If you talk too much, contacts feel frustrated. If you re too quiet, you ll lose the opportunity to showcase your strengths. A networking meeting is a favor to the networker, who has little leverage. Using his or her interpersonal skills, the networker must make sure the meeting is meaningful. Perhaps the most egregious miscue is masking the true reason for meeting with contacts.
Contact throws networker out, defames networker publicly and refuses to network again.
Let me emphasize that my purpose in asking to meet you isn t to request employment. Nor do I expect you to know of an opening for me. At this point, I just need information to help me focus my job-search efforts and broaden my visibility in the job market. This is a good way to lower the stakes and the contact s defenses. They shouldn t be coy.