When you're involved in a job search, meetings over lunch or coffee with contacts in your network-and with your contacts' contacts-can help you uncover job opportunities or lead you to people who work at desirable organizations. Depending on how you approach these meetings, your networking will be either tremendously productive or a painful waste of everyone's time.

Being an introvert isn't the end of the world or your career. However, to be successful in the IT field today, you've got to overcome shyness and learn that it's OK to ask for (and offer) help.