Re:Being a good networker pays off, but it requires skill as...
by mcguire on Wednesday January 21, 2015 @12:15PM
(#8924073)
"The first principle for would-be networkers is to abandon all shame. Be flagrant in your pursuit of the powerful and the soon-to-be-powerful, and when you have their attention, praise them to the skies. Academic research has found that people’s susceptibility to flattery is without limit and beyond satire. In a study published in 1997, B.J. Fogg and Clifford Nass of Stanford University invited people to play a guessing game with a computer, which gave them various types of feedback as they played. Participants who received praise rated both the computer and themselves more highly than those who did not—even those who had been warned beforehand that the machine would compliment them regardless of how well they were doing. Yes, even blatantly insincere, computer-generated flattery works."
Re:Being a good networker pays off, but it requires skill as...
by Hoffmannnn on Wednesday January 21, 2015 @01:17AM
(#8921780)
The two aren't mutually exclusive. You can be genuinely interested in what somebody has to say, and still plan to use them later.
Don't kid yourself into thinking they wouldn't do the same for you -- instead, think of it as a mutual agreement to provide services to each other when needed.
Re:Being a good networker pays off, but it requires skill as...
by ZoF on Wednesday January 21, 2015 @02:14AM
(#8921927)
More like a mutual agreement to request services from each other when they are required.
E.g. to ask you if you want a particular contract (when it needs to be fulfilled regardless). Not to 'come up' with a contract because your 'bro' is out of work.
I sincerely do not want or expect any favors or benefits from them. If we're in a setting that begets conversation and I know that we don't have tooo much in common, I'm going to go out of my way to make the conversation enjoyable for them, because their enjoyment of the conversation will make the conversation enjoyable for me as well.
The alternative is often either side taking turns about subjects that the other person has no interest in, and those conversations don't do any good for either person.