Posted under Networking on January 18th, 2008
I just returned from a professional organization lunch and was struck with a title for a sure-fire best-seller: How to get as little as possible from you professional organization memberships!
1. Arrive just in time to eat and rush off before the speaker even finishes. This lets everyone realize how busy you are and that the idea of speaking with you is just not feasible.
2. Only sit with members of your own company – even if this means saving seats for people that never show. The last thing you want to do is give the impression that you are open to new ideas and viewpoints.
3. Never have business cards with you since that might give the impression you welcome the chance to enlarge your network. As if you don’t have enough needy people in your rolodex….
4. Take calls during lunch and step out to make a call when the speaker starts. Why make people think you are so un-important you can actually sit for an hour?
5. Never get to know the officers – this might give the impression you want to be involved.
Follow these rules precisely and you, too, can complain how unbeneficial your membership dues are.
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Louise Kursmark on 22 Jan 2008 at 11:39 pm #
Faith, I got a chuckle out of this but it is so true! We always preach to job seekers that professional organizations can be a goldmine of valuable contacts, leads, referrals, ideas, and support… but not if you don’t make time to make relationships.