Question to ponder. In terms of your professional success, do you think it’s better to have 100 casual relationships with people you know in passing — who might lend you a hand every once in a while — or 10 “power relationships” with people who think you’re amazing and who go out of their way, […]
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How Can I Help You? (Part Two)
April 29, 2011 
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Among my recent postings, few have generated as much discussion and debate as the one I authored a few weeks ago, suggesting that job hunters should go beyond the standard “How can I help you?” line and get even more proactive in offering assistance to the people they encounter in their networking efforts. If you […]
Read moreMy Beef With “How Can I Help You?”
April 9, 2011 9 Comments
Would it surprise you if I were to admit, despite my unshakable belief in the practice of reciprocal networking, that one of my growing pet peeves is when people end a networking conversation by saying “So Matt, how can I help YOU?” Sounds crazy, I know. All the experts, all the books, all the networking […]
Read moreThe Wisdom of Ken Grant: Be Interesting, Or Else!
April 6, 2011 4 Comments
You’re interesting, whether you know it or not. You are an incredibly alluring and interesting person by default, simply because you are a human being with a unique background and a lifetime of stories to tell. That’s what Ken Grant believes, at least. Who is this Ken guy? Ken is a long-time ally of the […]
Read moreSeattle Employers: Top 10 “Most Saturated” List
January 14, 2011 5 Comments
No question about it, networking is still the single most effective method that professionals in transition should be using to generate job leads — and I don’t for one second want to “disincent” people from reaching out to everybody they know, including myself, to seek introductions and referrals to various companies of interest. At the […]
Read moreJob Hunt Networking: A Twist
December 21, 2010 0 Comments
With the end-of-year holidays bearing down on us like a freight train, and my woeful procrastination in terms of getting any shopping done, I probably won’t have quite as much time as hoped this week to get some final blog articles out the door in 2010. This being said, though, I do have several “petite” […]
Read moreIf Only Relationships Were For Sale (sigh)
December 10, 2010 4 Comments
Alas, if only you could “buy your way” out of a job search. While it hasn’t happened in a while, I recently had two calls come in from people who were interested in getting some help with finding employment. Specifically, they told me they wanted introductions to important people and executive decision-makers. Not career coaching, […]
Read moreCreate Your Own Community — Or Else!
November 4, 2010 3 Comments
This past Sunday, on Halloween night, the Youngquist household only had 8-10 trick-or-treaters show up, down from perhaps a dozen the year before and a few dozen more the year before that. Then this past Tuesday, on Election Day, I sent in my ballot by mail instead of marching down (as in past years) to […]
Read moreCan One Be “Too Important” to Network?
July 17, 2010 2 Comments
I had an interesting conversation with a CIO a few weeks ago who claimed that sites like LinkedIn were his absolute worst nightmare. His perspective was that if he joined sites like these, and used them in any sort of semi-serious way, he’d subject himself to bombardment by even MORE harassing calls and networking requests […]
Read moreNetworking Hesitancy: What’s Behind It?
May 19, 2010 5 Comments
Boy, there sure have been some great articles published in the Wall Street Journal and other places recently that speak to some very interesting and nuanced aspects of the job hunting process! One such WSJ article was sent to me a few days ago by a client and made some great points, I thought, about […]
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