Networking for a Job

Job Networking Focus Areas

Networking for a job is critical during and after recessions. When finances become difficult, the natural inclination of most people is to withdraw and focus on survival without letting anybody know about their problems. This often appears to be the best way to survive, because it shields you from perceived criticism and shame. In fact, the opposite is true!

Withdrawing from social and work circles blinds you to employment and sales opportunities, and prevents sharing of solutions to common economic problems. The economic effects of a recession are widespread and affect almost everybody. Discovering new ideas for survival and success is a necessity, and this can only be done through internal networking or business networking online.

Networking for a job is a combination of simple socializing with a focus on a business or job result. Instead of withdrawing, start by contacting as many of your friends, colleagues, and business prospects as possible. Find out how they are faring, and what they are doing to survive and prosper. Find out about their needs and brainstorm ways to help them and yourself at the same time. Interact with other groups you have never contacted before, including groups outside of your normal social or business circles. This is often a way to discover niche opportunities that you had no awareness of.

You may already have an idea of what you want to do, maybe a specific job title or a range of jobs you believe will push your career forward. The most obvious place to start when you are job networking is your past experience. Do you want to continue on the same job path, or would you like to expand your horizons to new areas? During recessions it's been said that "beggars can't be choosers" so be realistic about what is achievable. There may not be available opportunities in your narrow niche, but there could be several related roles that you can bring your expertise to and be successful. For example, if you have experience managing a retail store, your experience with inventory, customer service, pricing, marketing, store design, and people management easily transfers to online retail, restaurants, bank branch management, auto dealerships, and shopping mall property management. You can come up with many creative career ideas by considering how your skills can transfer to different business types. Then you can concentrate your networking for a job on multiple possible areas, which will increase your potential for success.

How to Network for a Job

Here is a quick step-by-step guide on how to network for a job:

1) List your job skills. Unless you have a clear inventory of your job skills, you won't be able to match them to opportunities and focus your networking.

2) List three job targets or goals. Here is where your career networking plan starts. Pick three and only three realistic job targets you want to pursue. These are the areas you are going to concentrate on when you network. It helps to list specific job titles and the related skills and career path to get there so you know what you're aiming for. Writing down "CEO of a cosmetics company" will be ineffective if your only experience is selling cosmetics at a retail counter -- this might be a valid long term goal, but is not viable in the short term. Instead something like "cosmetics sales manager" would be a far more realistic goal and could also help you toward your long term goal.

3) Find and target networking groups in your chosen niche. Now you're moving forward to put your networking plan into action. There are many networking groups, industry associations, informal entrepreneur groups, consumer product testing centers, industry seminars, major national industry conventions, etc. where you can conduct effective job networking. Avoid career fairs as they tend to be overrun with job seekers and the companies are not advertising specific jobs. To find a list of industry networks, first sign up for LinkedIn.com and join several groups there. Then Google "YOUR INDUSTRY" + "JOB TITLE" + "network" and you could find some excellent groups nearby. Finally, contact several industry associations that focus on your particular area and volunteer to assist in their next networking event.

4) Network efficiently with a goal. When you go to a network event, tell yourself you're going to meet and have a good discussion with 5 people, get each person's business card, and follow up afterward. Ensure you allocate enough time to have a real conversation with each person, asking what they do, what opportunities and challenges they see, and whether they know of any business areas in your niche where there is growth or demand. Offer to send them contacts and opportunities that you come up with in your networking. Do NOT ask if they know anybody who is hiring because this turns people off and makes you look like you have nothing to offer. This should uncover several potential opportunity areas.

5) Follow up with each person within 1 week. Contact each person you met within 1 week - no later - by telephone. Tell them you enjoyed your conversation and you had some thoughts about how you could help them (have something in mind - little things are best like offering to do a little market research for nothing as a favor). If they respond positively, then ask them if they know of anybody they think you should speak with for advice on how to meet your job or business goal. Again, don't ask for a job or people that are hiring! This process won't always work, but it creates a solid basis for a positive business relationship and could get you some great contacts!

