No Problem, Doing Lunch
Is My Strong Point "Small opportunities are often the beginnings of great Enterprises" - Demosthenes
Successful networking is the corner stone of job hunting. As we've already learned, most jobs are filled before they are advertised. Who you know, or who you meet through an assertive, well-organized job hunt, can help you get where you want to go.
I thought networking was for some kind of pushy and insincere social climber, such as the type of person who uses obnoxious buzz-words like network in daily conversation. Or it was for wealthy and well-connected fraternity presidents who probably didn't even need a job in the first place. Since I wouldn't want to be in the first category, and I'm not in the second category, I didn't consider networking to be an option. Besides, I didn't know anyone in the city to which I was moving.
Fortunately, I was completely wrong in my assessment of networking. (Someday, you may be wrong about something too.) It turned out that networking is easy, interesting, and extremely helpful. Best of all, it's something any recent graduate can do. So get rid of any pre-conceived notions you may have about networking, and get ready to take part in what may be the biggest and most important part of your job hunt.
First, the facts about networking. Networking can lead you to jobs you may never have known existed. For you as a recent college graduate, networking is nothing more than talking to people about their jobs, asking how you can enter the field and obtaining names of people you can talk to about that field. In this way, networking will enable you to learn what it is that people in your chosen career really do.
It can give you a more realistic picture of what it means to have the career you're seeking, and it may allow you to redirect your job hunting focus if you decide you're not looking for the job that will really make you happy.
Networking can help you not only as you look for your first job, but it can also help you plant seeds for your future. If you keep up with the people who help you when you first graduate, you can continue to benefit from knowing them as you move forward in your chosen career field. Through networking, you can develop valuable professional relationships and possibly a few personal friendships as well.
The first step of networking is best described by a term we'll call "prospecting." Prospecting is a way to find out about the potential sources of networking contacts and, of course, jobs. Prospecting involves sending your resume to a wide range of companies without knowing if any jobs are actually available. If there are jobs available, you have found additional "prospects" for interviewing and for eventual employment, hence the name "prospecting."
Prospecting is the premise behind the mass mailing approach, and we will discuss it later in this chapter. When you network, the step that comes after prospecting, you should keep in mind that you have several goals. One is to make a favorable impression on the person you're meeting in case they learn of a job opening for which you're qualified. The other is to walk away from your meeting with one name or one suggestion, whether it is the name of one of their colleagues or some kind of advice about your resume. It would be nice to walk away with the keys to their car or an invitation to their beach house, but unfortunately, networking doesn't seem to get quite that rewarding!
The best thing you can hope to gain from networking is a firm job offer, and that's always possible. However, you have to take a more broad view of the job hunt when you network, and realize that each name you gather or each piece of advice you pick up is one more small gain in your search.
Networking yields a lot of advantages, but it might not be anything as dramatic and final as a job offer, at least not at the very first. It's a complex and subtle process, and it requires a little bit of patience!
There are four major ways to prospect and network:
- talking to professors, former employers, family and friends to get the names of people to contact
- sending out mass mailings
- joining any type of alumni group available to you
- Attending job hunters workshops offered in your community.
You Have Contacts-Really!
Talking to professors, former employers, friends and family members is probably the most obvious method of networking. If you know a professor well enough to ask for help finding a job, by all means, do it. You may be able to ask professors if they know of anyone working in your field.
"If you're a recent college graduate and you want to begin networking, professors are often the best place to start," says career counselor Dr. Ray Harrison of Manchester. "They may have connections outside with companies for which they do consulting work, and they might be able to provide you with an introduction."
It's easier to ask professors and other networking contacts to give you names of potential employers if you explain that you'd like to meet with them to talk about the career field in general. If you couch your request for names in the context of informational interviewing and general researching of your career field, it sounds like less of a favor. In addition, the person you're talking to will probably feel more comfortable giving you a name and number if it sounds like you would be happy with a general conversation and you won't press your new contact to find you a job.
Keep in mind as you network that a quick and simple meeting or phone conversation is all you're asking for. While it's not that big of a deal for someone to take five minutes to chat with you about career opportunities, it is a big deal if you approach them in an aggressive manner, put them on the spot and demand a job. Again, it's just a question of approach and of not breaking those unspoken job hunting rules. If your professors don't know of anyone personally in your career field, ask them to recommend a few local companies of which they think highly.
