and is punctuated with great stories and examples. I had a long flight the other day and by the end of the flight I had done more to keep my network up and going (and growing) than I'd done in a very long time. It was a good example, a nudge, and some great advice, wrapped up in an easily consumed volume.That 'airplane work' is already paying off for me my finding some expert advice for two different projects. Totally worth the small investment of $$ and time.

I've been a big fan of Karen's for a long time. She has shepherded many a Silicon Valley CEO and their management teams through some of the best of the booms and busts over the last decades. This book is useful for anyone seeking practical advice on building business relationships. It's not just for introverts, and certainly not just for those building and running companies. By dissecting skills into accessible anecdotes and providing clear examples, Karen makes the core lessons easily applicable to the reader and yet highly tangible. It's an easy read, a fun read, you forget you're there to sit at Karen's lap and digest some of her wisdom. We bought several copies to circulate around our office and they've already been passed around several times.

Networking is: 1. giving out your business cards willy nilly at a live event. 2. trying to accumulate the most LinkedIn contacts 3. something you do only when you're looking for a job. 4. A distasteful process. 5. something only extroverts can do well. NONE of the preceding five assertions are true. Wickre describes a gentle, more effective and continuous way to build your network. Some of the members of whom are close to you, but far more have "loose ties," meaning people are not close to you but may be in the position to help in the future. Wickre describes a regular practice of meeting people (in person as much as possible), sending them articles and tweets, or suggesting people your weak ties need to meet, not just in a job context. The principle of preemptive generosity (a.k.a.paying it forward, but in advance) is at play, where you do favors for people in your network in advance of asking anything back. And it's fun to hear people's stories. You're building up karma, or at least goodwill. When you do need something, someone in your network is likely to help. This continuous process requires care and feeding, and a certain amount of time. (not a lot necessarily) This continuous back and forth and building both strong and weak ties, is real networking. The book shows how all of this is more difficult for introverts, but also how they have amazing strengths in getting to know and sizing up people, among other gifts. Even though this book is written for introverts EVERYTHING can be used by extroverts too. I encourage all people who want to improve their professional relationships and the network that springs out of them to buy and share this book with their friends and colleagues.*ok, maybe not everything.

Shy introvert, introvert pretending to be an extrovert, extrovert, some other vert nobody’s defined yet, new to the job world, way down the career path, in the midst of an employment transition... It’s hard to imagine anyone who wouldn’t benefit from reading this. Wickre’s book is full of useful, specific info and advice, but it also prompts a complete reassessment of what “networking” means in your life. It’s a practical guide to developing a lifelong habit of establishing and, importantly, maintaining connections based on generosity and thoughtfulness. These connections form the basis of a network that can support you in ways you may have never imagined when you met or reconnected with that “contact.” The only disappointing thing is the limit of our understanding of space-time which prevents me from traveling back and reading this book when I was starting my career.

I was hoping to find some genuine, practical and insightful ideas on how to "network" in a human and interesting way. This book has none of this. NONE.It's a very unspecific, unattractive collection of advice aimed at middle aged people who apparently don't even know how to use Linkedin and Twitter (?!).The author worked at Google "before it was cool" and came recommended by some Ted talk personality. They got me with that trick.Unfortunately neihter her Google experience, nor Ted talk' endorsements can add anything to a book from which I could take literally ZERO advice. I'm sorry for the author, but I finished it out of curiosity (can a book be so useless from beginning to end?) and threw it straight in the bin.My advice?Read instead:How to influence people and win friends Dale Carnagie.An absolute classic, used by millions and quoted in movies, songs and thousands of other books. Most of modern books on the topic are often a lame version of Carnagie's bestseller.

The book is well written and often funny. I recomend reading it. There are some bothersome things in the book that I like to shine a light on:- I got impression that the authoress desperately tries to stay current with all this technological advance in communication. So desperately in fact that it looks as some sort of sale of older age and wisdom- I did not like a fact that the authoress overestimate youth in bussines environment and degrades approach and experience of older folks- And I did not like the fact that just to try to slightly emulate her style of communication it means practically eliminate the most crucial thing on earth - time and energy for a family, wife and children. Because to keep in touch with all all this business contacts, acquantances and so called friends demand too much time which is too precious to squander it on superficial contact.I admit that some forms of all this communication channels is useful and can land you a job and some friends, but I do not know if it is worth it. We live only once and our time on earth is numbered. I would rather spend that scarce time on quality and good deeds than spread myself too thinly on things that are so prosaic.Kudos to the authoress for some good chapters on socializing in person and small talk.

Like many people, I cringe at the thought of networking. But when you run a business, it's important. Twenty years ago when I started my business, it was a contest to see how many business cards you could get, then go on to harass people to give you work, whether they were a fit or not. Karen Wickre has written the book I wish I had read when I first started out. If I had followed her wisdom I think my business today would be very different. However, the lesson from her book is that it is never too late to work on your networking, but to be smart about it. If you are 50+ and starting out in your own business, then this is a book you need to read. It will be most helpful, it is for those who aren't extroverts or pushy. While I bought the kindle version, I will be buying the paperback when it comes out in November.

Some basic insights are contained, but on average - the book is filled with useless information. As many other reviews have pointed out - the author could have done better with a long article, rather than a book. Do not recommend.

Molto noioso. Personalmente credo che il networking sia utile ed efficace quando è spontaneo. Chi pensa di poter ottenere risultati mirabolanti inviando auguri di buon compleanno, o complimenti per le promozioni, si illude.