It's Who You Know by Cynthia Chin-Lee

"Straight talk about an increasingly important topic -- networking."
Tom Peters, best-selling author

There is an old saying, 'It's not what you know; it's who you know.' That may sound simplistic at first. On closer examination, your success often depends on a subtle, but important blend of what you know and who you know. As one joke goes, you not only have to have know-how to get the job done, you also need to have know-who.

You have probably heard over and over to 'study hard and get good grades,' with the implicit promise that success would be yours. So you follow the formula of getting a good education and working hard, devoting years of diligent study to attaining a college or university diploma and to have letters, such as B.A., M.S., or Ph.D., appended to your name.

Yet you could still be missing something. What you might be missing is the other part of the formula, the who you know part. You don't have to be a politician to realize that personal contacts are frequently the key to a deal, the clincher in a contract, or the difference between being just another job applicant and getting the job. This book discusses how you can control who you know."

The process of making contacts is not for the faint of heart. Gear yourself for taking some personal and social risks and challenging some of your fundamental beliefs.

Remember that the results- greater personal effectiveness and success- are worth the effort and risks. This process involves the marketing of a revolutionary and unique product, one that the world has never seen before: YOU."

"A few years ago, a bright young woman graduated with honors from Harvard University. Harvard is no backwoods place to attend college, but when she tried to get a job, many employer told her she was overqualified and underexperienced. She was shocked to find the truth about getting a job: you need experience to get a job, but if you've never had a job, how do you get experience? It was a classic Catch-22, a paradox in the practical world that makes a victim of every beginner.

This young woman entered the job market as just one more job seeker among thousands of graduates with at liberal arts degree. Despite her impressive academic credentials, she had no apparent marketable skills. Worse number of college-educated job seekers this country had ever seen. Her frustration at her inability to find a reasonably challenging job galvanized her to look for new ways to get what she wanted. Networking proved extremely effective in her job search and was an exciting way to see more of the world through the eyes and experiences of others. Networking had a profound effect on the course of her career. Through networking, she got her first big break - the break that allowed her to move from menial and clerical jobs into the professional world. How do I know? That networker was me."