This will be the last of my longwinded posts on networking. I apologise in advance for any mistakes made.
Herein I am going to discuss some thoughts I have on jobhunting and networking, as well as putting up a recommended reading list as a sort of self-study course. It's aimed at the kind of person I was once: shy, extremely introverted, no friends, just out of the educational system; so if I discuss things from a very basic beginning it's because I want anyone from even the lowest level of jobhacking game to be able build up his network from scratch and do some alpha jobhunting.
This is by no means a definitive discussion. This is my work in progress. This is the theoretical skeleton for networking that I have developed and that I intend to develop over the next few years. Do feel free to critique, expand, or tear down sections that you feel you need to comment on.
I will start off with a discussion of alpha vs beta job hunting techniques. I will then talk about how to give yourself a quick crashcourse in jobhunting should you be currently unemployed. I will then go through an extensive reading/to do list that will build you up into a confident networker.
ALPHA MALE VERSUS BETA MALE IN THE JOB MARKET
While I'm not the biggest fan of the Alpha Vs Beta dichotomy, it is a useful tool in describing behaviour. Let's compare how I think an Alpha male and a Beta male would approach jobhunting:
The Alpha male knows that he brings value into this world. He also knows that humans being humans, they're too caught up in their own problems to always recognise his value. The Alpha male knows therefore that he must raise awareness of his value in the eyes of others. The Alpha male also understands there are those who refuse to recognise his value or who will deliberately undermine his value. The Alpha male understands that his value is an asset to an organisation, and he does not engage with organisations that is not willing to look after its assets.
The Beta male is unsure of the value he brings into this world. Unsure, he looks to others to help validate his existence. He hopes that others will be able recognise the value buried deep withing. The Beta male accepts that being unrecognised or being undermined is part of the human condition. The Beta male sees his job as an asset, which he clings to even if its rewards to him are low.
The Alpha male understands and markets his value. He constantly affirms his right to move up the ranks to bring greater value to himself and the world. He neither does more than he is supposed to (which demeans his value) nor less (for that will not allow his glory to manifest). He knows that the company would sooner promote him than some stranger from outside the company, and he uses that knowledge to negotiate a superior reward in terms of salary as a suitable compensation of this advanced knowledge of the company.
The Beta male feels that it's up to others to recognise his value. He works really hard at his job, hoping someone will recognise his effort. He hopes for a promotion but does not take steps to understand how he can manifest value in a higher position. He becomes bitter and disgruntled that no one is willing to recognise how hard he works. He allows his superiors to take advantage of him by overburdening him with work, which demeans his value to himself and to the world, thereby making the world a worse off place. He may also be a slacker, being paid but somehow managing to subtract value from everyone and everything, unable to do every man's god-given mission: Leave the world slightly better than you found it.
The Alpha male realises that human beings are social animals. The Alpha male seeks an environment where he can work with people who will appreciate the value he gives and who return the value. The Alpha male recognises that every single person around him may be able to be a shining mirror to his value, giving back as soon as they receive. The Alpha male keeps an open mind to every social contact, but does not bother himself when rejected or when meeting someone who is unable to return value - The Alpha male does not expend energy on these, but rather spends his time and energy and thoughts on cultivating those people who help elevate his own value to himself and to the world. As such, an Alpha male will often receive value-increasing opportunities that diffuse to himself through his network, allowing him to elevate himself and those around him.
The Beta male does not realise that human beings are social creatures, and he expects people to recognise his value simply because he is breathing. He does not take active steps to ensure a social and work environment which breeds value to himself and others. He wastes time with people that subtract value from his existence. He spends time and energy and thoughts on the things and people who make him angry and depressed, and worst of all, accepting of his fate. The Beta male does not receive opportunities through his contacts because he expects people to recognise his value without it having been marketed through a network.
