Liz Ryan, Author at Job-Hunt

The Art of Job Search Networking

Liz Ryan — Fri, 21 May 2021 18:05:00 +0000

Networking is networking, right? It’s not – when you’re job-hunting, your networking task is a little different and a tad harder than the average networker’s. For starters, you’ve got to sustain a conversation beyond “What do you do?” “I’m job-hunting.” “Oh.”

Job-hunters take a lot of flack on their networking prowess, usually for one of these reasons:

They don’t network until they need a job.
When they network, they immediately ask for job-search help.
They request introductions from people they’re meeting for the first time.

If you’re in the thick of a job search and you haven’t spent much time or attention on your network so far, the first of these problems may be unavoidable. But you can easily avoid the other two common job-seeking-networker problems by following a few simple job-search networking rules.

Rule Number One: It’s Not All About You

A common and understandable belief about job-seeking networkers is this: of course I want to talk about my job search, at every chance I get. I need a job! Surely people can understand that this is a critical priority in my life. Excuse me if I can’t get excited about your new product launch or your daughter’s kindergarten graduation. I’ve got to get a job, and my need trumps all other conversational topics!

The fact is that networking never works when it’s me-focused. Needing a job is a tough spot to be in, but virtually every networker you meet has an obstacle of one kind or another in his path. One person is an entrepreneur desperately in need of business. Another businessperson is stressing mightily about a website project spinning out of control. In other words, we all have our problems. The fact that you’re job-hunting doesn’t diminish the importance of everyone else’s issues.

A good networker listens as much as s/he talks. When you meet someone new, ask him or her a lot of questions – and pay attention to the answers. Have the conversation you’d have if you weren’t job-hunting. When the person turns the tables and asks “What do you do?,” you can say “I’m a marketing – I’m on the job market now.” Since you’ve invested ten or twenty minutes in the conversation, your new acquaintance is very likely to ask you for more information about your job search. Now, you’ve earned the right to tell your story.

Rule Number Two: Don’t Treat People as Conduits to Their More Important Friends

If you meet a person who mentions that he or she used to work at XYZ Corp, it’s the height of rudeness to ask “Gee, could you introduce me to someone in Human Resources at that company?” With that request, you commit two very big sins. First, you convey that you have no problem asking a brand-new acquaintance a favor. That’s impolite. You wouldn’t like it if a person, after three minutes of conversation, asked you for ten dollars for parking. And contacts, introductions that trade on long-term relationships, are more valuable than money.

The second offense is asking a person to vouch for you, who barely knows you. Instead of asking a new acquaintance for an introduction, ask for five minutes on the phone when your new contact has time. In that phone call, you may cultivate a relationship that allows your networking buddy to make an introduction for you. Let’s hope that happens! If it doesn’t, you can’t ask – without being branded a me-first networker.

Even if you haven’t cultivated your network pre-job-search, you can network effectively in a way that moves your job search along. It just takes some patience, careful attention to the needs of people other than yourself, and the willingness to follow up with the new contacts you make. As you make those follow-up phone calls and send your day-after-the-networking-event email messages, you’ll naturally offer to help your new contacts as readily as you’ll ask for help yourself. After all, everyone can use help of one kind or another; and everyone has some help to offer.

Don’t assume that because you’re on the job market, you’re stuck on the receiving end of the networking-assistance equation.

About the author…

Liz Ryan is Job-Hunt’s Networking Contributor. Liz is a former Fortune 500 VP and 25-year veteran of corporate human resources departments. In addition, Liz is the author of Happy About Online Networking and an internationally recognized expert on careers and the 21st century workplace. Find Liz on LinkedIn.

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The Online Job Search Myth

Liz Ryan — Tue, 11 May 2021 17:14:47 +0000

The myth of online job searching is that the speed and ease of sending off a resume – or of posting an open position, for that matter – makes the overall online job-posting and job-hunting process painless. Would that it were so.

What Doesn’t Work as Expected
Ten years ago, online job searching was all the rage. It still is – in terms of the hours job-seekers spend sending resumes to employers via Monster, CareerBuilder, HotJobs and the other mega career sites. But something significant has changed.

Job-seekers have figured out that in many cases, your chance of getting a job by zipping off a bunch of resumes online is about the same as your chance of being recruited for Major League Baseball. Recruiters have figured out that the time and expense of screening hundreds of resumes makes the big job websites far less appealing than they might be. Both job-seekers and recruiters are looking for alternatives, and they’re finding them.

In fact, job-seekers can waste countless hours carefully composing cover letters to send in response to jobs posted online, only to finally deduce the truth: most resumes sent electronically via career sites never get read. How could they be read? Corporate recruiters can’t keep up with the volume of resumes they receive.

The process of sending off a resume, so easy on the job-seeker side, makes the recruiter’s task all the more difficult.

Thus job websites have the unintended effect of depressing job-seekers’ spirits by making them feel that even sending 100 resumes out into cyberspace won’t net them a single response. And often, it doesn’t.

