Why aim fire – aim fire has replaced ready, aim fire

“‘The rules have changed. ‘Ready aim fire has been replaced by,

‘Aim, fire, aim, fire, aim, fire.‘”

This quote is from an insightful book by LinkedIn founder, Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha entitled, The Start-up of you.

In the same paragraph the authors make another telling point.

‘Searching for job only when you’re unemployed or unhappy at work has been replaced by the mandate to always be generating opportunities. Networking has been replaced by,

intelligent network building’.*

I share the above points because they relate to a suggestion I make to my clients – and with Hoffman and Casnocha’s ideas – now revised to;

• have a dedicated, 30 minute time block every week, for career strategy thinking & intelligent network building.

Here’s what to do in practice.

Open a spread sheet and start ruminating on what division of your own organisation, or on other companies, industries you’d like to work in, in the future.

With those divisions/companies in mind, make contact with people in those divisions/companies for an ‘advice coffee’++, to get on the radar of those people. In effect, you should, 

Dig your well, before you’re thirsty.

Your CALL to action/HOW to apply for this post: Ask yourself, how well-built is my network? What’s one intelligent network-building action I could take in the next seven days. Take that action. Assign a weekly, non-negotiable 30 minute time block for career strategy/network building.

++Check out this post on how to construct an email pitch an advice coffee meeting with a stranger.

*This ‘networking being replaced by intelligent network building’ message reminds me of the something I’ve heard recently. Namely, – Focus not on being employed, but on being employable.