Countless clients have told me, “I can’t network” or “I don’t know anybody.” A long-term unemployed client that I saw at two different workforce programs over a period of years told me, “I’ve tried all that tap into the hidden job market stuff.” Yet most career management coaches and resume writers say that the majority of their clients get jobs through networking. How do they do it?Let’s start by accepting that networking is difficult for many of us. It may be especially difficult for those of us who spend our days coding, writing content, doing accounting, yses, or working in a host of other occupations where we do not interact with outsiders very much. Those of you that spend your time in outbound sales, marketing, teaching, doing social work, or other high-touch occupations may find networking easier.
What you will learn
This post offers ten specific and actionable tips to start your networking journey. They include:
- Make a list of 25 people who might be willing to help with your job search.
- Reach out to a former coworker you haven’t talked with recently.
- Contact a former supervisor and let them know what kind of opportunity you’re looking for.
- Contact a former employee you supervised and reconnect.
- Reach out to a former client, customer, vendor, or supplier who knows your work.
- Contact a former classmate or college friend and ask what they’re doing now.
- Reach out to someone from your college or university alumni network.
- Contact someone you know who works for one of your target employees.
- Ask someone in your network, “Who do you know that I should talk to?”
- Ask a contact if they know anyone at one of your target companies.
You will be in a better position to complete a productive job search once you have gone through many of these steps. Let’s get started.
Make a list of 25 people who may be willing to help.
Finding 25 potential helpers for your job search sounds like a lot of work. It probably is not, though. Think about your friends, family, current coworkers, former coworkers, current classmates (for those still in school), former classmates, doctors, lawyers, financial advisors, and others you have worked with or interacted with over the years. Chances are, once you have made this list, you will have a lot more than 25 names to work with.
Remember that the list we’re making is a list of people who “may” help. It is not a list of people who want to help, or will help, or who have a job for you. Your goal is to have a starting point.
Reach out to former coworkers.
Now that you have a tentative list it is time to start talking to a few people. A good place to start is reaching out to former coworkers that you haven’t spoken to in a while. Those people may be delighted to hear from you and want to know what you are doing now. Some of them may even be excited to tell you what they are doing now and will want to meet you for coffee, breakfast, or lunch. This second step may jump-start your networking faster than you expected.
A client told me some months ago that a former coworker hired her. Subsequently she hired that same former coworker.\
Contact former supervisors.
Former supervisors are a great source of advice, suggestions, and potential job leads because they know your work well. For example, when I visited the office of a former supervisor, I found a number of his former staff members working for him in his new job. Although he had filled all the positions he needed to fill at his current job, he did give me suggestions that I followed up on.
Contact the former employee you supervised.
Employees you once supervised may be hiring managers now. Talk to them even if you do not expect them to have opportunities for you at this time. They know about your work and may know of other people for you to speak with.
Surprisingly I have found that former coworkers, supervisors, and staff members may be willing to help now. They may realize that disagreements and arguments resulted from specific work situations and don’t mean that you aren’t a good team member. Some years ago I spoke with a supervisor who hired a staff member he once fired from a job in another company. He felt that the open job where he worked now was a job his former staff member could do well.
Reach out to a former client, customer, vendor, or supplier.
Employers will hire you to solve their business problems. If you are an accountant, for example, your clients know that you understand their business and their accounting issues so they may be willing to hire you or refer you to others in their industry or profession who will consider hiring you. Of course, you may need to abide by any legal or contractual agreements that prevent organizations you have done business with in the past from hiring you or prevent you from working with them. Nonetheless those you have done business with in the past may know of opportunities for you so when permissible speak with them anyway.
Contact former classmates.
Career management coaches largely agree that school ties are the strongest. Reach out to former classmates, college friends, and professors.
Hiring managers and recruiters often prefer to hire from specific schools. As a result, if they hired your friend, there is an increased chance that they will consider hiring you.
Reach out to your school’s alumni network.
Just about every college or professional program has some sort of alumni network. The network could be run by a paid staff member at the school or program. It could be an informal network on LinkedIn, Facebook, or another social media platform or it could be more informal.
Start by looking at your school’s website to see if they have a formal alumni office or an online alumni platform of their own. You may be able to meet with the school’s alumni coordinator, attend alumni events, or make a posting online updating other alumni on what you are doing now and the kind of opportunities you are looking for.
Contact someone you know at a target company.
A great way to find opportunities is to identify target companies rather than target jobs. The reason for this is that job postings may be fleeting so it is more productive to spend time contacting companies that interest you.
You probably know somebody who works at a company you may want to work for. Contact them. Don’t ask them for a job. This will probably be uncomfortable for them as well as for you. Nonetheless arrange to talk with them, preferably in person, to find out more about the company.
It is common for companies to offer employees incentives to find new employees. Good employees know what the company needs and they know the kind of people who can meet their needs. Even if the employer does not have a formal incentive system, you have a much greater chance of being hired when you are referred in by another employee. Whether your contact is able to refer you in or not, you will be better informed about the company and about the kind of job you are interested in doing.
Ask, “Who do you know that I should talk to?”
The vast majority of your networking contacts are not going to have an opportunity for you. Nonetheless I always ask them, “Who do you know that I should speak with?” Don’t despair if the person you’re speaking with knows of nobody right away. They may call you or email you days, weeks, or even months later with someone you should contact right now. It’s happened to me and it’s happened to clients I’ve worked with. Once I even got a call from an employer that declined to interview me for an opportunity for a job in another company. That’s the job I got!
Ask: “Do you know anyone at company X I should speak with?”
It may help to ask a question more specifically than “Who do you know that I should speak to?” Try asking who your contact knows in one of the companies that you want to work for. This may trigger a suggestion that they haven’t thought of. For example, if they are accustomed to talking with you when you work for federal government agencies, it may not occur to them that you are interested in working with specific state or local agencies, or specific agencies in particular localities.
As a rule, you will probably get better results when you ask specific rather than general questions.
Key takeaways:
Networking is hard. If it were easy we would all get jobs rather quickly. But it can be easier when you ask specific questions.
You will be surprised at how many people you know. Also, you will be surprised at the number of people who can be helpful when you ask them specific questions.
Networking is a high-touch very personal job. It is a job you have to do, not your AI.
Guide to the Post-pandemic Job Market
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.