There’s a reason why humble craigslist.org is taking business away from the larger job websites – Craigslist is locally focused. It’s not so easy forjob-seekers on other continents to browse craigslist job ads in your city and apply for them. They can do it, but why would they take the time? Craigslist continues to gain popularity with job-seekers and with recruiters because of its narrow geographical focus.

You can’t beat online tools when you’re in a research mode. Many of us, me included, don’t know how we ever got through a business day without Google. In this way, the Monsters and other large job sites are great research tools, because they let you know who’s hiring, and for which positions. They’re not job-seeking tools.

Better Alternatives

Beyond that, there are better ways to reach out to an employer, and email, phone and surface mail letters are three of them. Using your network – a friend or colleague who can make an introduction – is an even stronger way to have your resume presented.

LinkedIn Jobs is another entrant in the new-millennium online job search sweepstakes, and its appeal is pretty easy to understand as well. LinkedIn jobs allows employers to post jobs connected to their own LinkedIn profiles and in relevant LinkedIn Groups.

That way, job seekers aren’t responding to a faceless “talent@xyzcorp” email address, but responding to an actual human being who is actually connected via LinkedIn connections to another person they know. That doesn’t guarantee that a job-seeker will get a response from a hiring company, but it sure ups the odds of that happening.

And, a recruiter or hiring manager can instantly view a candidate’s LinkedIn profile to learn not only about his or her professional accomplishments and history, but to see how and through whom the job-seeker and the recruiter are connected. That’s a powerful advantage.

LinkedIn Jobs is a kind of missing link between networking and traditional job-seeking, and a good place to job-hunters to visit in their search.

What Does Work

For job-seekers who truly can’t let go of their Monster, CareerBuilder, and HotJobs addictions, here’s what I recommend. Go ahead and browse those career sites, identifying jobs you’re interested in and bookmarking them, or cutting and pasting the information to another document for easy retrieval later.

Find jobs on those websites, but don’t apply for them there. That’s the online job search trap – the abyss, the black hole. That’s the place where job-seekers send resumes to decompose in cyberspace.

Instead, go to LinkedIn, and go to your own on- and off-line networks to get a different contact inside the hiring company. If you can’t find a live contact, go to the employer’s own website and apply for the job there – far better, in terms of your odds of having a resume reviewed, than applying for the same job on a huge career site.

Bottom Line

Those big job sites let you know what’s going on in your job marketplace, but they can sap your mental and physical energy, too. Don’t put all your eggs – or even very many of them – in the online job-search basket.

About the author…

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When Introductions Fail

Liz Ryan — Tue, 11 May 2021 17:14:47 +0000

Introductions are the oxygen that fuels networking; where would we be without them? If each of us had networks composed solely of the people we’d met on our own, our networks wouldn’t be nearly as large or as fertile as they are.

It’s the introduction from one trusted colleague to another that makes our networking engines go. And every so often, as with other engines and other types of fuel, an introduction blows up in our face.

Poor Performance

It could be like this: you introduce a new acquaintance to an old friend. Your new acquaintance (Jason) calls you to report on the pair’s first meeting. “It was a short meeting,” says Jason. “Your friend Jane must have been busy. She arrived to the lunch spot a bit late and we didn’t have a lot of time to talk.”

“How late?” you ask, feeling concerned and disappointed, and Jason replies, “Er, well, I guess about half an hour late.”

“Oh dear,” you say, “that’s not like Jane, at all.”

“The lunch spot itself was unfortunate,” continues Jason, “because it must be near Jane’s office. Several times during lunch she saw people she recognized in the restaurant, and our conversation was interrupted so that she could greet them.”

Jason’s story is getting worse and worse. “At one point she went to another table and sat down, so it must have been very important.”

You’re thinking, what the heck? Followed by Jane, what got into you that day?

“I’m terribly sorry,” you say. “That is very disappointing. I have never known Jane to handle a networking lunch that way.”

You get off the phone and check in with Jane. Politely but with hard-to-conceal annoyance you ask, “So Jane, how was your lunch with Jason?”

“Oh dear,” replies Jane, “That wasn’t my best lunch ever. I was late and distracted. I guess I owe you one.”

It happens – networking lunches, coffees, and breakfasts don’t always turn out beautifully.

The person (you in this case) who made the introduction needs to know when that happens. That way, you can inquire and find out what went wrong. Sometimes, an otherwise on-the-ball friend like Jane can drop the ball and dismay an eager networker with a less-than-sensational first meeting. Jane said “I owe you one” but I’d think seriously about taking her off my you-must-meet-So-and-So list.

Once bitten, twice shy is a sensible networking rule. Everyone has off days, but a networker who’ll miss half a lunch and then desert a table-mate for another party has a different understanding of networking than most of us do.