The Alpha male sees a job interview as a formality. He will usually have made friends with either someone on the job interview board, or else with someone who wants him in the organisation and has prepped him for the interview. The Alpha male understands that human beings are fickle, and that the job may be denied him simply because he has a dimple on his chin that some fat lady interviewing him didn't like - to this end, he does not take the outcome of such an interview personally. In any case, the Alpha male is constantly actively searching for new opportunities, and therefore always has several options on the backburner - the loss of one job opportunity is not a disaster to him. He also attempts to maintain contacts or make new contacts via the job interview. This makes job interviewing a mere tool in the Alpha male's networking arsenal.
The Beta male has read endless articles on how to prepare for a job interview. He is brainwashed into believing that the interview is the be-all and end-all of searching for a job. He sincerely believes that he must influence the outcome of the interviewing by turning into some super-employee version of himself that does not really exist. He blames himself for failing a job interviewing, not realising how little influence he really had on the outcome. He stakes everything on a few opportunities and does a failed interview has potentially devastating consequences for himself. He does not use job interviews as an excuse to network, meaning that new opportunities in that same organisation will never preferentially diffuse to him.
The Alpha male sees a resume as an identity check formality that he must submit to human resources once he has the job (which he managed to secure without a resume through his network). He probably already has made some acquaintances in the HR department and his resume is filed without even being read. It is sent straight to a security clearance company for identity and credential verification, and once his credentials are certified, the resume is never looked at again, except by people who may attempt to poach the Alpha male by offering a better position in another company.
The Beta male agonises endlessly over his resume. He relies on his resume as a first point of introduction to the world of employer's. He has been brainwashed by endless useless articles on jobhunting that a great resume is the way to secure a great job. He is not aware that the primary use of resumes is not to screen in candidates, but to screen them out. He does not understand that in a cybersea of millions of resumes, that no resume will ever differentiate him from all the other faceless jobseekers. He does not understand that no matter how well his resume is written, that the HR lady will gladly throw it in the trash can simply because she is having a bad period and your name reminds you of her ex.
The Alpha male browses help wanted ads in the late hours of the night or early hours of the morning. He does not allow browsing the ads to take up valuable networking, phone-calling, face-to-face meeting time, so he looks at them when most people are sleeping. He sees help wanted ads as a way of taking the pulse of the industries he's researching, identify the most obvious skills shortages on the market. He knows that help wanted ads only show a small proportion of the many opportunities available for work, and that the ads represent companies at their most desperate. He also sees it as a networking opportunity. Should he decide to apply for a specific job, he will first call ahead to try and arrange a face-to-face meeting with someone in the employer's organisation, both to get a competitive edge in the job application process and to expand his value-creating network. The Alpha male knows that every ad draws a huge amount of responses usually, and that the odds are against him when responding to an ad, but since this is just one jobhunting instrument in his toolkit, he doesn't stress about it. Indeed, the Alpha male spends little time on answering ads, which gives power to the employers, and more time on networking and jobhacking, which gives power to himself.
The Beta male will spend his daylight hours in his pyjamas, scanning newspaper and internet job ads. He will then send in his resumes, not considering for a moment how to hack the process, but blindly just sending them forth. He will grow despondent if no one calls him back. He sits and mopes at home, doing nothing more but passively respond to ads, and he wonders why he can't get a job. He feels like employers have all the power and that he is a sad powerless thing at their mercy.
The Alpha male has an idea of what he wants from a job, and those around him know exactly what they are looking for when asked to help. If his contacts cannot help, the Alpha male seeks out new contacts.
The Beta male just wants a job, any job. He blankets cyberspace with his resumes. He asks everyone he knows to help him find a job, but doesn't help them by specifying exactly what he wants. He is helpless when his existing contacts cannot help him. He blames God or government or society for his failure to find a job.
In a nutshell: The Alpha male manifests himself through those aspects of jobhunting that he can control, and prioritises the development of relationships that increase value to all involved; while the Beta male is stuck handing over control to others, and prioritises the same things his masters prioritise: job ads, resumes, interviews.
