Career and Life Planning Guidebook for Medical Residents

To create and grow your Circles of Gold, you must first understand how to network. Here are some guidelines to help you with your networking campaign: 1. Be yourself. Whether you are an introvert or an extrovert, reflective or outgoing, the most important skill for successful networking (as well as interviewing) is to be yourself. When you try to portray yourself as someone you’re not, others will sense it and pull back. You must be authentic and comfortable, no matter what your personality type. When you can be yourself, engage in a conversation with someone and be interested in what they have to say, style ceases to be an issue. Substance is the key. And for those ofyouwho think that being an introvert puts you at a disadvantage, think again. Introverts are typically excellent listeners, and listening is the number one skill of a good networker. 2. StartyourCirclesofGoldwith thoseyoualready know. GR = 310. This equation is the key to building your Circles of Gold. Think of the three people who wrote your letters of recommendation for residency application. They are already in your list of contacts. With a single conversation, each of those three contacts could connect you with three more contacts, and – well, you get the picture. By the time you add in fellow residents, colleagues, nurses, neighbors, and so on, your Circles of Gold expand. 3. Organize and store your contact information. As a product of the technology age, you may not have used a Rolodex ® —a physical collection of business cards or contact information, indexed alphabetically at your fingertips. These days there are all kinds of more technological ways to store that data. You can keep an Excel spreadsheet or even purchase software for a customer relationship database (CRM). Whatever you decide to use, it’s important to have a reliable means of organizing your growing list of contacts. This can be your cell phone or an Outlook folder on your laptop. Your contact list needs to be updated continually and be easily accessible. Always remember to back up your data. Ask your new contacts for their business cards or phone numbers, addresses, and email addresses if they don’t have business cards. With their permission, you can store their contact information, and it’s always a good idea to keep some private notes to include something you remember about each person. Perhaps a contact talked with you about a new project, or a new baby in the family. Maybe he or she shared a story with you about a first job or gave you an excellent recommendation for a restaurant. This tidbit will help you remember each contact and often will give you something to mention the next time you talk with him or her. People are surprised when you remember what they told you—they don’t have to know it’s because you kept careful notes and referred to those notes before talking to them. Listening and remembering is a vital skill in building relationships. SECTION II: T MINUS TWO YEARS CAREER AND LIFE PLANNING GUIDEBOOK FOR MEDICAL RESIDENTS 162