Missing in Action

Sometimes, you’ve made an introduction that says “George, I would love for you to meet my friend Mickey.” George gets the message, as far as you know. You see Mickey’s follow-up message saying “George, so glad to meet you. Let’s schedule lunch or coffee when you are free.” There’s only one problem – George is AWOL. Mickey’s message goes unanswered.

It’s appropriate to pick up the phone and give George a nudge, and if that doesn’t work, to call Mickey to apologize. Your you-must-meet-So-and-So list is a vital networking asset. On the one hand, you don’t want to sic every new acquaintance on your list of friends and overwhelm them. On the other hand, if you trust your friends to close the loop on introductions you’ve made, they should do it, or share the reason they can’t.

As the introducer, you’re the pivotal person in the mix. It’s your job to follow up and see what happened, and to adjust your ‘list settings’ for the future if it’s warranted.

Bad Long-Term Relationship

Introductions can disappoint another way: you can make an introduction, and your two connections can meet one another. That first meeting goes well, you hear, and another one is scheduled. You’re out of the connection loop at that point – but later, you hear that one party let the other one down in some way.

So late in the game, you’re off the hook, although it behooves you to investigate and see what fell through the cracks. Introductions are serious business, and at times can create headaches for the kind introducer as well as the two people who are meeting for the first time.

Bottom Line

It’s smart to follow up on the introductions you make, and to patch up any holes that develop in the fabric of your network. In the long run, your network and its responsiveness are elements of your own brand. Like your reputation and your logo, you’re wise to take it seriously.

About the author…

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“So, What Do You Do?”

Liz Ryan — Tue, 11 May 2021 17:14:47 +0000

When you meet a new person, what will you say? It won’t do to fumble as you describe what you’ve done and what you’re looking for. When you get to the point in the conversation where a new acquaintance asks you, “What do you do?” you’ve got to be ready.

“I’m job hunting”? No!

In my experience, the best answer to “What do you do?” is never “I’m job-hunting.” That’s a conversation-killer.

The only possible response to the question is another question, namely, “What sort of job are you looking for?” and seldom is a new acquaintance excited about asking that question of someone they’ve just met. The sad fact is that far too many job-seeking networkers use their networking conversations as thinly veiled pleas for job-search assistance, and that’s no more appropriate than for a networker to meet you and immediately try to sell you a time-share in a ski-in/ski-out condo. That’s not networking, it’s selling.

So you’ve got to come up with a different answer to the question, “What do you do?” You can say “I’m a marketer,” and talk about your marketing background. In fact, you ARE a marketer; it’s a fine point that you happen to be between jobs now. If your new acquaintance is a contract recruiter who just finished an assignment and is waiting for the next one, you wouldn’t expect her to say “Well, I was a contract recruiter up until last week, but I don’t have a new assignment yet.” The lady is still a contract recruiter! That’s what she does for a living. She happens to be between assignments. It happens all the time. It doesn’t change her professional status or, more importantly, her view of herself.

As a job-seeking networking, you need to practice cultivating the same self-view as that temporarily idle contract recruiter. When someone asks “What do you do?” you can say “I’m an IT Director.” You can talk about some of the things you’ve seen and done in IT and have a lively conversation about that. Yes – you happen to be job-hunting right now. But that it’s the be-all and end-all message about you. It would be a shame, and very unfortunate networking to boot, to throw the I-need-a-job message on the table in the first three minutes.

A better response

So, you can start with this exercise. Ask a friend to practice-network with you, and get used to answering the inevitable question “What do you do?” without mentioning your job search. You’ll find that it will get easier and easier over time to chat on about this and that. You are not looking for your new contact to interview you for the details of your job-search specs, for one thing. You are looking to start a relationship. You might talk about anything – cars, kids, dogs, violin concerti, you name it – and see where the conversation leads. If it leads to the kind of budding relationship where your new acquaintance says “Would you like to have coffee next week?” you won’t care that the job search topic didn’t come up. You’ve got something more valuable – a new associate to brainstorm with – as you leave the event.

Now, let’s go in the opposite direction – let’s say that your new pal asks you “Where are you working now?” It’s absolutely fine, of course, to say “I was with IBM until October, when they had that big reduction in staff.” Then, it would be natural for your new friend to ask “What sorts of things are you looking at?” If this happens, it’s very good to be able to talk about specific companies that you are targeting. That way, if your acquaintance knows someone at one of those employers, he or she is highly likely to say “Oh, I have a good friend there!” It’s less helpful for you to say “Know anyone who’s hiring?” Your friends have friends of their own, but they don’t usually know which ones are hiring!

Anyway, your best bet in job-search networking is not necessarily to target companies that are hiring. It’s astonishing how many positions are never posted or opened to the public. When companies spot smart and capable people, they’ll often create a position on the fly. That’s a great situation for a job-hunter to be in. But you won’t get there by opening a conversation with “I’m unemployed.”