Try to get as much practical advice from your professors as you can, such as what to look for in an interview, or how to best establish yourself in your field if you're moving to a new city. For example, professors might know of a professional association that is particularly helpful, or they might have heard horror stories from students who worked as interns for certain companies.
If you know any of your professors well enough, you could ask them to briefly critique your resume. You could almost look at your conversation as a practice networking session. You're learning how to discuss your job hunt with someone in a position of authority, and you're becoming more comfort able with asking for specific suggestions and advice.
You can do all of these things with former employers from a summer job as well. They may be able to steer you towards the job that would be best for you because they are familiar with your work habits.
Family and friends can also be good sources for networking. If a friend of a friend works in the city you'd like to work in, get a name and phone number. Depending upon the age of your potential contact, you could proceed in a couple of different ways.
If the person graduated within the past few years, you could just call, explain that you have a mutual friend, and ask your new contact to go to dinner or lunch. It might be a good way to get all kinds of advice about a new city, and it could help you meet new people your own age.
If the friend of a friend is someone older, you should probably approach your meeting more formally. Send your networking contact your resume and a brief letter stating what kind of job you're interested in. Say you'd like to get together to discuss the job market and get ideas for your job search. Make it clear that you'll get back in touch and then call when you say you will. ''Let's Get Together"
Make it as easy as possible for the person you're contacting to help you out. For example, if your next door neighbor's boyfriend is going to meet with you, don't put the burden of setting up the meeting on him. If getting together with you is too much trouble, he probably won't call you.
After you've reached the person who's going to talk to you, make sure you set up your meeting at a convenient time, date and location. If possible, try to meet with your contact at their office, especially if it is in a field in which you're interested. If your new contact has time, he or she might give you a brief tour and introduce you to a few of the people in the office.
It sounds minor, but it's helpful to see people in your career field in their own office environment especially if you can see five or six different companies.
Do the people who have the job you want look rushed? Harried? Are they frequently in meetings? Do they appear to sit in a quiet office and work independently or are they usually interacting with their co-workers? Do they get out and meet with clients and customers? These small glimpses into a real work environment can provide you with the details of what it's like to work in the career field in which you're interested.
It's at this level of networking, trying to utilize existing contacts, that most people our age become discouraged. It's not uncommon to have very few contacts in the job world. Maybe you don't have that many professors you can talk to. Maybe your family and friends don't work in the career field you're interested in and don't know anyone who does.
At this point, you're probably wondering what's wrong with your friends and family members. You can ponder their faults later, but luckily, you can become an incredible networker even if they, and you, don't know a soul. Networking Through Mass Mailings The key to making contacts when you don't have any contacts can be found in the second major method of net working, that of sending out mass mailings.
Yes, we're back to mass mailings. In the previous chapter, they may have sounded like a lot of work for a little bit of gain. However, now that you're figuring out how to network, you can see mass mailings in a whole new light. If you've sent out 50 letters to 50 companies and none of them have a job available, you've pretty much wasted your time. Right! Wrong!
Sending out mass mailings is actually only one part of networking, and it can be better defined as "prospecting." Prospecting is the process of finding potential employers with whom you will seek a face-to-face meeting. The face-to-face meeting is the actual networking, but without this first step of "prospecting," many of your networking interviews would not take place.
In other words, mass mailings may not find you a job right away (unless you happen to find companies that are hiring), 127 but this type of prospecting can open the door to a world of networking contacts. Maybe you didn't find any jobs at those 50 companies, but if you've presented yourself well, you’ve found 50 contacts.
This is where job hunting goes beyond simply being a way to find a job and becomes a way to flesh out your career goals and learn more about what you're looking for in a job. It also becomes a way to build your future. Through mass mailings, you can set up informational interviews.
Informational interviews are another aspect ofjob hunting that sound worthless. Are they called informational interviews so they can be distinguished from non-informational interviews? Despite their meaningless name, informational interviews are a great way to get your foot in the door.