Here's a schematic I made summarising what I think are the typical Alpha and Beta approaches to jobhunting (somewhat based on a diagram in the book What Color is Your Parachute, discussed later on in this post):
![[Image: attachment.jpg6551]](https://rooshvforum.network/attachments/attachment.jpg6551)
A CRASH COURSE IN JOBHUNTING
If you're unemployed and desperate for a job and need to start pounding the pavement NOW if you're ever going to make rent, I recommend the following resources (you can easily finish reading both in approximately 3 hours):
Fastest way to the job interview - This is a free ebook which gives you a broad overview of jobhacking as well as guidance on the traditional send-a-resume approach.
I summarised it here: http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-11244.html
Download it here: http://bookboon.com/en/business-ebooks/c...-interview
A guide to cold calling - A three page guideline on how to call a company and hustle your way to an interview with the hiring manager. Brilliant in its simplicity and brevity. All you need to do after reading this is to swallow your anxiety and pick up the damn phone.
Download it here: http://www.sass.uottawa.ca/careers/tools/cold_calls.pdf
A FLEDGELING NETWORKER'S SELF-STUDY CURRICULUM
Since evidence suggests that attractive men attract more friends and contacts, I first start off weightlifting manuals - the best way to be an attractive male is to have a v-shaped chest, after all. Next, I move on to two manuals which teach you the basic rules of social interaction; this is aimed more at people with less life experience/wisdom - you need to know the rules before you break them. Next, I move on to Roosh's books, and explain why you must read Day Bang and why cold approaching girls is the best way to learn how to cold approach for jobs. I then discuss specific jobhunting/networking resources that I feel are impressive or highly useful.
First off, the available evidence suggests that attractive people make friends and network more easily; They also earn more at work, and are more likely to be hired for job (a nice summary of the evidence is present in the book :59 seconds by Richard Wiseman). Furthermore, happier people also attract more people. As a man you can improve both your physical attractiveness and your overall mood by lifting weights. Before you start working on your relationships with other people, you need to work on yourself. And nothing builds confidence like lifting heavy objects. There are two manuals which you can study to begin a weight lifting program:
Stronglifts 5x5 - this is the exercise program that transformed me from a fat slob into a person with a somewhat athletic physique. It is a great program for someone training by himself, with poor knowledge of technique, and with poor baseline fitness. You start with an empty barbell, and slowly build up the weight from there - this allows one to practice technique and avoid injury. You can download the training manual for the program here : http://stronglifts.com/free-stronglifts-5x5-report/
Starting Strength - although I've never read Starting Strength it comes with such strong recommendations from so many people that I decided to include it. You will gain strength and lose fat much more rapidly than with Stronglifts, but at the greater risk of injuring yourself or picking up bad lifting habits. You can buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/Starting-Strength-...0982522738
Once you've started working on yourself, you need to start working on others. If you lack life wisdom or experience, the most important thing is to not blow up in people's face, to not screw up. You need to know the basic rules of social interaction. While you cannot win in life without breaking some rules here and there, you're going to spectacularly bomb if you don't understand and know the rules to begin with.
How to Win Friends and Influence People - By Dale Carnegie, this is a classic book of how not to piss everyone off and get people to think you're a decent bloke. Sometimes that's all that's necessary to be successful. Ideally you need to get your hands on the 1936 version, or at the latest the 1961 version, because the subsequent versions were massacred by Dale Carnegie's wife and daughter.
You can download it here:
http://mustreadebooks.com/register.htm
Or ask around at your favourite secondhand bookstores. I wouldn't read the latest edition, it has suffered too much from a feminine touch.
