Tips On Getting Ahead At Work - Networking

Tips For How You Can Network Your Way to the Top

By
Relationship Advice Expert April Masini

I just graduated college and got a pretty decent job, but I'd really like to keep moving up. Everyone's telling me that the best way to move up the corporate ladder is to network. Do you have any suggestions of how I can start the networking process?

Sincerely,

Network to the Top

Dear Network to the Top,

There's no doubt that networking is the best way for you to make it to the top. It can sometimes seem difficult, but it can also be a lot of fun!

Here are some suggestions on how to start the networking process:

Play a Sport

Extreme sports are an excellent way to separate the men from the boys -- and when it comes to business, nobody wants to work with the boys. They want to work with the men. And in this case, some of those "men" may be women! Women who excel at extreme sports find themselves in an elite group of aggressive, successful people who want to do business the way they heli-ski -- on the edge.

Sports became a bonding glue when the Old Boy's Network ruled, and while it still does, there are lots of other networks, like the Pink Network, which is women, the Rainbow Network, which is gays and the Puke-Stained network, which is working mothers. While sports can be enjoyed by anyone, there are also arts exhibit and classical or rock concert tickets that your colleagues and clients would kill to get -- and box seats sometimes don't hold a candle to backstage passes or opening night tickets for artistic events that occur on non-working hours.

Get Around Town

In addition, Little League and PTA have taken on a new tenor with more and more working parents and single parents having to do carpool duty. You will easily run into colleagues and clients at all of these events if they have kids. In fact, a great way to win favor with a client or colleague is to get passes to premiere or preview events at the circus when it comes to town. Even sharing academic info for kids -- like the home phone number of the best tutor in town, will gain you more favor than season tickets to The Knicks games, with many parents.

Bond Over Beauty

And don't forget grooming. Nothing bonds a couple of colleagues like lunch and a mani-pedi at a great new city spa, where you can get French tips and work tips at the same time. Any spa service, like massages, or even haircuts, can easily be done in tandem by busy execs that like to multi task and kill two birds with one stone -- hair cuts and business shmoozing.

April Masini -- nicknamed "the new millennium's Dear Abby" by the media, is author of the best-selling books Date Out Of Your League and Think & Date Like A Man, the two (just released) step-by-step dating and relationship manuals, Ideas for a Fun Date and Romantic Date Ideas, and the critically acclaimed dating and relationship online magazine www.AskApril.com.

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