When you ask for an informational interview, you are indicating to employers that you are only seeking information, and not a job, when you set up an interview. Of course, everyone knows you'd like a job if you could get one, otherwise you would have no interest in the information you're going to obtain. Even though both parties to an informational interview act as though there is no deeper purpose to the meeting than discussing the career field in an abstract sense, informational interviews serve a very real purpose.
"We do conduct informational interviews over the telephone," says The Austin Company's John Stewan. "We realize that things change, and we may not be hiring now, but there may be someone we'd want to court six months from now."
Employers recognize the informational interview as a good way to keep up their contacts with job seekers. However, we once again get into the distinction between large companies and small ones,
As you've gathered by now, large companies follow a fairly rigid set of procedures in hiring. Larger companies are not as likely to talk to job seekers who simply want information. They have highly structured recruitment programs, and they know they can always find a large number of applicants, whether through on-campus interviews or in response to ads in the paper.
GE's Peter Bowen believes that informational interviewing can be good for the job hunter, and he will occasionally meet with recent graduates when he doesn't have a firm opening.
"I'll talk to someone on the phone first," says Bowen, "and if there's some kind of match, I'll meet with an applicant for an informational interview. I do this only on a sporadic basis, however, because I don't have time to do two or three informational interviews a day."
This is not to say that mass mailings or requests for informational interviews are wasted on large companies. "All it takes is one interview that clicks," comments Chrysler's John Stone. "I don't think most employers have time to do informational interviews, but for those that do, it can be a real asset for job seekers."
Try to structure your job hunt so it fits in with the hiring practices of the companies in which you're interested. If you're interested in larger companies, seeking informational inter views might not be quite as productive for you as other methods of networking. If you're looking at smaller companies, however, informational interviews can be a potential gold mine.
Informational interviews raise the question of which per son at a company is best suited to receive your resume. As you can see, when you send out a mass mailing to a small company, you want someone to read it that is in a position to hire you. The first place you might think of would be the personnel office. However, you also want someone to read your resume who would be interested in helping you network. As we discussed earlier, you are more likely to find this person if you address your letter to the head of the specific department in which you're interested.
Although it seems like companies would have a clear picture of how many employees they need and whether or not they're hiring anyone in the near future, the world is an uncertain place. Things change-employees come and go, corporate budgets rise and fell, consumer demand fluctuates and management strategies are constantly evolving. Just because a company has 30 employees in January and it's not interested in adding to its staff, that doesn't mean it won't suddenly need 50 in July.
The head of each department is aware of this. The personnel office is aware of this also, but they may have other priorities in January besides interviewing someone they may or may not need in July.
From a networking standpoint, a high level executive who works in the area of the company in which you're interested is most likely to take the time to speak to you. As you'll recall, many employers see it as a professional courtesy or a networking responsibility. A lot of people simply like to help younger people get started. Using Informational Interviews to Your Advantage
After you've obtained an informational interview, you need to figure out what it is that you're going to say. We'll get into all of the tough details of interviewing in the next chapter, such as how to answer difficult questions and how to interact with employers from the moment you walk in the door.
For now, it's sufficient to simply address the general framework of an informational interview, because it is less structured than the standard interview. Most interviews, whether standard or informational, are sort of give-and-take, with the interviewer telling you what the job involves and asking you what skills you possess.
A good interview is 50-50 because you need to know what an employer would expect of you and the employer needs to know what you're capable of doing. At this point, it may seem now that the only good interview is one that is over, but after we discuss interviewing techniques, you'll feel more confident about the whole process.
Informational interviews are less formal than regular interviews. For one thing, you know that the person who has agreed to speak to you has some interest in helping you climb further up the ladder. They must think you're qualified for the position you're seeking or they wouldn't take the time to talk to you. This makes it easier to jump into an informational interview. Going through informational interviews, in turn, will make it easier for you when you get to your real interviews.
When you go in for an informational interview, be prepared to talk about yourself. It may be as simple as organizing your thoughts before you meet with your contact and determining exactly what kind of position you would like.
Think about what you'd like to do in your job, whether it is advancing the cause an organization represents or learning all about buying network advertising time. You don't need an elaborate game plan for the rest of your life, but you should be prepared to say what it is you want to do and why you think you would be good in the position.