What Color is Your Parachute - This book by Richard Bolles lays down wise ground rules for your interactions with the world of employment. It is written in high school English yet has ideas which are clearly based on wisdom and experience. It advised both on orthodox and networking ways of securing a job, gives the best advice on job interviews I've read anywhere, and gives an incredibly clear plan to discover within yourself what you want to do. He explains how to go about jobhunting without demeaning yourself and without causing offense; it is very much a social skills workbook for beginner careerhackers. This is the kind of book people should read while they are still in school and wondering what to do with their life, and wondering how to look for a job. Much of the previous mentioned title 'Fastest way to the Job Interview' is in fact a thinly camouflaged ripoff of sections from this book.
My summary of the networking portions of the book is present here:
http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-13545.html
You can buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/What-Color-Your-Pa...1607740117
Both of the above books will teach you how to navigate your interactions so as not to cause offense, and to come across as a generally nice guy (which often is all you need to do to get what you want). The next level in your interactions is to develop the skills necessary to build rapport with total strangers that you have approached at random. For myself, my networking and conversation skills advanced in leaps and bounds only when I started hitting on chicks. There is something about a beautiful woman that motivates one to crawl out of his shell. Also, I've found that approaching people for networking is not nearly as difficult as approaching chicks to get laid, and if you can master the latter then you will do fine with the former. Building rapport with a girl is like an intense all-or-nothing sprint, while potential colleagues will usually be more forgiving of bad game and will usually offer you more opportunities to build a relationship over time, which puts one under a lot less pressure. Building a network will not necessarily teach you how to develop rapport with women, but build rapport with women and you WILL improve on your networking skills. Therefore read and apply Bang and Day Bang by Roosh; but of the two, Day Bang is the more essential for developing networking skills.
Day Bang - The networking approach resembles day game. As such, Roosh's book is a valuable guide. In networking and in day game, you cold approach with an elderly opener and build rapport with rambling and the occasional question. A significant amount of the conversational system in Day Bang can be transferred to networking conversations without changing much, although I have yet to formulate a networking equivalent to GALNUC. Also, since I don't feel comfortable with the pet store openByer for networking, I intend to use 'Do you know where is the nearest library?' though I haven't had a chance to use it yet.
Get Day Bang here: http://www.bangguides.com/game/daybang/
Okay, so you're lifting weights, you know the basics of not pissing people off and you're cold approaching girls and developing rapport and conversation skills. You now have a basic foundation to develop Alpha male jobhunting/networking techniques. Now you want to start cold approaching people to add to your network.
The best book on networking is John Davie's The $100 000+ career.
I've reviewed and summarised it here: http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-12264.html
Do read this book, it is the closest thing to a game guide on networking.
You can buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/100-000-Career-Net...0+000+career
Alternatively, if you have money to burn consider the Simon Black Network Infiltration system of paying a lawyer to network for you.
See my summary here: http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-13208.html
and download it free here:http://sovereignman.com/Network%20Infiltration.pdf
Okay, now that you know how to network you have get out there and meet people. Here's a thread from the forum that discusses which places to get your networking on. While I take everything Gmanifesto says with a pinch of salt, I like his list of places to network at. Find the thread here: http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-10...ht=network
Consider crashing conferences for networking.
Here's a one page summary on how to work a conference:
http://www.bu.edu/eng/careers/documents/Workaroom.pdf
Notice the opener used, "So, how did you end up in this place?"
Need advice on how to sneak into a conference in the first place?
Here's a thread I started on that topic: http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-11514.html
I don't really trust internet social networks at this stage. I feel nothing can replace the power of face-to-face meetings. That said, Youngmobileglobal wrote an excellent Guide to Career-Hacking with LinkedIn. Don't touch social networks until you've read this guide!
Find it here: http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-7895.html
For the brave and adventurous who wish to network and jobhunt in foreign lands, do also read Youngmobileglobal's Career Leapfrogging Blueprint.
Find it here: http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-4156.html
Well, that's about everything of use that I have to share on the subject. I hope that this post and the reading materials referred to will help build even a complete newbie into a networker, the kind of man who creates chances for opportunities to find him, rather than wait around being helpless.
