John Paul Engel, executive director of Project Be the Change, sits down with us to help you in your career search.

A little bit about Project Be the Change
The book, Project Be the Change, is a collection of practical career and academic advice for students from some of today’s top professionals located throughout the world in various industries, and they all offer advice to students about what they did to help them become successful in life.
The idea for the book goes back five years ago when John Paul Engel was volunteering in an eighth grade class to teach the students about leadership and public speaking. John recalls one student standing up and saying, “I want to be an engineer but I don’t know any engineers.” John’s thought to that was, “I know plenty of engineers! I can help this kid!”
John remembers being his age and not knowing any professionals to talk to, and he got in touch with a friend in engineering to give advice to that student. John said that the student “carried [the advice] around with him everywhere. So his teacher said he was doing better in school, and he seemed more motivated because he knew what he needed to do to get where he wanted to be.”
John became motivated to try and help kids with their career goals and aspirations and because he worked with and knew people from all over the world in many career fields, he asked for their help.
“I created the book and I decided it should be free so that anyone, anywhere in the world, could get advice from some of the most accomplished people.”
Currently, the student that stood up in class who asked about how to get into engineering has a full tuition scholarship and an internship lined up for him. All just from a simple question.
“If you don’t ask the question, the answer’s always no. Get out there and ask. If you let people know what you need, maybe there’s someone sitting in the back of the room that can do something about it... I can trace back everything I did within my career to somebody that I knew.”

Building bridges
John recommends looking for people who are doing what you want to do, contact them and ask:

1. How did you get to do what you’re doing? Tell me about your life story.
2. What did you learn that’s helped you be successful in your career?
3. What can a student do to prepare myself for a career in this field?

“You have a lot of opportunity that you may not even realize. So make sure that you look for those and embrace those and don’t be afraid to call anybody or ask anybody for help. People want to help.”
Once you’ve begun building those bridges, Engel lists four things that you can do to continue developing those relationships with people:

1. Give them knowledge that is useful for them, either related to their job or hobby.
2. Give them PR. Give them the opportunity to have some visibility.
3. If you can give them an opportunity to make money—a job, for example—that will show them that you care and they’ll remember you.
4. Introduce your connections to each other (but use caution because some introductions can go south).

The first three tactics carry no risk, while the fourth one should be used sparingly and if your connections have something in common with each other, whether it’s a shared hobby or common passion.
“I treat my business contacts as my close friends. They know I care about them, they know that I’m genuinely their friend and so who better to do business with than your friend?”

Be charismatic!
“There are four things that make a person charismatic. The first three come from a book called A Charisma Myth:”

1. You have to be present and attentive towards people; (they can tell if you’re not listening, for example).
2. The person has to have some perceived power that they can influence your life in a better way.
3. You really need empathy; it’s very appealing to others to know that you genuinely care.
4. The last thing that was added by John is clear purpose.

“If you have the first three things and you have a clear purpose with your life,” he says, “and if people understand what you’re doing and the impact that you’re trying to have in the world,” then your networking will greatly be benefitted by your charisma.
People, John explains, are driven by greed and fear and it is fear that can drive you away from achieving your clear purpose. “Don’t chase money, chase impact. What happens is that most people chase after things that they don’t need.”
John says that it took him well into his 30s before he finally found his clear purpose “and I found that place in that eighth grade classroom. And now I’m doing all of this amazing stuff for kids that before I wouldn’t have done because, of course, I don’t have time to do that—I have to make money. The irony is I make more money now than I did then. Your purpose will come as long as you follow your heart.”
John advises to start building multiple bridges by consistently over-delivering, always being pleasant, and look for ways to help others and those bridges will begin to develop naturally.
Click here to download John’s free book.