Assess
A- Assess- and gather Assess has two parts to it. One deals more so with your preparation, and why it is listed sooner in the PAPERING model. The second part is a constant assesssment of where you are, who you are talking with, and what should you do next. When you are preparing and you have all your materials about yourself, you want to step back and decide what you need to know about everyone else. Do some research, if you can find out specific people that are going to be there, use that to your advantage? You can do so by researching their industry, what type of clients they work with is there anything unique about their job. By knowing more about the people your going to be interacting with the easier it will be to interface with them. By having knowledge of their industry you will be able to enter conversations better. If this is a much more casual event such as a golf outing, do some news searches. It doesn’t always have to be relevant it just has to grab attention and be interesting. Once you have someone’s attention you can always slide into more business talk after that. Having knowledge of the world around you not only benefits you as an intellect, but also allows you to speak on hot topics. Someone who goes to convention in NY and doesn’t know how the Yankees are doing may take a back seat others. Now that example may be a bit excessive, however it makes a good point. You should be well versed in all things local as well as national. Although this seems like a lot, it really isn’t hard to gather this information. If you are a person who already dives head deep into the news and current events, this step may have little effect on you. There are several simple things you can do to gain this kind of knowledge. The first is watch television news, and not just the channels you agree with get both ends of the spectrum. Same goes for when you’re researching an industry. Don’t just look at all articles that praise certain companies find their weaknesses as well. You may be able to fit a niche they are lacking in. the second way I would suggest to gain information is Blogs. Blogs offer some of the best transfer of information. I would grab as many feeds from as many different Blogs as you can. In some blogging communities it becomes a network among itself. One more way of gather information is the radio. So many people forget that there are talk shows out there. Whether it is a professional show or not hot topics is their business. So turn off the tunes and tune into conversation. Assesssing what type of situation you’re going into and gather great information gives you a loaded cannon on your side. Second part to assess is to just constantly be aware of your surroundings. Don’t be in the group that is still talking when a presentation starts. Make the initiative to be the person who stops because they were aware of their surroundings. When you are in a networking atmosphere be the horse without blinders. Take in what people’s body language is like. Someone who looks dead tired will not want to have a long drawn out conversation, but may appreciate you not ignoring them saying something quick and then politely exiting the conversation. This bring me to another point. Always be assesssing the person’s attention. If they begin to fade change topics or move to someone else. I will get more into entering and exiting conversations later in the PAPERING process. Lastly be aware of your self with alcohol, and assess how much others have to drink. If you notice that the situation is light spirited, dive in and have fun. However if the drinking is not a main focus stay sober and clear headed.
Prepare
This has been a long time coming. I apologize to any one who was waiting to hear the rest of my process. I am going to the best of my ability get the rest out staring with today’s post.
P- Prepare
Preparing like any other first step in a process is crucial to the end result. If you are not fully prepared you might as well ignore the rest of the steps. By being prepared I am referring to many things. The first is knowing the situation you are going into. Is this a high level professional setting? Is it a more casual and laid back event? By knowing your event you can better assess the people you will eventually interact with. I am about to go down a path and please forgive me anyone over a certain age, however knowing the groups age has a huge impact on how to prepare. An older crowd will expect certain things that are very professional AKA (business cards, typed resumes, a sturdy handshake, simple and very professional business dress). I am not saying all older individuals will react this way. That would be very discriminatory. I am saying it is a trend with more experienced professionals. If your going into a situation with individuals of a younger age, they may also expect certain things AKA (electronic resume, electronic samples, typically a business card and typed resume are still required). More youthful employed individuals will also judge on appearance, but that is a whole another step that we will soon get to.
I have mentioned business cards and resumes. These are your front runners. In an initial networking environment you should always have a business card available. To insure you are hitting both lines of the business world your business card should include a link to a website or a way to electronically access your credentials.
I have a company card how do I get an electronic resume link on it? Most companies issue a business card, and it is very limited to what can go on it. Some businesses are changing there policy but it slow to happen. What I suggest is two cards a personal one and an employee business card. This will show any individual you are motivated. I would suggest coining a company name for yourself.
Typed resumes should follow every guideline set down by big business, easy to read, few mistakes, and clean and simple. As long as those are fallowed you should be ok. Like this process will show you a good resume doesn’t always mean so much. Although a good resume is very important.
Your electronic resume should be a web layout. If it is a simple PDF or word doc, you won’t have as much luck. I suggest having it in both formats in addition to a web style resume. Keep it simple a web resume should be quick and easy to navigate. Don’t make it hard for someone to find the information because they will simply give up. Also make it easy to read. Crazy colors may catch someone’s eyes but that is about all it will do. The font should be large enough, black, and on white background. I am not saying this is the only way, but it seems to be the most effective.
By having these items already prepared you will already have an upper hand on others. You won’t believe how many people think that they can get by on character alone. I should know I use to be that guy. I soon realized I wasn’t as popular as I thought I was. By beefing up my portfolio I made so many more contacts.
Some extras to consider, that are most likely not necessary, but certainly can’t hurt are as followed. Blogging is not important but again shows initiative and can ultimately show that people really care what you have to say. If you have a largely hit site you will stick out from the crowd. A personal website that won’t discriminate you but maybe show a more unprofessional side may appeal to certain individuals. As much as they want an employee, companies recognize the employee dynamic and don’t want to hire duds. Myspace and face book pages can go both ways. Unless you are absolutely certain that no incriminating material will show up on your pages, don’t hand out the address. Businesses are excepting facebook and Myspace as a good networking tool and can absolutely benefit you as long as you keep it clean.
That is the extent of my preparation step for now. I plan on expanding this but I want the initial concepts out to others so that I might get some feedback on my steps and the process as a whole so that I can refine it.
