编者按：有人说：“如果你在21世纪还没有使用网络的话，就将变成穷光蛋。”同样，在21世纪如果没有人际网络的话，你肯定不会成为富翁。人际网络的建立能从侧面反映一个人的能力和魅力，如何使你自身具备的“磁场效应”变得足够强大，如何把人际“网”编织得广，编织得大，编织得牢固，这是一个人获得成功不可或缺的条件。

The Secret Handshake: Why Networking Is Vital

by Dakotta J.K. Alex （http://www.dakotta.com）

The old maxim, “It’s not what you know, but who you know,” really is a good way to sum up the importance and relevance of networking in the life of the job-seeker. Thus, it would not be a stretch to say that networking is the most important activity for a job-seeker to get a handle on to achieve success while searching for a job.
You may have already realized during your job search exploits that there are more jobs available than are listed in your local paper. This is because a majority of job openings are simply never advertised. They are held back by the business owners or left up to the job-seeker to take the initiative and contact the HR department or some other internal contact. This means that scores of unadvertised openings can be discovered only through talking to as many people as possible and letting them know you’re currently looking for employment. Since you may know “someone who knows someone”, you could be in a better position than those who limit themselves to ads in the classified section.
The relationships that you build through networking can help you in a number of ways:
1) those in your network may have information about hidden employment opportunities;
2) you may have contacts that can help while researching your career plans;
3) you can be inspired and motivated by some of great personal contacts you’ve made;
4) if your contact works for a company you have an interest in, you could gain valuable inside information regarding in-house opportunities that have not be released to the public yet.
But a question remains: Should a job seeker concentrate more about the quality of his network or the quantity of those who make up the network?

QUALITY VS. QUANTITY

Should you keep your network small and made up of quality professional and personal connections, or go for a larger number of contacts who are relevant to your search efforts but may or may not be what you would consider quality contacts? The fact is, you should really do your best to develop both aspects of your network, but doing this is far from simple. Time is the key factor here. You must have time to both build and more importantly maintain those relationships; to make them quality contacts takes even more time. Unfortunately, most of us only have so many hours in a day to devote to this. Therefore, one aspect or the other may suffer for it.
So how can you find a clear balance of quality connections with highly relevant people and maximizing the number of people in your network? In order to make the most of your efforts, you need to find out what sort of relationship quality will be enough to accomplish your job-seeking goals. Then you can build the numbers based upon this information. Of course, there is no one right solution all the time. Your specific needs will have to be revised when the context changes. Any strategies that you find help you build those stronger, quality relationships and reach out to more people should be time-sensitive, allowing for the constraints of your schedule.

QUALITY NETWORK

Though it may be obvious by now what a quality network is, it will be good to go over a few more points. A purely quality-based network will be small and limited in scope. Many people have networks made up of close friends, family members, and occasionally old acquaintances. Your time and attention is fixed upon maintaining these intimate relationships and using them to gather information about opportunities. Even if your quality network is made up of business contacts, they will be those that you’ve invested considerable time in, cultivating them into strong relationships.

QUANTITY NETWORK

Creating a network that is based on numbers involves the extension of your contacts. A primary way that you can do this is to ask those who are already in your network if they know other people that may have relevant information that you can use on the job hunt. This works on both the personal and professional levels. Not only can you ask your friend or neighbor if they might know somebody, but you can ask co-workers as well. That’s right; you just ask them. Most people will be helpful and maybe point to some potential leads. If you’ve taken the time to develop your quantity network relationship strategically, and targeted key players who can influence many of the other lesser contacts, you can use numbers to gain a decisive advantage and find what you want much faster and effectively.