And since I have a weird sense of humour, I would like to take this opportunity to ask:
Was this beta?
Herein I am going to discuss some thoughts I have on jobhunting and networking, as well as putting up a recommended reading list as a sort of self-study course. It's aimed at the kind of person I was once: shy, extremely introverted, no friends, just out of the educational system; so if I discuss things from a very basic beginning it's because I want anyone from even the lowest level of jobhacking game to be able build up his network from scratch and do some alpha jobhunting.
This is by no means a definitive discussion. This is my work in progress. This is the theoretical skeleton for networking that I have developed and that I intend to develop over the next few years. Do feel free to critique, expand, or tear down sections that you feel you need to comment on.
I will start off with a discussion of alpha vs beta job hunting techniques. I will then talk about how to give yourself a quick crashcourse in jobhunting should you be currently unemployed. I will then go through an extensive reading/to do list that will build you up into a confident networker.
ALPHA MALE VERSUS BETA MALE IN THE JOB MARKET
While I'm not the biggest fan of the Alpha Vs Beta dichotomy, it is a useful tool in describing behaviour. Let's compare how I think an Alpha male and a Beta male would approach jobhunting:
The Alpha male knows that he brings value into this world. He also knows that humans being humans, they're too caught up in their own problems to always recognise his value. The Alpha male knows therefore that he must raise awareness of his value in the eyes of others. The Alpha male also understands there are those who refuse to recognise his value or who will deliberately undermine his value. The Alpha male understands that his value is an asset to an organisation, and he does not engage with organisations that is not willing to look after its assets.
The Beta male is unsure of the value he brings into this world. Unsure, he looks to others to help validate his existence. He hopes that others will be able recognise the value buried deep withing. The Beta male accepts that being unrecognised or being undermined is part of the human condition. The Beta male sees his job as an asset, which he clings to even if its rewards to him are low.
The Alpha male understands and markets his value. He constantly affirms his right to move up the ranks to bring greater value to himself and the world. He neither does more than he is supposed to (which demeans his value) nor less (for that will not allow his glory to manifest). He knows that the company would sooner promote him than some stranger from outside the company, and he uses that knowledge to negotiate a superior reward in terms of salary as a suitable compensation of this advanced knowledge of the company.
The Beta male feels that it's up to others to recognise his value. He works really hard at his job, hoping someone will recognise his effort. He hopes for a promotion but does not take steps to understand how he can manifest value in a higher position. He becomes bitter and disgruntled that no one is willing to recognise how hard he works. He allows his superiors to take advantage of him by overburdening him with work, which demeans his value to himself and to the world, thereby making the world a worse off place. He may also be a slacker, being paid but somehow managing to subtract value from everyone and everything, unable to do every man's god-given mission: Leave the world slightly better than you found it.
The Alpha male realises that human beings are social animals. The Alpha male seeks an environment where he can work with people who will appreciate the value he gives and who return the value. The Alpha male recognises that every single person around him may be able to be a shining mirror to his value, giving back as soon as they receive. The Alpha male keeps an open mind to every social contact, but does not bother himself when rejected or when meeting someone who is unable to return value - The Alpha male does not expend energy on these, but rather spends his time and energy and thoughts on cultivating those people who help elevate his own value to himself and to the world. As such, an Alpha male will often receive value-increasing opportunities that diffuse to himself through his network, allowing him to elevate himself and those around him.
The Beta male does not realise that human beings are social creatures, and he expects people to recognise his value simply because he is breathing. He does not take active steps to ensure a social and work environment which breeds value to himself and others. He wastes time with people that subtract value from his existence. He spends time and energy and thoughts on the things and people who make him angry and depressed, and worst of all, accepting of his fate. The Beta male does not receive opportunities through his contacts because he expects people to recognise his value without it having been marketed through a network.
