This is an excellent book. Author Michael Salmon wastes no words, but provides a series of tips, questionnaires, checklists and exercises that will help everyone, even the most introverted, build a network productively and use it effectively. There is no fluff here, and minimal self-promotion. The book is mostly meat. The author is extraordinarily well organized and to the point. His advice on how to categorize relatives, friends and acquaintances may seem cold, but it is indispensable. Similarly, he recommends becoming a resource to others so that they may someday become a resource to you - a utilitarian and self-serving approach to human relations, but if you have no other reason to help people, this is not a bad one. One quibble: the book is repetitious and illustrates the hard truth with soft little imaginary anecdotes. That's more a fault of the genre than of the author. If you are in job search mode, We highly recommends this book to you. As the folks back home might say, write when you get work.

This is the best common-sense approach to getting any job you want - it's a complete system, it's fast, and following Salmon's wise advice, it will completely change your life. Not only will you get clear on the job you want, but Salmon will guide you through a process that will always put you in the top five percent of all candidates going after any job.

More importantly, Salmon will help you see that most jobs are never publicly advertised! Your next job might not even exist until you contact the company you want to work for and tell them what you can do for them. A friend of mine just left her job in the financial world and needed to find her next position. I gave her Salmon's book and she decided there was just one company she really wanted to work for. Following Salmon's plan, she did her research, SuperNetworked to the right person, told them she was available, and went through the interview process. She controlled the process as much as was reasonably possible. And best of all, she started on that dream job January 2!

Once you understand that a network is your most powerful business asset, you will never slacken in your efforts to reach out to people you want in yours, to help them in the many ways Salmon suggests, and to make sure that your network is always ready for you, whether it's for information, sales opportunities, or your next career move.

Full disclosure: as a publishing consultant who works with thought leaders to get their ideas into print, I have had the privilege of working with Michael Salmon and seeing his ideas catch fire in the marketplace of ideas.