Dale: Time for our monthly recommendations of career resources. Recently, I have been taken with a book called “The Back of the Napkin,” by Dan Roam. It’s about communicating ideas visually, particularly with drawings, as if jotting ideas on the back of a napkin. If you’re like me, you’ll start the book thinking of those UPS commercials with the guy at the white board, but then as you move past that, you’ll start to think more deeply about the visual side of communication. Although I personally have no talent for drawing, I have found that simply laying out words/ideas on a pad and using arrows to connect them can let me see new connections. In fact, instead of using conventional legal pads, I’ve started using double-size drawing pads, to let my thinking expand. (They sell such pads at Levenger.com.)

J.T.: A lot of job-search advice boils down to more and better networking. That assertion always frustrates people who aren’t naturally outgoing. Those who think of networking as mere “schmoozing” will always struggle. Networking is about sharing information, about being genuinely interested in what you might learn from others and what others might learn from you. You don’t need to be a smooth talker or the life of the party to network properly. There’s a great discussion of this in a blog written by a fellow career coach, Miriam Salpeter. Find it at www.KeppieCareers.com. I particularly like this quote: “I try to think of networking as a way of BEING instead of something to DO.”

© 2008 by King Features Syndicate, Inc.