If you are a sales and marketing professional thinking about initiating a new job search, make sure that you focus on the power of networking. If you work in sales and marketing, you already understand how important the network effect is for getting new business, or finding new prospects. So as you start your job search, use that knowledge to your advantage by developing a very strong networking plan that will multiply the number of opportunities for new positions that come towards you.

In the world of networking there are people who know how to do it right and people who do it wrong. Here, well be exploring a lot of the dos and donts. But Im going to start with the most important DO and that is as follows: Make sure to remember that networking is about building relationships, and relationships require a balanced give/get. If you are a taker and not a giver, you wont get very very far, particularly when it comes to networking. The best way to get referrals from people is to give them.

So if youre looking for a job, always remember the following in the relationship-building process:

First, every contact becomes a relationship that you want to retain over the long term. If youre seriously interested in building a network through your job search, why wouldnt you want to retain it once you found a new position? Maintaining your network after youve completed your job search is a very powerful tool for continuing to enhance your career profile. Keeping these relationships can help you throughout the duration of your career. Lots of job seekers engage in networking only as long as it takes for them to find a job and then quickly lose touch with all of the people they met along the way. What if you could harness the power of those relationships and bring them along with you into your career? Thats the real power of networking.

Second, remember that when youre out there networking with people, youre asking people to share their time, their contacts, their ideas and suggestions. Youre asking for their help. If you want to ask a stranger for help, what would be the number one thing that you could do in order to make sure that stranger is willing to help you? Well naturally the answer is to offer to help them. So make sure that every time that you complete a networking discussion with an individual that has just given you help, or perhaps given you a lead for a new job opportunity, make sure to ask them what can I do to help you?

In addition, when youve landed in a new job, make sure to follow up with everybody whos helped you along the way and thank them for their assistance in your job search. Make sure to send them your new contact information and let them know where youve landed.

I have numerous candidates that come through my office, asking for contacts and referrals and after theyve taken from me I never hear from them again. I find those kind of people to be the ones that I really dont want to help. They are takers and not givers.

If you really want peoples help, think about what it is that youre going to do for them, and proactively ask them: how can I help you? These are some of the basic give-get rules of networking, which if applied properly to your job search will help you to get better leads, better referrals and better job opportunities in your chosen field.