Who you really are

Get used to describing yourself as your friends see you – as a talented professional who’s in transition at the moment. Your job search, so daunting and overwhelming at the moment, will end up a minor blip on your resume, or vanish into your past entirely. You’re a job-seeker for a minute, relatively speaking: you’re an IT Director, a Marketing pro or a Jack-or-Jill-of-all-trades for a long time. That’s the way to introduce yourself to people who haven’t had the chance to see you in action, yet.

Don’t forget these tools

If you’re going to start networking in your job search or if you’re already doing it, you’re going to need some tools! For starters, you’ll need a LinkedIn profile, so that after you meet a new person in your job search, that person can look you up on LinkedIn and learn more about you. You can get a free LinkedIn account at www.linkedin.com.

After that, I recommend that you purchase some job-search business cards to hand out at networking events and to give to your friends. Your job-search business card should include your contact info, a brief mention of the kind of job you’re seeking and a few bullet points that share the highlights of your background.

About the author…

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10 Success Tips for Reluctant Networkers

Liz Ryan — Tue, 11 May 2021 17:14:47 +0000

If you hate face-to-face networking, you’re not alone.

If the top-of-the-list most-feared activity is speaking in front of people, how can launching a conversation with a stranger be far behind?

I used to hate networking events, myself. I simply wouldn’t go to them.

Eventually, someone dragged me to an event where lo and behold, I met a woman who became a great friend.

After that, things got a little easier — but I’m still judicious about the events I choose to attend.

Networking with strangers can be lively and fun, or it can be a shoot-me-now experience. Here are some tips for easing the strain.

1. Choose wisely.

If you’re thinking of attending a face-to-face networking event and you’re nervous about it, pick an event with content — a speaker or a panel. That way, you won’t be forced to spend several hours networking without a net.

If you aren’t a natural networker, you can prefer to attend events that feature structured networking of some kind. Structured networking activities organize the conversation so that attendees don’t have to find their own conversation-mates and begin and end conversations organically — the event host sets up a networking activity that makes the conversation less stressful.

2. Bring a friend.

If you don’t enjoy conversation with people you don’t know, bring a friend (or two) to networking events with you. I perform this “service” for my friends all the time.

Bringing a reluctant networker to an event with me raises my fun-quotient for the evening, as well as my friend’s, because we can take a break and compare notes on the networking, the people and the food whenever we like.

For most of us, the least appealing networking situation is the one where we find ourselves in a room full of total strangers, who all seem to know and be cozy with one another. If you bring a friend with you, you’ll never be the only newbie in the room.

3. Plan ahead.

If you want to do some networking but don’t want to be overwhelmed, arrive when the networking portion of the event is halfway done. People will be chatting away, and you (and your friend) can join in a group conversation knowing that in twenty minutes, the speaker presentation will begin

There’s no rule that says that once you’ve paid your registration fee, you have to attend the whole event.

Make sure, of course, that you don’t walk into the room in the middle of a speaker presentation or otherwise disrupt the meeting. That’s one unfortunate way to be noticed!

4. Go for the wallflower.

For people who don’t like breaking into groups of avid talkers, my suggestion is to approach the most forlorn and lonely-looking person in the room, the person standing by him- or herself when you enter. That person may be a reluctant networker, too, and will undoubtedly be happy to have someone to talk to.

Don’t put pressure on yourself to have X number of conversations or to collect a certain quantity of business cards. Fewer, richer conversations are better than lots of quick and forgettable ones.

5. Interview.

Not sure how to start a conversation?

Think of your conversation-starter as a friendly, informal interview. “So, what brings you here this evening?” is a pleasant beginning.

Keep your focus on your conversation partner, and additional questions will easily spring to mind. “Are you originally from here?”

If you hate the dreaded “So, what do you do in your work?” you can spend half an hour learning about your acquaintance’s life history, interests outside of work, favorite places to travel, and so much more.

If a conversational spark develops, you can follow it wherever it leads. Don’t feel that you have to stick to business topics — they tend to be the most boring ones!

6. Don’t spit, start with your bumper sticker.

“Spitting” in conversation is shoving your elevator pitch in a person’s face — don’t do it!

Let your conversation-mate ask you questions about your business if he or she wants to.

A Bumper Sticker response is a good thing to have — it’s a one-liner that succinctly shares what you do without going into detail. For example: “I design and manage large product databases for consumer-packaged-goods companies” is a bumper sticker.

A self-description that takes 15 or 30 or 45 seconds is way too long, and unsuitable for one person to deliver to another person in the normal flow of human conversation.

For more elevator pitch tips, read How to Write an Impressive Elevator Pitch (with Examples).

7. Ask questions.

In the same vein as interviewing (tip 5) our new acquaintances, asking them questions about themselves and their interests is a great way to learn new things and to build rapport.

If you don’t know a thing about metallurgy, don’t be afraid to ask “stupid” questions of the metallurgist standing next to you at the canape bar. People are normally happy to share what they know.

