Many people I speak with do very poor or limited networking. They think sending out LinkedIn connection requests to strangers is networking even though they do nothing to take advantage of the connection or even offer to help out the person they have connected with.
That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Does it make any sense to you?
As I write this, we have entered the “Thanksgiving to New Year’s End of Year Bonanza” period when the biggest jerk in your former professional life will be open to networking and offering some help.
It’s easy . . . send a holiday card to re-connect. Do it early in December to open the door to recognition and a smile. The card can be sent as an ecard to save on cost (use www.Greetings123.com, one of the few remaining free sites) to send out holiday greetings and best wishes.
A week or two later, place a call to the person to check in on life, the universe, everything . . .you know . . . chit chat. Tell them about family and re-kindle the connection. In this call or in one more, you open the door to asking for help with your job search.
Most people will be friendly enough and well-mannered enough to listen and re-kindle the relationship. Nothing may come of the networking effort but networking will never work without the personal contact of a connection like this, especially with people you already know.