This advice is not so good. If you have to expend energy actually caring about your friends and co-workers, you might as well keep the job you have. It's much easier. I'm also unenthusiastic about getting your network to think of you in an "up-to-date way." You've always been a dissatisfied, grumpy complainer. Why change now?
Consultant Ryan does have one worthwhile idea -- if you need to grow your network beyond the delivery guy from Dominos and the daytime bartender at the Kit Kat Klub, do it while you're still employed. "Employed job seekers have a huge advantage over unemployed people," says Ryan, and she is so right. You know you're always out-of-time when it comes to seeing your out-of-work friends. They're depressing. Needy. And -- who knows? -- unemployment might be contagious!
But don't drop your friends completely. "If you let a connection lapse," cautions Ryan, "you may encounter apathy when you ask for help." Duh. You've been encountering apathy from your associates for years now. Their lack of interest in listening to your tales of woe is totally inexplicable. That's why it does make sense to use your last few moments of employment to strengthen ties and, most importantly, to borrow lots and lots of money. Let's see them try to collect when you file for Chapter 11!
Another way to leverage your evil networking empire is with your company's vendors. Insist on a job or, at least, a recommendation before you award a contract.
You might take a page from The Godfather, who rasps to one his suppliers, a mortician, "If, by chance, an honest man like yourself should make enemies ... then they would become my enemies. And then they would fear you.''
It worked for Don Vito Corleone, and hey, those Mafia guys never have trouble finding work.
