For me, 'networking' only really helps me when I've worked with the people. Nobody you just met at a cocktail hour with name cards is going to call you up if they have a job opening.

If you worked with someone for a few years, they will remember you when a job opens up and call you. Or at least help you when you call them.

Ideally you will have a job/internship with these people, but it works pretty well in a partnership or customer/client relationship. It even works within an open source project (though that is fairly CS specific).

Studies have shown that you're correct. Doing shared activities is the best way to network, not at a pre-talk mixer.

> Well, you really need to tailor your application to be suitable for the jobs.

Be clear: You mean "you need to lie". When applying to a coffee shop, for example:

The person with a 4 year degree will not get the job. They will leave as soon as something better comes up.

The person with a 4 year gap on their CV will also not be getting the job, as it will be assumed that they're hiding something.

What are you talking about? 11 Years ago I moved from Toronto to Vancouver. I was a web programmer in Toronto and would eventually be looking for a position of similar capacity in Vancouver.

The moment I hit the ground though, I didn't expect my dream job to land in my lap, but I still needed to pay rent. So, I walked into the local internet cafe with the help wanted sign.

Here's how it went:

Me: "Hey, I see you're looking for someone, and I could use a job right now, would you be interested in looking at my resume?"

Him: Dude, I can't pay you more than minimum wage plus a buck or two, you know that right?

Me: Yes, I understand. I just moved here though and it'll probably take me a couple of months to find a job I'm qualified for.

Him: So you're going to be looking for something better right away?

Me: Yeah, but you need a person to help you out, and some of these machines, to be honest could use a bit of a rebuild. Can any of your staff do that?

Him: No, and you're right I could use a person right now.

Me: Well, I could really use the money, and I think we'd both benefit here. I'll give you 3-4 weeks notice and help interview a replacement if you want.

Him: (after a good deal of humming and hahing and a conversation with his wife) Okay, let's do it.

Just like that.

It can and does happen. The retail industry isn't looking for a 3-5 year commitment. Hell, they hire people for the month of December only. Like anything, you need to speak to their needs and address them. In my case, most of the staff he had barely understood computers, and none of them could rebuild and clean out his inventory. I could. He gets that extra service for free in place of understanding that I'm not a long term employee.

i had that happen in SF, sent an email, got a phone call about 7 mins later, they said they were downtown, i said i was at Van Ness, 10 mins later i found their subletted unlabeled space. we chatted a bit, then they said "hey a RedHat upgrade messed our custom perl install, wanna try fixing it? so about an hour of deciding i wanted a job i was getting paid doing something i'm decent at.

Not putting your college degree on your one page resume is not 'lying', it's eliminating irrelevant information in favor of freeing up space for past service industry jobs and relevant skills.

Tailoring the resume to the position is a best-practice in job applications.

No, you must not lie.

You emphasise all the customer service style jobs you've had; or you say that you want to get customer service experience with a world leader company that takes service seriously.

This does not work in the current market for the kind of role we're discussing. The hiring manager is looking for criteria to turn the big pile of CVs into a small pile of interviews.

Being overqualified, or unexplained gaps fit the bill perfectly. It really does not matter how well tailored the experience, or how impressive the covering letter.

If you are applying to a company that has a "hiring manager" and are not a perfect match, you are making the first mistake.

The manager at Starbucks is not a "hiring manager". He doesn't care what's on your resume. He cares about three things: 1) Can I work with this guy? 2) Is he reliable/competent? 3) Is he going to steal from me/screw the other staff/piss off the customers/otherwise make my job more difficult?

On the topic of paying for networking (I'm not disagreeing with you), I was thinking that you shouldn't be paying to get into networking events generally. I know I don't. When I was in Boston, there were 10+ good networking events every week, which were almost always free. If they weren't, a few well placed emails got me in the door free. Now I'm in Ohio, and even here I can find free networking events with good people at them.

Even events like SXSWi, which are definitely not free, can be made free. Its simple, just get on a panel or speak there. Before someone says that a 29 year old wouldn't be able to do that, I say look at who is really giving the panels there. About 50% of them are under 30. Every year I have a dozen ~25 year old friends speak there. There's expenses involved in getting there of course, but if you attend SXSWi as a speaker and don't get at least one job offer you've probably done it wrong.