 But silence in a job search can be very frustrating and common. Resumes are often ignored, phone messages are unreturned, and many emails will never be answered. Blogger and Penn professor Adam Grant has some good advice to help generate responses to networking emails. First, research shows that when emails highlight the value that the recipient can provide, a reply is much more likely. So when networking, devote a sentence or two about the person's work and how it's influenced your own career. That's engaging and should help generate a response.