When you are networking or just out and about, you want to tell people what you are looking for in your next step.  Don’t expect them to take out a piece of paper and jot down salient points.  It is your job to let them know with your personal commercial and with your Networking Brief.  This leaves the guess work out of the game. 

A Networking Brief is a one page document.  It includes:

• your contact information,
• short summary (similar to your resume),
• several bullet points about why you are good,
• types of positions and industries you are interested in,
• contacts that would be helpful,
• and names of target companies if relevant.

 It does not include names of companies you have worked for or the names of your schools.  I would like you to use a filter when writing it.  That filter is:  does the recipient need this information to connect me with the people who can be most helpful to me?

Please use the links to see the two samples.   network_brief_bank  network brief Technical

QUOTE

 “You cannot get to the top by sitting on your bottom.”  Proverb

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 one half hour 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.

–Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I am reusing last week’s quote because it is so powerful and because it is also apt for this week’s topic about networking.  If one is committed to something—like finding a job—one tells others about it. 

To put it simply, networking works.  It doesn’t have to be complicated.  It can be conversational.  It doesn’t have to be scary.  It can run the gamut from telling the local butcher that you are looking for a job to conducting informational interviews and everything in between.  I think it is especially important after you have applied for a position you would really like.  Then certainly ask contacts if they know anyone at that firm who can help you.

The days when people were embarrassed about looking for work are long over.  I had one wonderful client who used as a tag line after her signature line on e-mails, “Looking for a Project Manager Position.”  That certainly is networking and you will have to decide if it works for you or not.

In next week’s post, I will outline the steps to writing a 30 second personal commercial—also referred to as an elevator speech—which is the first step.  For right now, I would like to give you two examples:

• Friend A told me of her dream job.  Shortly thereafter, I called Friend B about a different topic and Friend B mentioned that her firm had a need for skills that fit Friend A’s dream job and for help in finding a project management employee.  I called Friend C to  see if his wife might be interested in the project management position and he said that he was having trouble filling positions for his firm and he needed someone who would fit Friend A’s dream job skills.  So in two serendipitous phone calls, I had two possible leads for Friend A.
• A client in another state had been a bookkeeper for an automotive credit company for decades.  She is a quiet woman who didn’t think she would like to network.  However, we prepared her 30 second personal commercial and had her practice it until it just flowed.  She went to the local grocery store where the deli manager while slicing ham asked why she was there in the middle of the day.  She replied with her personal commercial which ended with the words, “at this point, my ideal job would be as a bookkeeper for a local car dealer within five miles of my home.”  He responded, “You want I should have the VP of Sales from the Caddie dealer down the street call you?”

You never know who knows the right contact.  So you help yourself by spreading the word.  However, “the word” has to be sincere, positive and upbeat. It cannot ramble.   If you are still feeling negative or down about your situation, go back and read some of the earlier posts.  

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

QUOTE

"... the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too."  Goethe

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