Networking Tips from the Ultimate Networker

As a co-founder of the popular social networking website LinkedIn and an influential Silicon Valley angel investor, Reid Hoffman has distilled his business wisdom into a book, The Start-up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career. With so many industries in upheaval, Hoffman insists that effective networkers behave differently today than they did 20 or 30 years ago. “Go out to lunch with different folks,” he says. “Go out to lunch with people from other departments, from other companies, and explicitly address questions like: How do you see the industry changing? What do you think is happening? How do you do your job effectively?” Borrowing Silicon Valley’s term for products still in testing, Hoffman urges listeners to think of their careers as being in permanent “beta.”

NPR, 2/14/2012