Читать книгу Reinventing You - Dorie Clark - Страница 29

You can learn from salespeople here: be sure to ask if there are other people in the company or in the field they think you should connect with, and would they be willing to make an introduction? LinkedIn is also helpful here, because you can easily see if your colleagues have connections to, for example, other marketers, Comcast employees, or specialists in Argentinean culture. And don’t forget alumni networks, whether they’re from college, grad school, or former employers.

Recalls Landolt, “When I was making a transition, I was at a huge firm with 450 attorneys and a turnover rate of about 70 percent. There were attorneys all over who had worked there, and I used the network, because we’d been through the same war. We didn’t know each other, but I’d talk to current employees at the firm and ask, ‘Can you introduce us?’ And they’d say sure.”

Try This

 Write down your one-sentence positioning statement that you can share with others. (If you have multiple possible goals, create one for each.) An example might be, “I’m exploring a transition from intellectual property law to entertainment law,” or “I’d like to learn more about how others have handled moving from manager to vice president, and what skills are necessary.”

 Spend an hour at a bookstore (online or real-world) searching for titles that intrigue you. Make a list of at least a half-dozen books you plan to read. Buy them now, or request them from the library.

 Write down a list of ten people you’ll ask for an informational interview. E-mail three of them right now.

 Make a list of the five to ten questions you intend to ask, so you can get the maximum value from your informational interview. Don’t forget to include questions that help you learn more about the person as an individual, so you can identify ways to stay in touch and possibly help them in the future.