For University of Wisconsin students looking to find a job, the current economy can make things difficult, and networking has been touted as a way into the job market.
Joe Sweeney, a bestselling author and the former marketing agent for Brett Favre, challenged the more than 100 people in attendance to change how they view networking, from an action job seekers must do to get a job to one where they give and receive much more in return.
In fact, he was so confident in his system, he’ll pay anyone who tries it for four months and doesn’t get a job $250.
After handing a $100 bill to a student who answered a question correctly, those in the room didn’t doubt Sweeney’s sincerity on keeping his promise.
He said the way people view networking needs to shift from an “I need to get” mentality to a “what can I give” one.
The key to giving employers, and people in general, what they want is by figuring out what makes them tick. Sweeney said the easiest way to get to know people is by asking.
Then listen to what they say.
While most people think networkers are expert conversationalists, the reality is the opposite, Sweeney said. The best networkers are listeners.
For example, when then-Green Bay Packers quarterback Favre approached Sweeney about “making him a lot of money,” Sweeney said he listened to what Favre was really saying.
“He said, ‘Go make a lot of money for me,’…but when I really listened he said, ‘Joe I’m in a lot of trouble,” Sweeney said.
At the time, Favre’s battles with alcohol and drug addictions were causing his problems, Sweeney said, and he helped Favre get better by working with drug and alcohol experts and sending an intervention letter to the quarterback.
Perseverance and determination are also a huge factors. As a graduate student at Notre Dame University with loans and a new baby, Sweeney said he wrote 1,300 letters to everyone he could trying to find business opportunities.
Finally, believing and receiving is the final step to effective networking, he said. The incident that convinced Sweeney of this happened at a time when he owed money on three investment ventures, had three children in private school and took a seven month sabbatical from his job.
Despite his own financial issues, Sweeney still paid $10,000 to cover a student-in-need’s private school expenses. The day after he wrote the check, he won $10,000 from an auction someone entered him in.
“If there’s anything that compelled me to know that networking in life is a place you go to give and it comes back, it’s this experience,” Sweeney said.
UW sophomore Brianna Woller said Sweeney’s suggestions provided a new perspective on networking, and his idea about giving instead of receiving made a lot of sense.
“I just think a lot of the things that he did, like how he went and paid for that guy’s tuition and then it came right back to him, I thought that was amazing how it’s true, you do have to give to get… back,” Woller said.