Asking questions of new acquaintances is my hands-down favorite way to get to know them.

For example —

“I’m afraid I don’t know a thing about [your profession] – can you tell me how it works?”

That question is a great all-purpose question when you’re out of your depth.

8. Wrap up.

Always end a conversation by thanking a person for his or her time, and expressing your admiration for the person.

“I’m so glad I got to meet you – it’s been lovely to learn about you!” is a pleasant way to part.

If you feel like asking for a business card, by all means do it, but don’t ask for it if you plan to throw it away the minute you get a chance. Use the card for follow-up after the meeting (seen #9 below).

Likewise, don’t offer your business card to everyone you meet, just because it’s a networking meeting.

If you seek further interaction, ask “Do you ever like to have coffee, or lunch near [your general location]?” rather than making a specific invitation.

It is easy for a not-terribly-interested person to reply “My travel schedule makes it really difficult” thereby letting you know that you’re barking up the wrong networking tree.

9. Connect afterwards.

The day after a networking event, write to the people you most enjoyed meeting, and thank them for their sparkling conversation.

If you can manage it, send something of value along — the link to an article that’s relevant to your new friend’s interests, for example.

10. Thank the organizer (and, maybe, volunteer for next time).

It is rare, and very pleasant, for an event organizer to receive a thank-you note or two from attendees the day after an event. Be one of the polite folks who takes time to write and thank the host for his or her time and effort.

If you want to get better at networking, offer to volunteer as a Greeter at the organization’s next event. That should get you in the door for free, enable you to meet most everyone attending, and give you a good reason to talk with people!

Bottom Line

If you are uncomfortable “networking,” don’t spend much time and effort attending large meetings where you know no one. Focus on smaller groups and even one-on-one conversations (think, informational interviews as an alternative). Don’t completely avoid the big meetings, though. You will discover that the more face-to-face networking you do, the stronger your network will become and the more comfortable you will get with talking with people, even with strangers.

For more coping and, even, enjoying your next networking event, read 7 Strategies for Painlessly Building Your Network for some more great tips — DO’s to go with these DON’Ts.

More About Successful Networking

About the author…

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The Point of Networking – Connections to Conversions

Liz Ryan — Tue, 11 May 2021 17:14:47 +0000

In the job-search process, a very important concept is the principle of ‘conversion.’ No one ever got offered a job just by sending a resume to an employer. If they did, they’d be nervous about the company!

Key Conversion: Conversations to Interviews

The point of sending a resume to an employer is to convert the mild-or-strong interest on the employer’s part (while reading your resume and cover letter) into an invitation for a job interview.The point of a job interview, of course, is to convert the employer’s growing interest into a second interview or a job offer.

Conversion is an important principle in job-search networking, too. No one ever said to a new acquaintance at a networking event, “You know, I’m between jobs, and I’m looking for a marketing role” only to be told “I’d love to hire you! Can you start tomorrow?”

Networking won’t get you a job offer on the spot, but it may open the door to a fruitful conversation later on. If you begin to think of your job-search networking as a seed-planting exercise, you’ll notice that in our vegetable gardens and flower beds, not all seeds bear fruit.

You will start far more networking conversations during your job search than you will have job interviews. If you plan to talk to ten or twenty new (and old) networking associates for every job interview you get, you’ll have a realistic sense of how networking typically translates into later steps in the job-search process.

Cultivating Your Network

This concept of conversion is important for job-search networkers because, if you view every networking conversation or email interaction as a means to a specific end – namely, as a great way to get your resume into the hands of Person X at Company Y or to schedule a job interview – you’ll hurt your seed-planting efforts in a big way.

Think of it this way: if you planted a begonia seed in the ground, poured three months’ worth of fertilizer on it and drowned it with water, you’d most likely kill it.

Networking works in much the same way. All you want from a conversation with a new acquaintance is to create a tiny seedling of a relationship. You can kill the seedling by pushing it to grow too fast. Here’s an example.

“Hi, my name is Jane. What’s yours?”

“Oh, I’m Carlo. I’m job-hunting, specifically for a Logistics Management position. I’m focusing on high-tech and pharma companies. Do you have any ideas or leads for me?”

“Gosh, no, sorry, Carlo – but best of luck to you.”

Poor Jane was really set up in that conversation. She expected to enter into a pleasant three-to-ten-minute exchange, and found herself hit up for job-search advice and contacts in the first fifteen seconds. That’s too much weight to put on a barely-there relationship.

Networking Slowly and Effectively

It’s hard for job-seekers to remember and to do, but it’s critical to take your job-search networking slowly. Start by talking mostly about the other person – the one you’re meeting. It’s much more pleasant to be asked about yourself than to hear someone else’s pre-rehearsed spiel, especially when a request for help is tagged onto the end of it.

Your goal in this first conversation is to connect with Jane on a level other than “how Jane can help me.” That’s the point of job-search networking: to get people on your side – not because they’re blown away by your credentials, but because they like you.