When you go to an informational interview, you should also have some questions prepared. I always hated this part because when I met someone new and talked to them about their job, I was absorbed in what they were saying. My mind, unfortunately, was like a blank slate (probably similar to the way your mind was operating during an eight o'clock class). When I was in this state of mind and the interviewer would ask if I had any questions, I could only think of things like: Is this carpet grey or more of a slate blue? Where's the bathroom? Why am I here?
You might try to develop a few intelligent questions before you go. For example, it's helpful to find out what people do all day. Ask the interviewer to describe a typical day for you. You might also ask them what qualities the interviewer is looking for in a job applicant or what kind of temperament it takes to do the job and do it well.
These may sound like mundane interview questions, but they have a real purpose. These questions can tell you a lot more about the job for which you're interviewing than can all of the elaborate explanations employers will give you in a "real" interview. In asking what people do in a typical day, you can see what the job is really like.
If an advertising executive says he meets with clients, talks on the phone a lot and meets with the copywriters and design people, you can see if this is the job for you. Maybe you hate detail work and it sounds like he takes care of a tremendous amount of administrative matters. Maybe you thought a person in his position spent a lot of time creating the ads. Or maybe he does exactly what you thought he did, and you're now more confident in your job search, ready to hone in on exactly the type of job he holds.
As the employer concludes your informational interview, try to leave with something specific that will help you, whether it is the name of a colleague at another company or some advice on how to improve your resume.
"Get an employer's reaction to your resume," suggests Harrison, "and ask where someone with your background would fit into their organization."'7 Can't Go Out Tonight-I've Got A Meeting''
The third major way to prospect and network is to join every organization you can think of that will advance your job search, whether it's your college alumni club, a professional association of people who work in the field in which you're interested or some kind of social organization, like a fraternity or sorority alumni group.
You need to examine the different types of organizations available to you, and determine which would be most useful for your job search. Professional associations will probably be the most useful, but alumni groups are a close second. If you don't know of any professional groups in your career field, you might call your college's career placement office and ask if they know of the names of these groups. You could also try a former professor, or you could look in the phone book under headings that apply to you.
Every career field has a professional association which members of the industry can join. As we mentioned before, members pay annual dues and are then eligible to attend meetings, seminars, workshops and any other activities put on by the group. Most groups have job banks, or at least informal networking get-togethers, where you can spread the word that you're looking for a job.
Professional associations usually have some kind of publication for their members. If there is a weekly publication, or even one that comes out once a month, check the classifieds in the back of the magazine. You're likely to find some good jobs or at least the names of some potential employers to add to your list of mass mailings.
College and university alumni groups are also a good resource. Many colleges have an established mentor or net working program which joins recent graduates with those who are already established in the field. These networks can be simple, with a mentor and a recent graduate meeting once and talking about the career field, or elaborate, with a mentor keeping in touch with a recent grad throughout the job hunt. Often, a specific school or field of study within a university will have its own job bank. If you graduated from the journalism school or from the engineering school, for example, you can check and see if there is something designed to help graduates find jobs.
If your alumni group doesn't have anything like this, but it gets together socially, try to attend one of their functions every once in a while. In addition to being a fine way to meet people your age with whom you have something in common, you can learn about job opportunities. You may find out about professional associations you've overlooked, or you could obtain the name of a reliable typesetter for your resume. All of these small things add up, and each piece of useful advice you receive helps you fine tune your job search.
Without going overboard, you could also join a group that has nothing to do with your job search at all, but is simply an area in which you're interested, such as a backpacking club, a book discussion group at a local bookstore or some kind of volunteer organization.
Clearly, if you join an organization which has nothing to do with job hunting, your focus would be different. First, you should only join a group you would usually enjoy being a part of and not one that you would drop out of the first minute you found a job. The purpose in joining some kind of social group is simply to meet as many new people as you can, because you never know who may be aware of a great job opportunity.
As you look for a job, you will soon realize how many other people are looking for jobs or know of jobs that are available. When you meet 25 new people through some kind of social or community group, it's likely that some of them will know of job openings somewhere.
Networking is a funny thing, because all it takes is meeting one person who knows of the perfect job for you. However, you can't predict where you will meet people who can help you in your job hunt, and some of the things you do won't lead you anywhere, except you may have met an interesting person.
