The 20-Minute Networking Meeting - Professional Edition: Learn to Network. Get a Job.

Updated 2025.
*WINNER - International Book Award - Career category!
*WINNER - National Indie Excellence Award - Career category!
*FINALIST - Foreword INDIES Book of the Year!
*FINALIST - USA Best Book Award - Career category!
*SILVER - Axiom Business Book Award - Career category!

Welcome to The 20-Minute Networking Meeting! Whether your meetings are virtual or in person, this book will successfully serve any job-seeker from any background—field sales to customer service; doctor to bartender; teacher to derrickman; legal aid to construction; retail to management. All you need is desire; the rest is in this book!

Built using the acclaimed The 20-Minute Networking Meeting—Executive Edition networking model lauded by business leaders around the world, the Professional Edition puts you in control of your job-search discussions and, ultimately, your career.

Taking the best elements of the best networkers from a multitude of industries and professions, combined with 40 years of the authors’ own experience, the Professional Edition culminates in a highly productive networking approach from a hiring perspective.

In this book, learn what networking (really) is, and how to:
•Master the 5 most important parts of a networking meeting
•Create a networking agenda
•Construct key questions to lead a discussion
•Expand a professional network with more names
•Break into the “Invisible/Hidden Job Market” (where over 70% of all jobs are obtained)
•Make a networking meeting more effective, efficient, and mutually beneficial
•Execute the above (and much more)— inside of 20 minutes
•Maintain your new network throughout your career!

Chock full of real-world scenarios, short stories, meeting examples, and dozens of tips and observations from hiring authorities and recruiting experts, the Professional Edition is an end-to-end lesson on job-search networking, founded on the premises of gratitude, positivity, and reciprocity. Specifically constructed to clarify and simplify networking for job-search, the Professional Edition was written for even the most introverted networker and is rounded out with a complete set of readiness worksheets that guide the reader through actual networking preparation, with fully written stories that show the entire The 20-Minute Networking Meeting model in action.

Also from Career Innovations Press:
The 20-Minute Networking Meeting - Graduate Edition
The 20-Minute Networking Meeting - Veterans Edition
The 20-Minute Networking Meeting - Executive Edition

Nathan A. Perez is an award-winning author, national speaker and executive career and job-search coach at Career Innovation.
Prior to his Career Innovation consultancy, Nathan worked in the executive search industry in the Research function. Responsible for the first step in the executive recruitment process, Nathan researched and "found" the candidates for recruitment. Networking is a day-to-day function of his job, connecting with leaders across the country on a regular basis. He has been cited by The Huffington Post as one of the most connected people on LinkedIn, world-wide.
Author of the multi-award-winning job-search networking book The 20-Minute Networking Meeting, Nathan speaks on its principles to students, veterans, career coaches, executives and corporate teams everywhere. Nathan draws on 20 years of stage, film and television experience in New York City and Hollywood, and is a member of the Actors Equity Association union (AEA); a voting union member of The Screen-Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA); the Author's Guild; and served as Vice Chair at The Loft Literary Center, the nation's largest literary and writing organization. He was recently inducted as an Honorary Commander with the 934th Airlift Wing, U.S. Air Force Reserve, home of the Global Vikings. 

Marcia Ballinger, PhD is co-founder and Principal at Ballinger|Leafblad, a St. Paul-based executive search firm focused on serving the civic sector. She conducts executive search projects for top executives in non-profit organizations, higher education, foundations and professional associations. /Marcia has a BS in Business Administration and an MA in Speech-Communication, and a PhD in Organization and Management from Capella University where she served on the Board of Directors. She is active in a variety of non-profit organizations and was named an Industry Leader by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal in 2008; Real Power 50 by Minnesota Business Monthly; and 50 Over 50 by AARP in 2016.