Networking – Staying in touch

I have told you before how important it is not to lose touch with people in your network. Once it goes beyond a year without contact, you are kind of out of the picture. I bring this up because a job opened up at a former theater of mine. And I got two calls about the job. They both wanted more information about the position and company, and, most importantly, they wanted me to put in a good word for them.

The first person that called is a friend. I see her out occasionally, and she is a nice person. She has been trying to break into this industry for a while, and I was happy to tell her all I knew about the position. I was happy to help her as much as I could.

The second person is an old coworker. We have not worked together in over 3 years, and we have had no contact since then. We weren’t even that close when we worked together. He started his call with, “Jared, it's so and so, and I was wondering how you are! Also, I heard about a job opening up where you work.” He didn’t even know I was no longer working there.
I am telling you all this just to show how important it is to stay in touch. I gave them both all the information that I could about the job, but for one I will go the extra step and put in a good word. Don’t lose your contacts. You never know when they could be working at a place you want to work or what you might need them for.