6) contact all the references you were given. Introduce yourself and how you got their name, referencing prior conversations with your mutual contact, and what you're looking to achieve. Ask for their opinion or any insights on parts of the industry that are growing or areas of demand. Repeat the same conversations you had in 4) above.

Keep track of all your networking in an Excel spreadsheet with names, what they do, when you met them, what you learned and discussed, and the contacts you were given or who referred you to them.

Internal Networking

Internal networking inside your current company or organization is another positive way to build your career success and ensure you always have a job. Internal networking is not only highly useful, it's necessary to understand how the business is changing and any opportunities or pitfalls that are developing. The pace of business is so fast today that a company can go from success to failure in a matter of months, or get bought out very quickly. These events alway produce career opportunities along with potential layoffs. Building a network inside your company is critical!

There are two effective ways to network internally. First, you can simply make friends with a lot of people by going out to lunch, playing on the company softball team, doing extra-curricular fundraisers, etc. This makes you likable and well-known which is always a good thing. But it does not make you indispensable to the company. The other way is to network around your specific role, skills, and upward career goals. For example, let's say you're a website designer - an area that is under increasing pressure from outsourcing to low cost offshore development centers. You may be a genius web designer, but this role is not location-specific so it's easy to offshore, which means it will eventually be at risk if it's not already. Start thinking about what other roles are related to web design. Marketing, product development, PR, and sales are related disciplines with a need for messaging, visual concepts, customer engagement, and brand thinking. Normally these are location-dependent jobs which can't be offshored because they relate to the needs of local customers and cultures. They are also revenue-generating roles which are the last to get cut in a recession!

So how to you do internal networking to expand your role into recession-resistant areas of the business? First, ask for a meeting with the manager of the group you're interested in. Ask how his or her part of the business is run, what kind of people are useful, and what areas might be in need of help. Then offer to contribute your efforts on any project where there is a lot of work, pointing out what your skills are and where you'd like to expand your expertise. Next, find out if the team has any favorite places they like to go after work and "bump into them" there. Invite a few people out to something fun, perhaps a local concert or ball game. Mention your interest in what they do and get them talking about their role and what positive things are going on in their area and who is involved. Do this in more than one area or group of the business, and you will always have "multiple irons in the fire" and plenty of actionable opportunities to choose from.

Business Networking Online

Business networking online is similar to in-person networking but it has several different dimensions of success you should be aware of. By itself, online networking can be highly useful, or a complete waste of time. If you work in online business such as blogging, PR, web design, etc. then online networking is natural for you and probably an area where you can get lots of traction. Online business is borderless and the fact that people can work across great distances makes it difficult to do personal networking.

If you want to build up your online networking skills, start with LinkedIn, Facebook, and the other major networks. But don't stop there. Google "YOUR BUSINESS" + "forums" or "networks" and join up with a few active online communities. You will find a wealth of information there. If you become a major contributor to several of these online communities this can generate immense business for you. Effective business networking online is also enhanced by the use of online communication tools. Webex, SalesForce.com, GoToMeeting.com, Skype, and a wide range of other online communication, networking and collaboration tools can be combined into a great business platform. Major outsourcing platforms like Freelancer.com and Guru.com can be tremendous sources of business opportunities in your area of expertise, or related areas where you'd like to expand into. You can use one several free online conference call providers to set up just about any meeting.

If you are using online tools to network locally, the approach is a bit different. Craigslist.com is one of the most effective sources, as are local business group websites and forums, and the local groups on LinkedIn and Facebook. Give these business networking online techniques a try as your starting point, then transition to the personal career networking steps described above in "How to Network for a Job".

Give these approaches a try and discover what works best for you. You do not have to spend significant amounts of time or money to network effectively. Simple dinner parties, chambers of commerce, church meetings, and children’s sports events are all great venues to connect with other people. As long as you keep the conversation alive, you can dispose of expensive dinners and seminars, and simply communicate through email, online chat rooms, and telephone calls.