“It’s not what you know, it is who you know.”
This comes up twice in this series. That is how important networking is. Wait, is there an echo in here? Well, this is different from before. Now, you are an active job seeker, which means you have to ramp up your network activity and turn those connections into referrals. This article, and the next article, Applying, are done in parallel with each other.
In this article, I will cover the network interaction before and during the application process. In the Applying article, I will specifically touch on the applying and follow-up process.
Did you know that most jobs aren’t posted or advertised publicly? It is hard for me to wrap my head around that sometimes. When you search for “Project Manager” on a job board, there are hundreds of returns. Think of all the ones that do not come up.
Compiling all the books, blogs, and webinars, I would say that you want to spend 80% of your job search effort networking in some way. Within that 80%, I am going to lump in social media activities. The other 20% is applying and conversing with company and 3rd party recruiters. Looking at past surveys and articles, when individuals were asked what the source was for finding their new job, it has been around the 50% mark. In the previous Networking article, we touched on building and maintaining your network. Now, we are wanting to tap into our existing network, the people you know and can vouch for you. With the internet and telecommuting, the job pool for recruiters and hiring managers is larger than ever. They are really going to trust referrals…a lot.
I take this on in two different ways: job boards and my LinkedIn network.
Job Boards
I use the job boards (Monster, CareerBuilder, Indeed, Dice, and LinkedIn) to upload my advertised résumé and create alerts that meet my criteria. My goal is to concentrate on applying for positions at companies where I know someone. I will typically reach out to them about the position with the goals of wanting to learn more about the company, what they know of the position, and if they believe I would be a good fit. If all of that lines up, I will ask if they have an internal referral system and move on from there.
If I do not have a contact, but I am still interested in the job, I will still apply. I will talk more about that tactic in a later article. Having these alerts also feeds in the process of finding out What do you want? As you get these alerts, you learn more about what is out there and what you are interested in. You also have the opportunity to tweak your résumé accordingly.
When I am sitting down to conduct my job search, after I have gone through my alerts, I will start specifically looking at companies within my LinkedIn network. Going back to the Tracking article, we have all of our network on the LinkedIn tab. I will start going down the list, go to the company’s website and/or LinkedIn page, and search through the open positions.
If I do not find anything posted, I will reach out to my connection and let them know that I am looking and if they know of anything coming available or if they know anyone I can talk with. If I do find one posted, I will do the same as I did with the other job boards when I reach out to them. These two scenarios might not yield immediate results, but now I have planted the seed of interest. If anything comes up, I am hopeful that I will be remembered.
Honestly, in my experience, I feel like I have accomplished more in my search when I do this. Even without the immediate results, it is much more satisfying than simply applying away and hoping.
So here is a question to the community:
“How has this technique worked out for you in the past?”
Thank you for your time,
Volume 9 Issue 10 (51) Original Post: 04/26/2018 Updated: 04/26/2018
Job Search Lessons Learned Navigation
Before
01) Social Media. It is time for a clean-up and health check of your online presence.
02) Self-Discovery. As the famous rock band, The Who, once asked: “Whooooo are you? Who, who? Who, who?”
03) What do you want? It’s not all about them, you are a unique snowflake and you should be confident about that.
04) Networking. If you take only one thing away from this series, it HAS to be this.
05) Résumé Information. The source of truth for your résumé(s), applications, cover letters, and interviews.
06) Résumé. How should it look? I don’t know, has the person reviewing eaten lately? What day of the week is it? Which season is it? Did they recently take time off? Did they get a good or bad review? How was traffic this morning?
During
07) Tracking. Release the OCD!
08) Social Media. Yes, you need to use it. Don’t fight it.
09) Networking and Referrals. That is how important this is, I talk about it twice!
10) Applying. I’ll just tell you now, it feels like a black hole sometimes.
11) Interview. The moment you have been waiting for!
12) Professional Assistance. Sometimes you cannot see the forest for the trees.
- Conclusion. That’s a wrap.
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