Networking and Career Strategy – The Job Search Strategy
I recently read an article in the May 2008 Business Week that men are experiencing a harder time between jobs because they aren’t willing to take lower pay for a less socially desirable position. For example going from a $30 hour position to becoming a greeter at WalMart can cause considerable angst to most people
Also, the author of this article points out that according to some analysts, men might not be as good at the soft skills such as collaboration, sensitivity, etc., as women can be. By the way ladies, even supposing you are still employed, your pay is stagnant and you are in many cases in the low paying job the guy didn’t want to begin with. Nothing against the author as this is important news from both a personal financial perspective as well as the macro economic.
Unfortunately articles of this type many times don’t address the realities that we can’t depend upon the larger system to have a “tide lifts all boats” program in place. Therefore, how are we going to address the situation while we wait for the Presidential candidates or other public entities to take action?
One way is to acquire different skills and have different expectations of what those skills will deliver and when. The second way is to make sure you are marketing yourself correctly. It may be comforting to spend time with your friends who are unemployed, or under-employed, but is that course of action going to get you to where you need to be? Will the beer and pretzels help you connect with potential employers or business opportunities?
Resource: “The Slump: It’s a Guy Thing” by Peter Coy, Business Week, Monday, May 12, 2008
The Job Search Strategy. Step 1: Make Sure Recruiters Find You
The best way to show yourself off to potential employers, aside from face-to-face, is to link up with executive search firms (http://www.rileyguide.com/firms.html)
With the growing use of the Internet as a tool in the job search process, it is a good idea to have your resume ready for the online environment.
There are two reasons to have an electronic resume ready to submit. One, you can forward your resume to networking contacts or recruiting professionals through e-mail. And secondly, you can post your resume in many databases with the hope that employers or recruiters will look at it.
Online networking is also very important. You are out of touch in the online network world if you are not using one or more networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and any other number of social and business networking sites.
Compete.com (http://www.compete.com) recently released figures on the number of visitors to social networks. These figures show growth amongst the most popular to be over 100% to as much as several times more than that. In other words if you are serious about being connected or you must be online.
Most recruiters, particularly new ones, are faced with building a group of potential hires and have embraced the strategy of creating a Facebook page and LinkedIn entries directed to a network of interested job seekers.
Large organizations that look to recruit college and B school graduates will have numerous Facebook pages to communicate with potential candidates and provide them with information and contacts within that organization. Want to work for Microsoft, Apple, AT&T, etc? Get connected online via Facebook, blogs, etc.
Step II: The Action Plan
What to do:
- Look up past connections and firm up weak ones
- Build business relationships
- Find and meet prospective hiring managers or connectors
- Grow a referral network
- Market yourself if you own a business or are self employed
- Open doors to future career opportunities, increased pay, or promotions
- Increase visibility, which of course enhances your influence and effectiveness internally with your organization as well as externally
Social networking also helps you find new leads for networking into companies to:
- Educate yourself and ask questions about other organizations
- Conduct competitive intelligence on companies, industries, or individuals
- Make some cold calls to people or organizations you may want to work with and better prepare for them
Part III will cover some additional aspects of online networking. Who to use and why as well as other services beside LinkedIn and Facebook that can be utilized to build and grow your online presence.
The PCP – Plan Communicate Prosper newsletter covers career building tips, Life Management, and networking.
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