Networking: More Than A Door Opener

If you are taking a thoughtful approach to your job search, you have probably started to appreciate how networking can help you locate and land jobs. But you may not realize how much farther the power of networking extends.

Your professional network can be an invaluable personal and professional resource, throughout your career. It’s a great source of career advice as well as solutions to everyday business issues. It helps you keep abreast of trends in your field. It provides invaluable insight into who’s doing what in your field and in your city. It enables you do generate good favor by creating “cross-referrals” for the people within your network.

But wait, there’s more (as they say on TV). The old saying “it isn’t what you know, it’s who you know” is true, and not in a nepotistic way. In today’s information economy, employers are less concerned with your current knowledge/skills than they are with your track record at learning new skills and independently solving problems. One of the most impressive success stories you can share with an interviewer is how you solved a challenging business problem by working your network.

Here’s a tip about discussing your professional network in an interview. Depending on how you talk about the people you network with, your anecdotes can come across as name dropping. That’s not good. Here’s a way to avoid it. Don’t tell me that you often have lunch with John Q. Public, CEO and local celebrity. Instead, tell me story about how you were able to solve a business problem by utilizing your professional network, a story that incidentally includes how your relationship with John Q. Public played an essential role in your success.

Not convinced yet? Consider the PR aspects of your network. An extensive network of quality people, people with whom you have worked hard to earn a good relationship, can be one of the most powerful personal PR tools available. They’ll be out there every day, mentioning your name and singing your virtues at every suitable opportunity. In contrast, if you have failed to choose the right people and develop a good relationship with them, you will either generate no PR or bad PR.

How do you develop the type of network I’m talking about? Here are three general strategies:

1. Your network won’t grow on its own. Your network may contain previous colleagues and coworkers, people in your field, members of professional organizations or civic groups to which you belong (now or previously). The key is keeping in touch. Via the phone or email. You may want to develop a closer relationship with some individuals by getting together periodically for lunch or coffee, for example. Make sure they know what your current job seeking status is, and what you are hoping to achieve.
2. Give back more to your network than you take from it. Proactively work your network: when you talk to a colleague who is out of work, ask how you can help. When you recognize an opportunity for one of your colleagues, reach out and make the connection. Don’t just give out names and phone numbers: pick up the phone and make an introduction. Don’t just gather information; share it.
3. Conduct your own PR campaigns. Some people consider this over the top, but it can work well. Let’s say you are between jobs, and you want to work your network. If you have email addresses for everyone you consider part of your network, keep them up to date. Create a weekly email update. The initial messages may focus more on “here’s what I’ve done/here’s what I’m looking for,” while the message then evolves into “here’s where I’ve been focusing my job searching energies.” Any one of these messages may remind a recipient about an opportunity they can share with you.

Clearly networking isn’t just a gimmick for opening doors when you need to find a job. At the risk of sounding hokey, your personal and professional network is the garden in which future opportunities will arise (or not) and take root and grow (or not). To quote the wonderful book Candide, “we should all cultivate our gardens.”

Comments

[Kathy Helbig]

George,
Great networking know how! It is so helpful that you extended your expert advise to job seekers. My personal testimony is that networking is not just a door opener but a career builder. As successful Realtor, I have established my career
by building and maintaining my reputation as well as my network.
Bountiful Blogging!