Now let’s say you and Jane have spent ten minutes learning about one another. You know about Jane’s professional history and that she hails from Boston and which team she rooted for in the Super Bowl. You’ve shared with her that you’re from Tennessee originally and have roots in Italy and have a long history in Operations and Logistics. Now Jane has something to grab onto, as it were. “Say Carlo,” she says, “I don’t know if this will help, but have you spoken to Gus Jones at the Manufacturing Excellence Center at State U?” Gosh no, you say, I wasn’t aware of the Center or of Gus. “Well,” says Jane, “I’d be happy to make an introduction.”

So Jane makes an introduction – this is a great thing. You didn’t ask for an introduction – that’s even better! The point of good job-search networking is to create relationships that will flower in a million ways – taking into account that lots of your seeds will wither and die, too, in accordance with the laws of nature. The good news is that some of the seedlings that flower can be incredibly useful in getting you into your next job.

Bottom Line

But you have to let nature take its course. You can’t overburden a young networking conversation or a new relationship, as urgent as your job-search energy may be. Plant lots of seeds and let them flourish. And remember, people don’t make job-lead referrals because they’re dazzled by your resume – far from it. They do it because they want to help YOU. Don’t kill the bud – give it time to grow.

About the author…

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Networking in a Stealth Job Search

Liz Ryan — Tue, 11 May 2021 17:14:47 +0000

The perennial debate question is: Who has it tougher, an unemployed job seeker or one who’s working?

The unemployed person has time pressure on him or her to find a new job before savings are depleted.

But, at least the job search is out in the open.

However, if you are employed, you have some challenges to manage.

If you are employed, you’re embarking on a stealth job search. Your networking will be a bit different from the out-in-the-open job seeker’s approach.

The stealth job seeker has to keep his or her job search quiet, but at least the revenue stream is untouched.

[MORE: Using LinkedIn for a Stealth Job Search.]

Reaching Out

As a stealth job hunter, you can certainly reach out to trusted search people and to friends and colleagues you trust, letting them know that you’re seeking your next opportunity. It is essential to remind these folks that your job search is on the QT.

You don’t need word getting back to your current boss before you walk into his or her office to give notice.

You can attend networking events, and you should. However, it is not enough to say “Frankly, I’m trying to get out of my current job and find a new one.”

If you share that you are job hunting, be sure to follow up with a request that your interest in a new job MUST be kept confidential!

People will forget those details, and the next thing you know, your down-the-street neighbor will be calling you to say “So James! Why didn’t you tell me you were job-seeking?”

Keeping a Low Profile

It’s definitely NOT a great idea to share your job-search news with people you’re meeting for the first time.

If you feel that a particular person or two at a networking event is someone you’d like to know better, schedule a coffee, breakfast or lunch and share your job-search news then.

As a stealth job seeker, you can’t say a word about your job-search on LinkedIn or any other social networking site.

You can’t post your resume on a big careers site like Monster – don’t do it!

But, you can let your networks know about your job search, and you must. CAREFULLY!

I wouldn’t use electronic means like email to do it. There is too much risk of a stray email message getting to the wrong person.

It is time-consuming, but I recommend the phone or face-to-face catch-up meetings to spread your job-hunt news among your network.

Requesting Confidential Assistance

As you begin to go on interviews, you’ll rely on your network once more. You’ll reach out to them to ask them what they know about certain employers.

Every single time you speak to a friend or colleague about your job search, remind them of its confidential nature.

It is very, very easy for people to forget that the whole world isn’t supposed to know you’re looking.

You can, of course, reach out to target employers via phone, email or surface mail in your stealth job search.

I don’t recommend making overtures to target individuals via LinkedIn, unless you can guarantee that EVERY intermediate contact in the communication chain is a person you know well and trust. That isn’t usually the case with LinkedIn, so err on the side of caution and pick up the phone, or send an old-fashioned surface mail letter when you can’t be sure who sits between you and the person you seek to reach.

Potential Employers

As you move down the pipeline with a given employer, you’ll meet more and more people.

It’s not a bad idea to remind your prospective boss and the HR person in the mix that your job search is confidential, even if you mention it three or four times.

There is nothing you can do to prevent a prospective employer from asking its own employees, people who may have worked with you elsewhere or who have friends at your current organization, to report back on you. That’s a risk that job seekers unfortunately have to take.

Still, if your cubemate sidles up to you to say “So, my buddy Max called me to tell me you’re interviewing at XYZ Corp and to ask about you – what’s up?” be sure and thank Max for his (presumed!) kind words, and ask him to keep mum.

Tell him that if you get the job, you’ll take him out to dinner. Be sure you make good on that promise!

More about Stealth Job Search

Additional Information about Networking Plus Networking Resources:

More Information About Smart Job Search:

Online Job Search Guide

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Jump into Social Networking

Liz Ryan — Tue, 11 May 2021 17:14:47 +0000

You’ve heard about Twitter and Facebook, your friends are inviting you to join LinkedIn and other social networks, but perhaps you’re not sure. If you join an online networking community, will you be deluged with spam from strangers? Is it worth it to take the plunge?