Therefore, you should only join these kinds of groups if it's something you'd probably do anyway. Networking should become a way for you to get the most out of all of the activities you do, but it shouldn't become the driving force behind your social life!"A job Hunting Seminar-How, Uh, Fun"
Job hunting seminars and resume workshops can also be a good way to network and meet people. You can find all sorts of classes and helpful how-to sessions at local libraries, schools and civic associations. In addition, larger companies sometimes sponsor job fairs.
This may be exactly the type of thing you avoided while 135 you were in college, but it probably looks more appealing now. At this type of gathering, most of the people you meet will also be looking for jobs, but there are several reasons job hunting seminars can help you out.
First, you might learn something new, whether it's a catchy way to phrase something in your resume or cover letter, another resource for targeting local employers or a suggestion for improving your interviewing skills.
Second, there will be at least one employer or career counselor there. Someone with knowledge ofjob hunting will be conducting the seminar. Usually, job hunting sessions will include three or four local employers who speak on different aspects of the job hunt.
These are ideal candidates for your networking advances. These people wouldn't participate in this kind of seminar if they didn't find it enjoyable, or if their company wasn't looking for employees at some point. They are likely to be receptive to any networking overtures you might make.
You could simply introduce yourself and ask if you could send them your resume. You could ask if they know of any companies you should include in your job hunt. If the chemistry seems right, you could even ask if you could schedule an appointment to meet with them for five or ten minutes to discuss job hunting.
You can also meet other job seekers at these seminars. This will help you maintain your enthusiasm for the job hunt. It's easy to get discouraged when you look for a job, but when you meet successful, intelligent people who are also unemployed, it helps keep you going. You can start feeling like a lost soul when you're job hunting, and it's always good to commiserate with someone else who may either be confused or discouraged. We'll discuss this more in Chapter 8.
As you network your way to a great job, there are a few things to keep in mind. It's Up To You
First, networking can do wonders for your job search, but don't expect your professor's colleague or your roommate's dad to just give you a job. Some recent grads expect the people they meet through networking to magically figure out what they're looking for and then go find a range of jobs from which they can choose.
I would get so excited when a person I met through networking would offer to help me out. Two or three times, someone would offer to circulate my resume and make a few calls on my behalf. That would always amaze me, and the temptation was to sit back and let myself believe that this new found contact would do my job hunting for me.
However, you've got to look for a job because no one else is going to do it for you. When it comes down to it, none of the people who help you network care about your finding a job like you do. You're the person to whom it matters the most, and you’ve got to make sure that you're the person doing the most to find yourself a job.
Second, always follow up on all contacts. If your roommate's brother works at the bank in which you're interested or your cousin's girlfriend runs her own ad agency, get their names and numbers and call them up. Recent graduates often feel embarrassed about networking, but there's nothing wrong with meeting people and telling them you're looking for a job. It's all in how you do it.
You should also follow up on the names which potential employers give you. For example, if you meet with Sue Johnson at ABC Manufacturing and she refers you to Hugh Smith at Smith Brothers Contracting, schedule a meeting with Hugh Smith, even if it doesn't sound very promising.
You may think that Smith Brothers Contracting is too small or you may be afraid that Hugh Smith doesn't know Sue Johnson as well as she thinks he does. You can have all kinds of doubts as you carry out your job search. In fact, the longer you look for a job, the more you'll tend to doubt your choice of career field, your skills and even your ability to decide what you should eat for breakfast.
Don't let these doubts stop you though. Obtaining a name from a networking source may not seem that important, but you'll never know what you may get out of meeting with someone.
I remember when I dutifully went to speak to a woman who worked for a small public relations firm in New York. She was my roommate's boss' close friend. When I walked into the meeting, I didn't really expect much, because the informational interview had been hastily arranged and I wasn't even all that sure of what I was looking for.
When I walked out of the meeting, I had a job offer, albeit for a temporary three month position as an assistant account executive. I took the job, which, true to my new employer's word, became a permanent post, and I really enjoyed the time I spent working there.
Third, keep everyone who participates in your job hunt informed as to your activities, both in an initial thank you note and through phone calls over the next couple of months. Thank you notes are not only courteous, they are critical to making a good impression. Thank you notes, like cover letters, can be short and simple. And just as your cover letters basically followed a form letter format, so can your thank you notes.
