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tranfree issue 15 - 6 June 2000
Networking: How to Make Sure Your Net is "Working" for You
Part 2 of 2
By Mary Maloof
SECOND...
Use these tricks so that you won't be distracted by other things
and can focus completely on the people you're talking to...
- At networking events where food and beverages are supplied,
come early and eat discreetly before the majority of the
attendees arrive. That way, you won't be awkwardly trying to
eat and drink while talking to people, and you won't be
distracted by your parched throat or growling stomach. This
was taught to me by a very successful real-estate agent who
must network tirelessly for her job.
- If you have a drink in your hand, hold it in your left hand so
that your right hand will be free to...
...shake the hands of people
who talk to you, and your hand won't be cold and clammy from
having held a drink in it for a half-hour. This valuable tip
has been offered time and again by Letitia Baldrige, the chief
of protocol for the Kennedy Administration.
- Nobody wants to shake hands with someone whose hands are cold,
limp, moist, or all three. If you have cold hands like I do,
take a minute to go into the nearest restroom, run them under
a stream of hot water, dry them off so that there is not a
trace of moisture, and return to the room with pleasantly
warm, dry, shakeable hands. Make sure your handshake is firm,
neither bone- crushing nor limp. Practice your handshake on
friends if you have to.
THIRD...
Go into networking with no expectations, prejudices or
preconceptions whatsoever. Look at everybody, and I mean
absolutely everybody, as a potential source of work, or somebody
who knows a potential source of work, and treat them all exactly
the same. To be sure, the mother of two small kids next door,
your accountant, the newspaper deliverer, the architect who is
your cousin's husband, your childrens' history teacher, etc. are
obviously not direct sources of work, but I would venture to say
that ninety percent of them know someone who could be.
At the same time, don't be so eager for work that you come off as
being "desperate" or grasping -- in fact, forget about any
potential clients you meet for at least a few weeks after you
send that follow-up card or email. If you do this, the work will
come to you on its own.
I was at a networking event last spring and got into a pleasant
conversation with a chemist who was the head of international
marketing at a local biotech firm. He asked me for my card
because he needed to have a lot of translating and proofreading
done. I gave it to him, and he promised he'd call.
Months passed, and I completely forgot about him. Then, I lost my
largest contract because the CEO of that company had decided to
slash all telecommuting jobs due to budgetary problems. I was
panicking, because that contract had been my major source of
income up to that point. Not a week later, out of the blue, the
chemist called. To this day, he remains my largest (and most
favorite) client, and is an absolute joy to work with.
Network constantly, with everybody, on a daily basis. This is
absolutely crucial, and here's why: We are freelance translators
and work independently, outside of the framework of financial
security, ample human resources, and benefits that a full-time,
in-house position offers, so we're all familiar with the hard
work involved in being our own chief executive officer, chief
operating officer, accountant, secretary, receptionist, gofer,
etc. ... With all this work on our shoulders, it is very easy to
forget that we must be our own chief business development and
marketing officer as well, and that we must do all our own
business development and marketing at a pace that equals that of
the other businesses out there.
"But networking is so artificial and shallow," you might be
saying. "If I go out there and network on a regular basis,
everybody will know that I'm just 'schmoozing' for work and they
will run when they see me coming." Well, if you do your
networking right, you won't be 'schmoozing.' At first, you'll
feel that you are and will feel self-conscious, but if done often
enough, the uneasiness will subside, and you will get to the
point where it comes so naturally to you that you don't even
think about it.
How DO you get to that point? How DO you do your networking
right? If you look at networking not as 'schmoozing' but as a way
to help people, and go into it not with the mentality of "Help! I
gotta get some work," or "What's in this for me?" but rather "How
can I be of service to the people I meet?" and "What's in it for
the person I'm talking to?" you will be successful. Then the work
will come to you in its own good time.
If you are simply prepared to help others, at any time, in any
place, you will be seen as a helpful person, and people will
naturally want to help you back. A translator friend of mine once
witnessed a car accident while driving on the road, and pulled
over to assist the victims and call the police and an ambulance
to the scene on his cellular phone. The people involved in the
accident turned out to be OK, but they were so grateful for his
help that they asked for his card. One of these turned out to
work for a Fortune 500 company that needed to put together a pool
of technical translators for its product manuals. Moral of the
story: If you cast your bread out on the waters, it really does
come back to you a thousandfold.
If you are there for other people now, and treat everyone as a
potential part of your network when you don't need it (and if you
do need it, act as if you don't!), that network will always be
there for you later.
Cheers and happy networking!
Mary C. Maloof is a certified Spanish > English translator who
resides in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. She is the founder
and moderator of "SpTranslators," an Internet mailing list for
Spanish translators, founder and moderator of "Legaltranslators,"
an Internet mailing list for legal translators, director of The
American Web for International Languages, a worldwide job
referrals network for translators and interpreters, and owner of
Maloof Language Services, Inc., which offers a wide range of
translation and interpretation services. For more information
about her work, please contact her at
mmaloof@sprintmail.com
Mary also offers consulting
services to translators - contact her for more details.
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