The good news about joining these and other social networking sites is that for the most part, you’ll only attract the attention of “community spammers” if you’re active in the network yourself.

As a newbie, you’re unlikely to get much “invitation spam” or other forms of unwelcome mail; these websites are sensitive to the complaints of spam-weary users, and have strict rules to prevent members from besieging one another with mail.

Let’s start with LinkedIn. For professional networking, this is the 800-lb. gorilla of social networking sites, with over 75 million users. For business-oriented networkers, LinkedIn is a powerful resource, because the focus of the site is enabling business connections. LinkedIn is not the place to find people to start a walking club with, but it’s a handy tool for job-seekers, recruiters, and entrepreneurs looking to make fruitful business connections.

The basic LinkedIn membership is free. You can be invited to join the site by a friend or colleage, or you can join up yourself in just a few minutes.

All it takes to get started on LinkedIn is a well-written profile that shares your work experience, educational background and other professional credentials. Once your profile is up and running, you’ll want to add some Connections on LinkedIn.

The easiest way to do that is to download the LinkedIn toolbar (also free) which will show you which of your Outlook, Gmail, or other email contacts are already using the site. With a few keystrokes, you can invite these folks to be your very first connections.

One note concerning LinkedIn protocol: even if you’re sending invitations to dear friends and close business associates, please write your own customized connect-to-me invitation: don’t use the dreadful boilerplate invitation, especially if you’re not sure your would-be Connection will immediately recognize your name.

Once you’re connected to a network on LinkedIn, you’ll find that your network can introduce you to other (un-connected to you) users, and you can likewise make introductions for your friends. LinkedIn’s handy Answers section allows members to poll the other LinkedIn users on business and “life” issues, and the LinkedIn Jobs function allows users to post jobs that only their own LinkedIn network members can view.

Facebook

LinkedIn is a must for business-focused social networkers, but Facebook is coming up fast behind it. First launched for college students, Facebook is a social network with a fun personality – one reason the 25-and-under crowd is on board in the millions.

Business networkers and older users are joining Facebook for its many useful or fun Applications, tools that allow users to leave another user a note, compare notes with other members ( e.g.: two members’ taste in movies) or share photos and videos with other users. It’s easy to see why Facebook is appealling: the site is much more interactive, lively and colorful than LinkedIn.

Facebook also makes it easy for users to get to one another before offically connecting (on Facebook, the term is “friending”) one another.

Twitter

Twitter is amazingly useful for making personal connections that can help you with your job search.

Twitter is a site that allows users to tell the world (and their own “followers”) what they’re up to, minute to minute, with the caveat that each update can’t use up more than 140 characters. Easy to write and quick to read – and an easy way to stay on top of your network’s comings and goings.

For much more about using Twitter as well as LinkedIn and Facebook for your job search, check out Job-Hunt’s Social Media & Job Search section.

Handling Unwelcome Invitations

Back to the spam issue – will you be beset with unwelcome invitations, if you join these sites? It can happen, but it’s not likely. If you receive an unwanted LinkedIn connection invitation, you can click the “I Don’t Know This Person” button to ensure that the user won’t knock on your virtual door again. Facebook also takes a dim view of users who use the “friending” functionality too freely. On either of these sites, users can report mis-use of the site.

It’s a new year – why not jump in?

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Personal Branding for Slash People

Liz Ryan — Tue, 11 May 2021 17:14:47 +0000

Are you a person with a slash? I’m not talking a sash, like the kind Miss America wears. I’m talking about the slash that more and more employed people use to describe themselves – as in “I’m a marketer slash technical writer” or “I’m an expert in Public Relations slash Marketing.”

The Slash People – Work Plus

The slash says “I do more than one thing.”

Some people use their slashes to describe their paid work without losing sight of their modestly-paid or wholly unpaid passion – “I’m a software engineer slash rock climbing guide,” for instance. Other people use slashes in their self-descriptions to share the breadth of their experience.

These days, working people are looking for more from their jobs than a paycheck and a dental plan. They want to be themselves. They want to have fun on the job. It’s not just Gen Y who is looking for balance – Baby Boomers and Gen Xers are after the very same thing. People talk about themselves using slash-type terminology to say “I’m a multi-faceted person.” They want to share more of themselves than “I’m a Cost Accountant.”

You hear a lot of slash talk at face-to-face networking events. I love to know more about people than the titles on their business cards, so I don’t mind. But I have three tips to keep slash-talkers out of trouble when they brand themselves as more complex than your average working Joe or Sally.

Managing Your Slash

Slashes are great, but it’s important that we know how to manage them.

1) Conservative slashing –

Be conservative in sharing your slash. It is fine to have compelling interests outside of work, but if you’re in a job-search, you’ll also need to reassure the people you meet that you are serious about your paid career.