The Alpha male sees a job interview as a formality. He will usually have made friends with either someone on the job interview board, or else with someone who wants him in the organisation and has prepped him for the interview. The Alpha male understands that human beings are fickle, and that the job may be denied him simply because he has a dimple on his chin that some fat lady interviewing him didn't like - to this end, he does not take the outcome of such an interview personally. In any case, the Alpha male is constantly actively searching for new opportunities, and therefore always has several options on the backburner - the loss of one job opportunity is not a disaster to him. He also attempts to maintain contacts or make new contacts via the job interview. This makes job interviewing a mere tool in the Alpha male's networking arsenal.
The Beta male has read endless articles on how to prepare for a job interview. He is brainwashed into believing that the interview is the be-all and end-all of searching for a job. He sincerely believes that he must influence the outcome of the interviewing by turning into some super-employee version of himself that does not really exist. He blames himself for failing a job interviewing, not realising how little influence he really had on the outcome. He stakes everything on a few opportunities and does a failed interview has potentially devastating consequences for himself. He does not use job interviews as an excuse to network, meaning that new opportunities in that same organisation will never preferentially diffuse to him.
The Alpha male sees a resume as an identity check formality that he must submit to human resources once he has the job (which he managed to secure without a resume through his network). He probably already has made some acquaintances in the HR department and his resume is filed without even being read. It is sent straight to a security clearance company for identity and credential verification, and once his credentials are certified, the resume is never looked at again, except by people who may attempt to poach the Alpha male by offering a better position in another company.
The Beta male agonises endlessly over his resume. He relies on his resume as a first point of introduction to the world of employer's. He has been brainwashed by endless useless articles on jobhunting that a great resume is the way to secure a great job. He is not aware that the primary use of resumes is not to screen in candidates, but to screen them out. He does not understand that in a cybersea of millions of resumes, that no resume will ever differentiate him from all the other faceless jobseekers. He does not understand that no matter how well his resume is written, that the HR lady will gladly throw it in the trash can simply because she is having a bad period and your name reminds you of her ex.
The Alpha male browses help wanted ads in the late hours of the night or early hours of the morning. He does not allow browsing the ads to take up valuable networking, phone-calling, face-to-face meeting time, so he looks at them when most people are sleeping. He sees help wanted ads as a way of taking the pulse of the industries he's researching, identify the most obvious skills shortages on the market. He knows that help wanted ads only show a small proportion of the many opportunities available for work, and that the ads represent companies at their most desperate. He also sees it as a networking opportunity. Should he decide to apply for a specific job, he will first call ahead to try and arrange a face-to-face meeting with someone in the employer's organisation, both to get a competitive edge in the job application process and to expand his value-creating network. The Alpha male knows that every ad draws a huge amount of responses usually, and that the odds are against him when responding to an ad, but since this is just one jobhunting instrument in his toolkit, he doesn't stress about it. Indeed, the Alpha male spends little time on answering ads, which gives power to the employers, and more time on networking and jobhacking, which gives power to himself.
The Beta male will spend his daylight hours in his pyjamas, scanning newspaper and internet job ads. He will then send in his resumes, not considering for a moment how to hack the process, but blindly just sending them forth. He will grow despondent if no one calls him back. He sits and mopes at home, doing nothing more but passively respond to ads, and he wonders why he can't get a job. He feels like employers have all the power and that he is a sad powerless thing at their mercy.
The Alpha male has an idea of what he wants from a job, and those around him know exactly what they are looking for when asked to help. If his contacts cannot help, the Alpha male seeks out new contacts.
The Beta male just wants a job, any job. He blankets cyberspace with his resumes. He asks everyone he knows to help him find a job, but doesn't help them by specifying exactly what he wants. He is helpless when his existing contacts cannot help him. He blames God or government or society for his failure to find a job.
In a nutshell: The Alpha male manifests himself through those aspects of jobhunting that he can control, and prioritises the development of relationships that increase value to all involved; while the Beta male is stuck handing over control to others, and prioritises the same things his masters prioritise: job ads, resumes, interviews.
