This article is a continuation from our blog post with some networking essentials for you. Depending on the source you check, you’ll find that somewhere between 75% and 90% of jobs that are filled each month are NOT advertised anywhere; they’re filled through networking.
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In my last article as I discussed the importance of follow up, I briefly mentioned to follow up with relevant articles that would be of interest to them, but I didn’t explain how to find relevant articles to send. It’s much easier than you think.
At the time of this writing, I use a site called Feedly.com, but there are several sites that can do similar things and if feedly ever goes away, something similar will pop up I’m sure. It basically allows you to put in a topic, and then it will kick back a bunch of related articles relevant to the topic that would be great options to send to those networking contacts. It’s a free and easy solution to finding those articles.
Next, WHO do you network with? The reality is, you can’t know who has the connection you need until you connect with them.
Whenever I’m giving a seminar on networking and people are sharing ideas on who the best people to network with are, I’ll always ask if it’s fair to say that every single person in the room, even when there are 500+ people there, every single person in that room knows someone who is NOT in that room who the other people don’t know. Right? That someone they know, who you DON’T know, could be the connection your next job.
Have you ever seen that old movie Charlie and The Chocolate Factory? They put golden tickets into a handful of candy bars and whoever found them got into the chocolate factory. The only way to know which candy bars had the golden tickets was to open as many candy bars as they could.
It’s the same concept in networking, the only way you’ll find out who can be the bridge to your next opportunity is to get to know as many people as you can; open them up, talk to them, get to know them. You can’t prejudge anybody because you never know who is holding that golden ticket.
It could be the mail carrier, who else knows more people in your neighborhood than them? How about your pastor? They not only know the other members of the congregation, but they’ve dedicated their lives to helping people! They can help you! Your former teachers and professors, your extended family, your immediate family, they all know people whom you don’t know. Reach out to them.
Last but not least regarding networking strategies, stay focused on helping others first. As you help them, they will want to help you. How do you help job seekers? With leads. Where do you get leads? The same places you get leads for yourself, just hang on to the ones that don’t fit you, have them with you and share them. As you help others, they will help you.
Networking is obviously a critical part of any job search and there’s a lot more to be said about it, but there are some days when it’s harder to do than others, right? Have you ever woken up in the wrong mood for job search? Just one of those days when you definitely did not feel like networking that day? I think we’ve all been there, so in my next article, I’ll show you specifically how to make the most out of those bad days. I hope you’ll stop back to our blog next week to check that one out. If you’re not subscribed to our blog yet, subscribe today and stay up to date with each new article.
If this was helpful for you, please click Like and share this so the people in your network can find it. Networking for job seekers doesn’t have to be such a mystery. Once you learn the tactics of how to do it, you’ll be building your network faster than you think. You can do this. It’s time to get to work.
