Compiling a Stellar Contact List

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  adhikari.jayanta@...03/23/07 Report as spam
  1

  what if I want to change my industry??

  well, very well written. But what if someone want to change his/her industry? Say I'm in electrilcal manufacturing industry, but I wanna switch over to Video game industry. Then...how is this possible??
  Please advice...

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  xash@...03/26/07 Report as spam
  2

  Home & network

  I have changed industry twice, from Semiconductors, to Management
  Consulting to Corporate Finance. My experience is that if you have a clear
  understanding of your own strengths, and can demonstrate achievements as
  well as having attractive and relevant skills, industry specialty fades into
  irrelevance.
  
  In a sentence: functional performance trumps industry experience.
  
  It is easiest to switch industries as a project manager, finance analyst,
  accountant or human resource professional, as these are clearly transferable
  skills. If you are a quality engineer for electronics manufacturing processes
  and you want to be video game programmer, then you have a functional AND
  industry switch which is hard. Therefore one strategy may be to apply the said
  Quality skills to the programming process in the Manufacturing environment
  and use that beachhead to breach over to the Video Game industry.
  
  Hope this helps.

•  
  xash@...03/26/07 Report as spam
  3

  Forgot to add...

  ...if you haven't read Marcus Buckingham's "Now Discover Your Strengths" it will
  certainly help clarify and focus your passion and potential.

•  
  Ramon Rojas03/26/07 Report as spam
  4

  Devloping Contacts

  First, I think this process is great. It allows us to feed into a base of experts and receive a reply. I just hope there is no ONE that spoils the program by adding profanity and such.
  
  Anyway, I'm getting ready to change careers and I'll tell you, it's a slow process. Developing the right contacts is difficult especially when you have to mention the fact that you're not in the industry yet. I still find it helpful to stay in contact with these folks, as your name will be moved around the network until that magical moment when you make the transition. 10Q!

•  
  loganloganlogan@...03/26/07 Report as spam
  5

  Contact Tracking

  To track contacts, I use a web-based tool called Highrise created by the folks
  at 37signals. It just went live last week so I'm still testing the ins/outs, but
  love it so far. It keeps a list of all my contacts, conversations, action items etc.
  I can access it anywhere since it's online - also helpful if one moves to
  another job. A free option is available allowing for 250 contacts, but there are
  paid options if you have more.
  
  http://www.highrisehq.com/
  
  Highrise doesn't seem to be bogged down w/ a ton of useless features like
  some CRM systems, etc. I also use their Backpack and Writeboard programs.
  All are really simple.
  
  I also use LinkedIn, which seems to be the industry standard for online
  networking. Any other recommendations/thoughts?