HOW TO BUILD A QUALITY NETWORK WITH QUANTITY

You should start by building a core group of quality contacts and use them as a base to expand the quantity of the network, while striving to keep the quality of contact in check along the way. This provides the best of both: the range of a quantity-based network with the strength and reliability found in quality contacts.
“关键不是你懂得什么，而是你认识什么人。”这句老谚语确实很好地概括了“构织关系网”在求职者的生活中所具有的重要性和实用性。因此，说“构织关系网”是求职者在找工作的过程中要掌握的获得成功的最重要的行动一点也不为过。
在求职过程中你可能已经认识到，空缺的职位要比你们当地报纸中列出的多。这是因为大多数空缺的职位简直从不做广告。它们被经营者控制起来，或者留给求职者来主动联系人力资源部门，或者留给内部一些熟人。这就意味着大量未登广告的空缺职位只能通过和尽可能多的人谈话并让他们知道你最近正在找工作来发现。既然你知道“某个认识某人的人”，你的处境就可能比那些把自己限制在分类广告栏的人更好。
通过构织关系网建立起来的关系能够在很多方面帮助你：
1）??? 那些在你人际关系网中的人可能有关于没有公布的工作机会的信息；
2）??? 在研究你的职业规划时，可能有熟人能对你有所帮助；
3）??? 你所建立的一些重要的个人社会关系可能对你有所激励或促进；
4）??? 如果你有熟人在一家你感兴趣的公司工作，你就能得到有价值的内部信息——还没有公诸于众的机构内部空缺的信息。
但是，还有一个问题：求职者应该更关注人际关系网的质量，还是构成这个关系网的那些人的数量？

质量对数量

你是应该维持小的人际关系网并让它保持由高质量专业人士和熟人构成，还是宁要更多数量的、跟你的求职努力有关系的、但可能是也可能不是你所认为的高质量的社会关系呢？事实上，你应该尽力发展人际关系网的这两个方面，不过要这样做并不容易。在这里，时间是关键因素。你必须既有时间建立那些关系，更重要的是又要有时间维持那些关系；让它们成为高质量的社会关系甚至要花费更多的时间。不幸的是，我们中的大多数人一天当中只有那么几个小时来做这件事情。因此，其中一个方面或者另一个方面将会受到损害。
那么你怎样才能够找到一个平衡点呢？既要和那些关系非常密切的人保持高质量的联系，又要尽量扩大你关系网的人数。为了取得最佳效果，你需要搞清楚，哪种人际关系足以实现你的求职目标，然后你可以在这个基础上扩充人数。当然，正确的解决办法不会一成不变。当情况发生变化时，你的具体需求须做出修正。只要时间许可，任何有助于你建立强有力和高质量人际关系及广泛接触更多人的策略都要随时调整。

高质量的人际关系网

虽然现在或许已经说清楚了什么是高质量的人际关系网，但再补充几点会有好处。一个真正建立在高质量基础上的人际关系网规模很小，人数不多。很多人的人际关系网是由最好的朋友和家庭成员来构成，偶尔也会有几个老熟人。你花时间和精力来保持这些亲密关系，并利用这些关系来获取有关工作机会的信息。即便你高质量的人际关系网是由生意场中的熟人构成，它们也是那些你已?-投入了大量时间，并把它们培养成强大的人际关系。

人数众多的人际关系网

要建立人数众多的人际关系网势必要扩大你的接触面。做这件的第一步就是要问那些已?-在你关系网中的人，看他们是否认识其他有相关信息（这些信息你能在求职时用上）的人。这个办法在私人关系方面和工作关系方面都可以用。你不仅可以问你的朋友或者邻居，看他们是否认识某某人，你也可以问同事。这没什么，你问就是了。大多数人都会乐意帮忙，而且也许会给你指出一些可能的路子来。如果你已?-把时间花在战略上发展人际关系的数量，并且找到了关键的、能影响很多其他次要人际关系的人，你就可以用数量取得决定性的优势，更快、更有效地找到你所要的东西。

怎样建立人数众多且质量高的人际关系网

你应该从建立一个高质量的人际关系核心团队开始，用他们作为基础来扩大人际关系的数量；同时，在这个过程中努力维持人际关系质量，使之有所控制。这集合了两方面的优势：建立起一个在数量基础上的广泛的人际关系网，同时又有高质量且强大、可靠的人际关系。

责任编辑：杨军花

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