Lots of marketers have blogs, so you wouldn’t say “I’m a marketer slash blogger” but you might say “I’m a marketer slash belly dancer.” Of course, you’ll want to be ready to describe both your marketing and your belly-dancing activities, and to explain how you manage your full-time marketing job around your belly-dancing schedule.

2) Beware of confusing people –

If you’re in job-search networking mode, the last thing you want to do is confuse people.

If you’re looking for an HR job, you might introduce yourself as Sally, who’s looking for an HR job, rather than as Sally, the HR person who plays the clarinet with the local symphony orchestra.

If you and your conversational partner turn to the subject of music, it’s wonderful to talk about your interests and have fun digging into common ground. I recommend it, as long as your new acquaintance is left with the thought “Such an interesting woman, that Sally; an HR ace who plays the clarinet, too” rather than “Sally, the clarinet player! She said she was job-seeking….I just can’t remember what her function is.”

3) Focus the conversation –

Another slash-related pitfall is the tendency to talk about two or three business activities, especially if you’re dividing your time between multiple projects for financial reasons.

If you attend a networking meeting and you’re seeking a Technical Recruiter job, you don’t also want to say “By the way, I am selling Tupperware to generate income during my job search. Would you be interested in learning more?” For one thing, you don’t want to turn the conversation away from your new acquaintance, and from you. You can sell Tupperware to your neighbors and friends – save your business networking time to meet people wearing your job-seeker hat, only.

Although there’s no shame in experiencing financial stress, it won’t help your job search networking to convey to people that you’re dividing your energies to make ends meet.

Stick to the Recruiter (or whatever) message, and save your Tupperware (or skincare, online travel-booking, or dog-walking) message for other venues.

Bottom Line

Remember what the experts say about branding: branding is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. If you can only leave a new contact with one item of significance, let the one item relate to your job-search, please.

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Is Your Eye on the Right Networking Prize?

Liz Ryan — Tue, 11 May 2021 17:14:47 +0000

This is one of the most important networking lessons to understand and integrate. Thrusting a handshake at a person we don’t know is the second-best way to meet that person. Being recommended by a person already credible to that individual is better.

Networking the Hard Way

I went to speak to a group of undergraduates, young people who’ll be graduating this Spring. One week after my visit, they were set to attend a town/gown networking event with a group of local businesspeople.

“This will be a great opportunity for you to make some contacts, and practice your networking skills,” I told them.

“I only hope,” said one of the students, “that the nametags the businesspeople will be wearing, are large. If I can read a nametag from across the room, then I’ll be able to quickly determine which businesspeople will be most deserving of my networking time.”

That observation backed me up – and shut me up for a moment.

“I wouldn’t worry too much about that,” I finally said. “Any businessperson who has taken time out of his or her schedule to come and network with you students is worthy of your time. Every one of those people will give you a useful tip or two, and perhaps some ideas or leads for your job search.”

“But,” said another student,”I want to spend my networking time with the most high-level executives in the room – not some lady with her own consulting business or something.” I gulped, seein’ as how that description fits me pretty much to a tee.

“Ah, there’s a misconception in your thinking, I fear,” I said. “You guys may believe that sidling up to the Fortune 500 exec is the most potent networking you can do. I wouldn’t be so sure.”

“Why not?” asked a student. “If we can get five minutes with an executive, what could be better from a networking perspective?”

Effective Networking

“Here’s what could be better,” I replied. “Rather than introducing yourself to a big-company executive who’ll meet fifty students this year and perhaps retain a memory of two of them, why not manage to be recommended to that same executive, or someone on his staff, by someone who can get that leader’s ear? Someone who has credibility with that person, something that you, at this moment, do not?

Wouldn’t you rather be recommended to Bill Gates by his best friend, who has become one of your biggest fans, than have three minutes of networking time with Bill directly?”

The students pondered that question. I guess you’re right, they finally said. It’s better to be recommended to a lofty person by a trusted colleague of his or hers, than to try to do the promotional work on your own, from left field.

So, how do we wend our way through the networking jungle, to the point where we’ll be introduced to people who can help us?

We do it by letting go of the silly notion that only certain, lofty so-and-sos are worthy of our networking time.
We do it by jumping at the chance to have lunch or coffee with any businessperson who extends a networking hand – and by keeping the reciprocity principle firmly in our minds.

Bottom Line

We grow our networks and our fan clubs by remembering that introductions are the fuel that allows networking to happen. We’ll never meet, under our own steam (and wouldn’t necessarily want to) every person who’ll be instrumental in our job search.

We rely on the goodwill of our new and old friends to make kind introductions for us, and to tell the people who haven’t already met us why we’re worthy of THEIR time and attention.

“I think I get it,” one student said to me as the workshop concluded. “I’ve had my eye on the wrong networking prize.” Smart young fellow, that!

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