If you are in search, you have asked this question.  The responses I received ranged between five to thirty meetings a week.  My initial thought was “That’s quite range”, but I realized these answers represent two schools of thought for networking: “Specific Focus” versus “Gaining Exposure”.  

Specific Focus: Meetings with a high probability of moving you toward a new job.

One: Meet with a potential hiring manager – may not be an opening, but a firm where you want to work

Two: Meet company insider to gain insight on a company to learn how to get into the company, tailor your application and key items to include on your resume

Three: Meet company insiders after applying for a role to build your ‘brand’ inside the company

Four: Meet with an advocate who can pitch you inside a company directly to the hiring manager

Time required: 5-6 hours a meeting – schedule, in depth preparation (research, developing questions, etc.), travel, meet and follow-up

Gaining Exposure:  Meetings which build your presence or ‘brand’ within the market.

Because most people do not know of an immediate opening, these meetings accomplish the following:

One: Increase the number of people who know what role you seek and where you want to work

Two: Increase the size of your primary and secondary network – great for finding future connections or people that you can connect with others in your network

Three: Help make connections into targeted companies, specific people or certain types of people (e.g. marketing in software firms).

Time required: 3-4 hours a meeting – prepare, travel time, meet and follow-up.  If you have meetings with very similar connections, it may be faster.

How many meetings a week?

You need to start by dividing your week into three parts:  Business development, Maintaining contacts and New Contacts.  In a 40 hour week, about 10 -15 hours are spent on business development (finding who to meet, reaching out to new contacts, follow-up on open invitations to meet) and maintaining contacts. (updates to network, making introductions, or other activities to continue to build the relationship).  

With the remaining 25-30 hours, assuming you do not have any interviews in the week, the number of meetings depends upon the type. 

How can you get 30 meetings in a week?

The number sounds intriguing so how can you get it done?  It’s really a combination of the following:  A) They have to be all ‘Exposure’ meetings.  B) Many are by phone call – to eliminate travel.  C) Keep several meetings to ½ hour in length D) Reduce time spent on business development.

Using the phone and limiting time (especially when you can get more) will likely reduce your effectiveness.  It makes it harder to establish an initial relationship, due to less time, level of attention, and ability to make an emotional connection.

The greatest number of meetings I had in a week was 25.   All were face-to-face and I got a ton of new connections. However, by Friday, I was exhausted and probably less effective in making my pitch and I did not do any business development – which resulted in fewer meetings in the upcoming weeks.  Early in your search, you will have more ‘exposure’ meetings, so you should expect to do more meetings.

The best number to focus on

In my first search, I made the mistake to get fixated on a specific number of networking meetings.  I should have been only fixated on the results: The number of positions discovering and opportunities to meet with people making hiring decisions (whether or not there is a current role).   I know that this sounds like a no-brainer, but in the depths of networking, it’s easy to get focused on the means, not the end.

Good luck today.

Mark