For example, you might tell Sue Johnson you enjoyed meeting her and you appreciate her taking the time to talk to you about job opportunities. You might mention something specific she did for you, such as critique your resume or suggest a company for you to contact, like Smith Brothers Contracting. When you close your thank you note, tell her that you'll keep in touch and inform her when you get a job.
Then, when you do get a job, follow up on that promise. Write Sue Johnson and all of the other people you met with in the course of your job hunt and tell them who you'll be working for.
Keeping in touch with your networking contacts is a great way to stretch one five minute meeting into a professional relationship. If you meet with Sue Johnson in June and it goes well, you can contact her again in August if you're still looking for a job. You'll have solidified your relationship with her through the thank you note you wrote after your first meeting with her.
If you do call her in August, tell her you wanted to check back and see if she knew of any openings for which you'd be qualified. She may know of the perfect opportunity, but may not have thought of calling you.
As you pursue various leads, make sure that everyone who helps you knows what you're doing. Ifyou keep the people you network with informed as to your progress, they'll be more likely to give you additional names and to take a greater interest in your job hunt.
As you can see, if you network, you'll quickly develop an ever expanding web of contacts. Not only will this make your job search more interesting and more successful, it will make you appreciate your well-organized home office. (Did I just hear you laugh?)
If you've set up your home office, you probably have a Rolodex™, which is the office version of an address book. A good Rolodex™ is a big part of a successful job search. A Rolodex™ is a metal holder which has around three hundred pieces of paper that look like index cards. The cards can be removed and inserted behind permanent cards which each can a different letter of the alphabet. You should put the name, ride, address and phone number of every person you meet on a card in your Rolodex™ and file the cards in alphabetical order.
Clearly, not every person you meet is going to be helpful. But many of the people you meet will be, and it's good to have 10 to 15 people in your Rolodex™ who you can call periodically to see if they either have a job or know of a job. That may sound like a lot of contacts for someone who just graduated from college, but as you send out mass mailings and network, you will be amazed at the number of people you meet. Keeping track of these people, whether in a Rolodex™ or in a notebook, is a crucial part of networking.
If you'll make the effort to become a successful networker, you'll end up finding a lot more than just a job. You'll learn more about the working world in general and you'll develop a web of professional contacts that will help you move up in your career.
Launching Your Great Enterprise
From Small Opportunities
1. Identify any contacts you may already have. You might start by making two lists. Your first list will consist of people you know would be willing to help you, but who may not be connected with your chosen career field. The second list will consist of people you know are connected with your chosen career field, but who may not be willing to help you.
On the first list, write down the names of anyone you would truly feel comfortable asking for help with your job search. You might end up with the names of two or three professors, the parents of a close friend, an old high school teacher and your aunt who lives in another state.
On the second list, write down the names of anyone you can think of in your chosen career field. If you want a job in sales, you might end up with the names of a former neighbor, your friend's sister's husband, a local person who has made it big, and the brother of a person who went to your college or university.
Both of these lists can be useful after you narrow down which of these people would be willing to speak to you. Give yourself two or three days to decide who you will call and what you will say to them.
You can probably take an informal approach with those on your first list. You could simply call or write, tell them you're looking for a job and ask them if they know of anyone you could contact. You should probably take a more formal approach with those on the second list, sending them your resume and a brief letter and asking if they'll meet with you for a few minutes to discuss the field.
2. Follow up on the mass mailings you've sent out. Give yourself a week to call all of the people on your list. Make four or five calls a day. Inquire about the status of your resume and try to set up at least two or three informational interviews,
3. Locate three groups you can join, whether your college alumni group, a social organization with which you have ties from college or a professional association. Ask members of these groups if they know of any other organizations which can help you with your job hunt.
4. Find out about two or three job hunters' seminars.
Check with your local library, call the chamber of commerce or inquire with someone from a professional association.
5. Remember that networking can be a slow but ever growing process. Keep at it, but don't neglect sending out new letters and responding to new ads. Networking could be a 24-hour-a-day job if you let it be, but remember that you need to keep up with other parts of your job hunt.
6. Once you get your networking under control, you're ready to start thinking about your interviewing strategies. To become more comfortable with the interview process, start reading Chapter 6.
