A recent SmartBrief poll (scroll down) indicates that roughly 72% of you are trying to figure out what your dream job is, or how to get there.
Personally, I come from the school of You Won’t Get There Alone. The following exercise will help you see if the people in your network can help you get to where you want to go:
Take a sheet of paper and put your name in the center. Now, draw five concentric circles around your name. Leave plenty of space between the circles—you’re going to be writing in them.
In the first circle, write the names of coworkers who are your best friends, who you could confide in about anything and who’d follow your lead on any idea simply because you asked.
In the second circle, write people who you have strong, open relationships with—people you could easily talk to about anything, even if you aren’t sure they’d see things your way.
In the third circle, write people who you have a consistent relationship with—people you see and interact with regularly, but don’t share any depth with. It would take a concerted effort to develop your relationship, but you could do so easily.
Fourth circle: people you interact with who you’re not sure where you stand. This includes people you don’t typically think about, and who probably don’t think about you.
Finally, that outer circle: people who actively don’t like you and who would go out of their way to oppose any initiative you start.
OK, got it?
Now, question:
Where are the company’s executives? Where are the other people who have the power to help you change your circumstance
Are they even on your list?
If not, write this down: “I don’t have the relationships I need to change my circumstance… yet.”
Remember: there’s no law that says you can’t go get those relationships.
Too often, people hold themselves back from developing the relationships they need. They fear the possibility of rejection; they fear making disingenuous relationships; the fear exposing their own lack of sophistication. Unfortunately, when those fears exist, they come through and sabotage the person’s efforts.
So do yourself a favor: take this list and tack it to the wall in your closet. Look at it once a day. Think about it for a few minutes. Wonder what you might talk to someone about. Update it to reflect the current reality. But whatever you do, do nothing.
This way, rather than forcing something, you will simply be aware of the relationships in your life, so that when a genuine opportunity to build a relationship with someone who can help you arises, you will be prepared to grab that moment.
Fearlessly.
Jason Seiden is Co-founder and CEO of Ajax Social Media, a training company that shows professionals how use social media to work more effectively.
I'm the CEO of Ajax Social Media. We're helping 1 million people shine by making their online stories better. 
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You had me at “genuine opportunity”. Thank you for that. Too often networking is presented as some kind of brute force initiative, which it isn’t. Not if it’s going to be effective, anyway.
The only other thing (I guess it’s a “but”), doesn’t this approach assume the dream job is at this company or in this particular field? If my dream job is outside the current field, I think the equation still stands, but maybe the names on the list expand or change. Right?
@Karen—The circle does expand a bit, but not as much as you might think (at least at first), unless your boss is filled with selfish nugget heads. Which is a possibility.
Assuming you work with human beings, though, the plan works like this:
You start building a relationship with the people in power.
People in power also have relationships at other companies. They also have needs that go beyond the operations of your company; e.g., they have a need to help a friend (who’s an exec elsewhere) who might be looking to fill a position. Or to help a supplier or customer fill a position.
You tell these people what you want to do.
If you are genuine, if you are genuine, and if you are genuine… plus if you are dedicated and competent in addition to dedicated and competent (is everyone getting it that you can’t fake this part?)… they will start thinking about the best place to slot you, either at your current company or elsewhere in their networks.
Remember, these people have power. Which means the world they see is different from the one you see. You see the org chart as it is; they see it as they can make it be. So even if the right job doesn’t exist, they can create it for you.