Here's a schematic I made summarising what I think are the typical Alpha and Beta approaches to jobhunting (somewhat based on a diagram in the book What Color is Your Parachute, discussed later on in this post):
A CRASH COURSE IN JOBHUNTING
If you're unemployed and desperate for a job and need to start pounding the pavement NOW if you're ever going to make rent, I recommend the following resources (you can easily finish reading both in approximately 3 hours):
Fastest way to the job interview - This is a free ebook which gives you a broad overview of jobhacking as well as guidance on the traditional send-a-resume approach.
I summarised it here: http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-11244.html
Download it here: http://bookboon.com/en/business-ebooks/c...-interview
A guide to cold calling - A three page guideline on how to call a company and hustle your way to an interview with the hiring manager. Brilliant in its simplicity and brevity. All you need to do after reading this is to swallow your anxiety and pick up the damn phone.
Download it here: http://www.sass.uottawa.ca/careers/tools/cold_calls.pdf
A FLEDGELING NETWORKER'S SELF-STUDY CURRICULUM
Since evidence suggests that attractive men attract more friends and contacts, I first start off weightlifting manuals - the best way to be an attractive male is to have a v-shaped chest, after all. Next, I move on to two manuals which teach you the basic rules of social interaction; this is aimed more at people with less life experience/wisdom - you need to know the rules before you break them. Next, I move on to Roosh's books, and explain why you must read Day Bang and why cold approaching girls is the best way to learn how to cold approach for jobs. I then discuss specific jobhunting/networking resources that I feel are impressive or highly useful.
First off, the available evidence suggests that attractive people make friends and network more easily; They also earn more at work, and are more likely to be hired for job (a nice summary of the evidence is present in the book :59 seconds by Richard Wiseman). Furthermore, happier people also attract more people. As a man you can improve both your physical attractiveness and your overall mood by lifting weights. Before you start working on your relationships with other people, you need to work on yourself. And nothing builds confidence like lifting heavy objects. There are two manuals which you can study to begin a weight lifting program:
Stronglifts 5x5 - this is the exercise program that transformed me from a fat slob into a person with a somewhat athletic physique. It is a great program for someone training by himself, with poor knowledge of technique, and with poor baseline fitness. You start with an empty barbell, and slowly build up the weight from there - this allows one to practice technique and avoid injury. You can download the training manual for the program here : http://stronglifts.com/free-stronglifts-5x5-report/
Starting Strength - although I've never read Starting Strength it comes with such strong recommendations from so many people that I decided to include it. You will gain strength and lose fat much more rapidly than with Stronglifts, but at the greater risk of injuring yourself or picking up bad lifting habits. You can buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/Starting-Strength-...0982522738
Once you've started working on yourself, you need to start working on others. If you lack life wisdom or experience, the most important thing is to not blow up in people's face, to not screw up. You need to know the basic rules of social interaction. While you cannot win in life without breaking some rules here and there, you're going to spectacularly bomb if you don't understand and know the rules to begin with.
How to Win Friends and Influence People - By Dale Carnegie, this is a classic book of how not to piss everyone off and get people to think you're a decent bloke. Sometimes that's all that's necessary to be successful. Ideally you need to get your hands on the 1936 version, or at the latest the 1961 version, because the subsequent versions were massacred by Dale Carnegie's wife and daughter.
You can download it here:
http://mustreadebooks.com/register.htm
Or ask around at your favourite secondhand bookstores. I wouldn't read the latest edition, it has suffered too much from a feminine touch.
What Color is Your Parachute - This book by Richard Bolles lays down wise ground rules for your interactions with the world of employment. It is written in high school English yet has ideas which are clearly based on wisdom and experience. It advised both on orthodox and networking ways of securing a job, gives the best advice on job interviews I've read anywhere, and gives an incredibly clear plan to discover within yourself what you want to do. He explains how to go about jobhunting without demeaning yourself and without causing offense; it is very much a social skills workbook for beginner careerhackers. This is the kind of book people should read while they are still in school and wondering what to do with their life, and wondering how to look for a job. Much of the previous mentioned title 'Fastest way to the Job Interview' is in fact a thinly camouflaged ripoff of sections from this book.
