Human networking

[david at thekramers.net (David Kramer)]

Tom Metro wrote:
> Scott Ehrlich wrote:
>> Of the job postings I've scoured, with the overwhelming talent that
>> currently exists in the market, human networking has become ever more key
>> in at least gaining an interview for most any preferred job.
>> ...
>> I propose a networking email list to bring everyone together in one
>> central place.
>> ... Some areas I feel such a central list would help are to:
>>
>> - gain an inside connection with an organization
>> - gain a feel for an organization's environment when applying for or
>>   interviewing at said organization
>> - assist people in transition from one professional area to another or
>> one
>>   aspect of life to another
> 
> I've always been skeptical of groups that have a primary purpose of
> networking, rather than networking happening as a side effect of some
> other activity. It seems the best these organizations can hope for is to
> draw people in by offering talks and information on career improvement
> and job searching. If this is the "bait" being offered, then the people
> they attract will primarily be unemployed people, and that isn't the
> ideal audience to achieve the goals you list.
> 
> Despite that, these groups do apparently work. Perhaps David Kramer can
> elaborate on what http://www.windnetworking.net does to address this
> limitation. But it does make me wonder if there is a better way.

They get around that by not being just a networking event.  WIND has
classes. seminars. presentations, some for free and some for pay.  The
program also regularly does things like resume reviews (where people break
off into groups, and take turns helping each other on their resumes),
working on elevator speeches, discussions on ways to find unpublished jobs,
networking tips, how to sell yourself...  All of the groups I mentioned are
like that.

I do know one group that was pure networking (Susan Kaup ran it), and it
fell apart.  Just shoving people together in a room with some food is not
going to work the vast majority of the people who are not born salesment and
very outgoing.

 > A lot of companies are trying to go after the social networking market,
> and LinkedIn's approach is only a part of the solution. It is good for
> connecting with people you already know and people that they know, but
> it doesn't facilitate casual communication, like a discussion list does.

LiveJournal is good for that kind of thing.  Start a BostonIT LiveJournal group.

Since a good chunk of that my company does (not Agile Rules, but the company
I was just hired at, Aptima) is work in social engineering and
communication, an interesting technology was brought to my attention the
other day.  http://www.ning.com is an open source website and software
designed just for making social connection websites.  Check them out.  Very
easy to create your own based on their software, and they host it for free.


> A step in the right direction would be setting up LinkedIn groups for
> local user groups, like BLU. And perhaps one for New England area IT
> professionals. But it might cost money (LinkedIn suggests that they'll
> waive fees if you promote them to your group), and it's still not clear
> that you could motivate people to join a "New England area IT
> professionals" group, or even LinkedIn.

LiveJournal would be free, as would Ning, mentioned above.

Or get your geek on and develop your own based on Ruby on Rails.


> (You might have better luck working with http://www.mydirectties.com/ a
> competing service offered by a local startup. It's less polished than
> LinkedIn, and obviously has a smaller existing user base, but they'd be
> more likely to be flexible and adjust their service to achieve your goals.)
> 
> Meetup.com is another approach, which has other pieces to the puzzle,
> but has a poor business model (it's too expensive).

Especially if your target audience is unemployed folks.

>> An argument can be made that user groups are made for this, but there are
>> some who cannot make it to such meetings, and user groups can tend to
>> attract only those people interested in the niche of that group, and many
>> IT people simply are not good with human interaction/networking, and feel
>> more comfortable behind a keyboard.
> 
> Existing mailing lists seem to be the answer to all of the concerns you
> raise, except the niche problem, but I'm not sure how you go about
> making a generic, umbrella organization compelling to join. What does
> the busy, employed IT worker have to gain from the group?

http://www.bostonusergroups.com

> Boston Contractors
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bostoncontractors/
> 
> I haven't followed that group, so I can't comment on the quality.

I know the owner of that list (and I'm on it), and he is very strict about
people not selling products or dumping leads from headhunters on there.
They often have topical discussions about rates, finding gigs, dealing with
expenses, dealing with mission creep, ...


Now you know why procmail is my indispensible friend.
-- 

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DK KD  Saturday and Sunday: I seem to recall what sleep is in an
DKK D  intellectual sense, but nothing practical comes of it.
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