Center For Life Decisions

Networking/Researching To Find Your Ideal Job

"Meet lots of people and be nice to them". You can't have enough friends and colleagues, especially when you are conducting a job search. And, if you wait until you are unemployed to establish these contacts and gathering information about your next job, you are already several months, and perhaps several thousand dollars, behind in both promoting yourself and in obtaining new employment. Be proactive.

The following information provides highlights, in a kind of "top ten" format, the items most often discussed with clients on the subject of job search networking. This section is not meant to be an exhaustive presentation, or even summary on this subject. It is meant, however, to provide unique and interesting twists to a lot of the usual background on this subject that you no doubt already possess and that others have written on at much greater length. In addition to this information please consult the standard references on the topic.

There are three phases to networking: Phase I - Asking for and creating support for your constructive feedback and emotional stability during the job search. Phase II - Asking about jobs by doing research and information gathering to clarify what next you want to do and where you want to do it. Phase III - Asking for a job and job leads for follow up and for creating interview opportunities.

Top Ten Networking Tips

Support (Phase I) - You will not hear the word, "no", more often in your life than during your job search, except perhaps when you were two years old. It takes a very self-confident person to avoid discouragement when time after time during the job search you put hours of work into a job application process, never to receive even a postcard or phone call response to your best efforts. Too often this even happens after people have been to two, not one, but two interviews with a prospective company/organization! Support, whether it be one other person or a group, can provide the emotional underpinnings you need to buoy your spirits while you are working to obtain your next job.

Columbo (Phase II) - Remember the actor, Peter Falk, who played the detective Columbo? Week after week he was seen driving a beat-up old car, smoking a stubby cigar and wearing a rumpled trench coat. Week after week he would incessantly ask question after question, and, by the end of each hour, had solved each case.

During phase II of the job search, like Columbo, ask lots of questions. Obtain answers to all your speculations and doubts about job ideas.

Will it pay enough?

What would you do in the job?

Do you have enough experience to get hired?

Who's hiring?

What's fun about working there?....

Even talk to vendors - people who come and go from the business through providing products or services to the places you are researching. In phase II you are networking for information as a reality test between what you think you know and what you actually do know about future job possibilities.

Positioning (Phase III) - go to those places you've identified through your research that you want to work, not merely where there are job openings. Try to meet with people who have the power to hire you, even if they presently have no job openings. Position yourself by asking to meet with them for 5 or 10 minutes, so that when they are looking, your meeting will uncover when to apply. Or, they will be so impressed with you in those 5-10 minutes that they'll remember to call you, asking you to apply! As Harvey Mackay says, "Your car just gets you to work. Your network can determine whether or not you've got work to get to."

Organization - Seldom can you be too organized in conducting your job search. So often we put names and phone numbers on napkins and envelopes and then wonder why we can't find them a few days later. One suggestion is to keep a file or notebook with one page for each contact. Keep on each page the name of the person, company or organization, address and zip, e-mail, website, and any correspondence. Also, make special notations, in red, or place it directly on your calendar, of anything you need to follow up on - like making a return phone call or sending your complete resume and cover letter. Being organized can save you hours of work and frustration looking for misplaced information.

Scripts - Clients are often embarrassed to think that they need to practice what to say to people during the job search. They think that because they are intelligent that the exact words will magically flow out of them when needed. Often, they don't. Knowing what to say, to whom, and the best way to say it, takes practice. One career professional suggests that we need to practice what we want to say 25 times before it becomes natural! And, scripts are most important when people say "no" to us. Positively responding in such situations, rather than becoming angry or withdrawn may yet get us more information, and perhaps, even a job. In some respects networking can be described as a process or turning "no's" into "yes's". In actual fact, when people say no to you it is usually a qualified "no" rather than an absolute "no". They are only saying no to your question. They are not saying that there will never be a job there for you. Yet, that is often how you feel when you hear "no" to your inquiry. Donald Asher offers some instructive scripts in his book, "The Overnight Job Change Strategy". You might try writing your own scripts to follow up on "no" responses.

Serendipity - Be open to wonderful surprises during your networking. Job seekers often discover amazingly wonderful jobs and special opportunities for making their unique contribution that can be discovered through no other way than networking. Networking consistently creates such opportunities. Be alert to take advantage of them when they happen. They will.

Job Fairs - There may be no more important activity for you at a job fair than obtaining business cards from recruiters. That way, a week after the dust settles, you can follow up with those people. If you only give people your resume you are a passive job seeker. You can only wait, and wait and wait.... for them to call you. If you get business cards you can be much more proactive - being able to call them back.

Professional Organizations/Associations - A wonderful way to obtain both information and job leads is to attend the professional meetings of your chosen business/organizational niche. Four things usually happen at these meetings:

There is usually food,

A program on some current topic of that niche,

There are other job seekers with which to network, and

There are usually jobs announced and/or employers with jobs in attendance.

Fifteen Minutes a Day - Don't let a day go by, Monday-Friday, without spending at least 15 minutes on your search. You can spend more time. Just don't spend less. Your results may not be fast, but they will be sure. An apt proverb: "The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step". Suggestion: Go to Kinko's and get ten sheets of those astro-bright papers. Write only on these sheets your daily 15 minute job search tasks and homework assignments. It will be easy each day to spot and find these colorful sheets helping you to stay on track with your fifteen minutes a day.

Persevere - remember the fable about the tortoise and the hare? The race is not always to the swift. But you do need to stay the course. One job seeker was hired after his seventh return contact with his preferred employer. Another obtained a job after networking within an organization with 22 different people. Obviously, it was a big organization. Persistence increases your probability of obtaining your desired job.

[BACK]

CENTER FOR LIFE DECISIONS
3121 EAST MADISON STREET, SUITE 209
SEATTLE, WA 98112-4260
TEL/FAX 206-325-9093
E-MAIL LGAFFIN@SPIRITUALITYOFWORK.COM

WEBSITE DESIGN, HOSTING & MAINTENANCE BY NEW TECH WEB, INC.