My summary of the networking portions of the book is present here:
http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-13545.html
You can buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/What-Color-Your-Pa...1607740117
Both of the above books will teach you how to navigate your interactions so as not to cause offense, and to come across as a generally nice guy (which often is all you need to do to get what you want). The next level in your interactions is to develop the skills necessary to build rapport with total strangers that you have approached at random. For myself, my networking and conversation skills advanced in leaps and bounds only when I started hitting on chicks. There is something about a beautiful woman that motivates one to crawl out of his shell. Also, I've found that approaching people for networking is not nearly as difficult as approaching chicks to get laid, and if you can master the latter then you will do fine with the former. Building rapport with a girl is like an intense all-or-nothing sprint, while potential colleagues will usually be more forgiving of bad game and will usually offer you more opportunities to build a relationship over time, which puts one under a lot less pressure. Building a network will not necessarily teach you how to develop rapport with women, but build rapport with women and you WILL improve on your networking skills. Therefore read and apply Bang and Day Bang by Roosh; but of the two, Day Bang is the more essential for developing networking skills.
Day Bang - The networking approach resembles day game. As such, Roosh's book is a valuable guide. In networking and in day game, you cold approach with an elderly opener and build rapport with rambling and the occasional question. A significant amount of the conversational system in Day Bang can be transferred to networking conversations without changing much, although I have yet to formulate a networking equivalent to GALNUC. Also, since I don't feel comfortable with the pet store openByer for networking, I intend to use 'Do you know where is the nearest library?' though I haven't had a chance to use it yet.
Get Day Bang here: http://www.bangguides.com/game/daybang/
Okay, so you're lifting weights, you know the basics of not pissing people off and you're cold approaching girls and developing rapport and conversation skills. You now have a basic foundation to develop Alpha male jobhunting/networking techniques. Now you want to start cold approaching people to add to your network.
The best book on networking is John Davie's The $100 000+ career.
I've reviewed and summarised it here: http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-12264.html
Do read this book, it is the closest thing to a game guide on networking.
You can buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/100-000-Career-Net...0+000+career
Alternatively, if you have money to burn consider the Simon Black Network Infiltration system of paying a lawyer to network for you.
See my summary here: http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-13208.html
and download it free here:http://sovereignman.com/Network%20Infiltration.pdf
Okay, now that you know how to network you have get out there and meet people. Here's a thread from the forum that discusses which places to get your networking on. While I take everything Gmanifesto says with a pinch of salt, I like his list of places to network at. Find the thread here: http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-10...ht=network
Consider crashing conferences for networking.
Here's a one page summary on how to work a conference:
http://www.bu.edu/eng/careers/documents/Workaroom.pdf
Notice the opener used, "So, how did you end up in this place?"
Need advice on how to sneak into a conference in the first place?
Here's a thread I started on that topic: http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-11514.html
I don't really trust internet social networks at this stage. I feel nothing can replace the power of face-to-face meetings. That said, Youngmobileglobal wrote an excellent Guide to Career-Hacking with LinkedIn. Don't touch social networks until you've read this guide!
Find it here: http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-7895.html
For the brave and adventurous who wish to network and jobhunt in foreign lands, do also read Youngmobileglobal's Career Leapfrogging Blueprint.
Find it here: http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-4156.html
Well, that's about everything of use that I have to share on the subject. I hope that this post and the reading materials referred to will help build even a complete newbie into a networker, the kind of man who creates chances for opportunities to find him, rather than wait around being helpless.
And since I have a weird sense of humour, I would like to take this opportunity to ask:
Was this beta?