Being able to be open and assertive with people who have the power to impact your career is a really important skill, and one that usually takes regular practice to keep up. Your future success depends on being able to get what you want from those people in your life, even when the idea of broaching a tough conversation leaves your palms sweaty and your boots shaky.

I’ve been hearing for my whole adult life how important networking is, and when I started doing writing projects on recruiting and hiring a few months ago, I found out that it wasn't a joke.