Jill MacFadyen's Career Coach Blog

You have business cards, your Networking Brief and are ready to deliver your beautifully polished Personal Commercial.  Now what?  You network.  However, of all of the aspects of the job search, the one I hear the most negative remarks about is networking –and yet it should be the most fun.  Unlike the job interview, you are not asked unexpected questions.  Unlike sending your resume into the abyss, you get to actually talk to people.  Unlike salary negotiation, you don’t have to discuss money.  So what’s the problem?

I believe the problem is the informational interview.  Outplacement agencies and job clubs push “networking” and teach this technique.  It is stressed that you are seeking information, not a job.  For some of us that would be disingenuous because we are not seeking information, we are seeking a job.  Not all of us are going to do informational interviews in which we ask a contact to meet us for lunch or coffee.  Some of us are not at the place in our career where our contacts are free to meet for lunch or coffee. Networking is the big picture, and the informational interview is just one part of that picture.    Informational interviewing seems to work well when you want to learn

• about a type of career before you switch to it,
• about an industry,
• or about a particular company. 

But even if we don’t do informational interviewing, we all can network by choosing a method that works for our personality and needs.  For example, I have heard of those who have:

• Used a tag line under an e-mail signature about the type of job being sought. 
• Had an accidental interview on a plane when the person sitting next to her asked what type of work she did.  Her seat mate happened to be the CEO of a hospital.  (Thank goodness she had her Personal Commercial polished.)
• Contacted others through LinkedIn or from his contact list for information about a company.  “Who do you know at xyz company who can help me get my resume noticed?”
• Asked contacts for names of recruiters.  The recruiter pays more attention when you have been referred.  
• Attended meetings in their current or desired field.  (Bring  business cards and copies of the Networking Brief.)
• Asked family, friends and contacts to be their eyes and ears about openings in a desired field or at a desired company.
• E-mailed contacts to let them know with wording from the Personal Commercial what is being sought and how the contacts can help.  (You might attach your Networking Brief to the e-mail because it is specific about how you can be helped.)
• Asked contacts if  they know anyone in a desired firm who can let them know what it is like to work there.
• Done public speaking on an area of expertise.
• Volunteered in a field of interest.
• Gone to local job search groups and then had coffee or lunch to better get to know someone else in transition.  This person does not necessarily have to be in your field.  (Once when in transition I had coffee with a man who was interviewing to be COO of a company where I had applied to be the HR Manager.  If he had landed that position, I would have been a shoe-in.)

Please share with me your networking ideas and successes.

Some suggested books that have information on networking:

Change Your Career: Transitioning to the Nonprofit Sector  by Laura Gassner Otting 

In Transition:  From the Harvard Business School Club of New York’s Career Management Seminar by Mary Lindley Burton, Richard A. Wedemeyer

Rites of Passage at $100,000 to $1Million +:  Your Insider’s Lifetime Guide to Executive Job-Changing and Faster Career Progress in the 21^st Century, by John Lucht 

What Color is Your Parachute?  2010: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-changers by Richard N. Bolles.

QUOTE

 “…when it comes to finding out about new jobs…’weak ties’ are always more important than strong ties.  Your friends, after all, occupy the same world that you do. …Your acquaintances, on the other hand, by definition occupy a very different world than you.  They are much more likely to know something that you don’t.”  (Page 54, The Tipping Point: How Little things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell)

 PLEASE COMMENT

 Once again, I would appreciate any experiences, comments or questions that will help other readers.  I would particularly enjoy some humorous experiences and success stories.  Once a month, I will choose one commenter to contact for a free coaching session.

HOW TO REACH ME

jill@careercoachjill.com

www.careercoachjill.com for career coaching   

www.limitlesshorizon.com for personal life coaching

www.leadercoaching.org for leadership coaching

Thanks to tech guru David Behrens (http://neptunestudios.net), and editor M. C. Pastoret.