GUEST COMMENT: I took Sital's 21 day test and secured 8 interviews

I was more than a little sceptical about the challenge laid down recently on this site by Sital Ruperalia.

For those of you who missed it, Sital challenged people looking for a job to meet 21 contacts in 21 days.

I'm in full time employment, so I don't have a lot of time to devote to cultivating my network. Nevertheless, I've always tried my best to do so. And since I'm definitely not happy in my current role, I decided to give it a try.

The short story is that I managed to secure 8 interviews. It wasn't easy though, and I'm not sure everyone reading this has the tenacity, commitment and social skills to do the same.

Why it works

If you make time, almost daily, to meet enough people, and are considerate, reasonably pleasant and flexible, you'll find unadvertised (or only partly marketed) opportunities which will lead to interviews.

Preparing the ground

There are a few things I'd add to Sital's advice.

Firstly, you can't just jump in

Preparation, and keeping track of where you are with every lead is key.

A few of the comments below the article seemed to find the idea of putting all of one's accumulated contacts into a spreadsheet ludicrous. I suspect that they were written by head hunters, which is ironic since recruiters use databases to keep track of both their clients and also their candidates.

Your friends, acquaintances, present and ex-colleagues are, on some level, an asset to be monetised. the spreadsheet is just a tool. If you're uncomfortable with that idea my frank advice is: you just don't belong in finance.

The easy way to compile this spreadsheet is to export your contacts: Linkedin, Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, Hotmail, etc all have a function to do so at the click of a button. Most will even search your emails and create the contacts for you. Again, if that level of IT savvy is beyond you, you probably don't belong in the financial sector.

Follow the 80/20 rule

I had over a thousand contacts in my spreadsheet, but after a 5 minute scan of these names I knew that realistically only a minority would be really useful. There can't be that many people who, as Sital put it, "like, trust and respect you". Start with them.

After that (and I'd be surprised if anyone had more than twenty of these people), rank your contacts according to:

- How senior they are (juniors may feel threatened by you and don't have much clout anyway)

- How well you know them

- How close they are to your specific area of interest

Use this order. Here is why: senior people have more power, and a much better developed network, than juniors. It's a very small world at the top.

Networking in action

Recently, I almost ditched an invitation to go to dinner with some family friends of my better half. Since I don't enjoy sleeping on the sofa, I gave in to her, expecting a rather boring dinner. After five minutes of introductions I had made up my mind that none of the guests could possibly be of any help in my job-search.

However, halfway through the evening, out of the blue, the guy opposite me (we'll call him "Bob") let slip that the financial company he used to work for had been one of the very first investors in a fund that I'd have gnawed my right arm off to work for. Bob was happy to meet me for coffee and referred me to the fund's CIO.

Another time, I acceded to yet another of my boss's requests to join him for a boozy Thursday evening "team meeting". He was joined by a few of his chums including someone who worked for another company on my target list. I called him via the firm's switchboard the next day and he was happy to meet up and discuss my situation.

Another time, I met "Jim", a notoriously louche figure in the West End hedge fund community, who had only one condition: that we re-convene our previous meeting in the sort of place where camera phones are banned and which is licensed by the London Borough of Hackney. His rationale was that 1) if I could keep my focus in an environment like that then I could cut it in his fund and 2) he'd enjoy the interview whatever the outcome.

I used to get worried about news of my job hunting getting back to my bosses. I realise that this was a little naïve - if you're half competent at your job, your bosses will expect you to be testing the market. If you don't, they'll respect you less for it.

Take a long-term view

You're sowing seeds.

Don't expect every meeting to yield results straight away, but you might be surprised at who eventually comes through for you.

I was referred to a woman who heads the research department at a large long-only fund. I'd heard she was very bright and had been told that she looked a bit like Cruella De Vil. The meeting didn't go well - she was having a bad day and cut it short after 15 minutes. I didn't expect to hear back from her but three weeks later I got a call from one of her friends about a job. The moral: don't discount anyone and always send a thank you email. Add your full name, mobile number and email address so they don't have to search down through the email conversation for your contact details.

Ultimately, good networking is only a first step on a long road and if you've made an effort to cultivate your network during those periods when you don't need their help, it'll be a lot easier.

The author works in a hedge fund and used to be an investment banker.