In today's economy, job seekers need an edge beyond their experience, education and specific industry and job-related skills, in order to find and secure a position. Regardless if you are looking for an opportunity as CEO, IT Manager or Customer Service Representative, you need effective tools to compete within a market that is job-poor and candidate rich. Hundreds of articles and seminars have been offered describing the value of networking as being the most effective tool for finding your next position. Networking isn't new, we all network to some extent to find a new doctor, meet new people socially, to expand business contacts and many other aspects of our everyday life. The question is – can networking really help you find a job?
When I think about my years of work, my experience networking began without really understanding that I had begun to use networking as a tool. My current job with Nextrio did come about because of networking. I was looking for a job and I knew the owners of Nextrio and called them to see if they knew of anyone that who would benefit from my skills. Their answer was that they needed someone with my skills and created a position for me. Wow, did that ever blow me away. That doesn't always happen that way, but I am certainly glad it did for me. Think about the people that you know. Your contacts may be friends, neighbors, local business owners and people you meet everyday. Networking is all about building contacts that are well connected in the business world, who understand the power of personal referral and who are willing to help and provide additional contacts. The challenge is to reach people that understand networking and how it works.
Use your business contacts wisely and treat them with respect. Offer them advice, referrals, articles of interest and information that might be helpful to them personally or to their business. By doing so you will build and retain life-long viable business contacts. It is so important to give something back and develop a relationship that complemented both yourself and your contact.
Use your business contacts wisely and treat them with respect. Offer them advice, referrals, articles of interest and information that might be helpful to them personally or to their business. By doing so you will build and retain life-long viable business contacts. It is so important to give something back and develop a relationship that complemented both yourself and your contact.
Sometimes you will need to educate your contacts about the types of companies that you want to reach and how these people can help you uncover potential opportunities. Seeking out individuals who are well connected in the business world, open to talking about themselves, their companies, giving advice and directing you to other business people, are the primary targets for your network. Even though every person you talk to may not be able to help you right away, they may be an excellent contact later on, or they may refer you to well connected business people.
If you are networking effectively, you will find opportunities that you otherwise may never have found. Networking will not only help in a job search and with business, but it will add significant value and tools you will use in your everyday life. Do yourself a favor – start learning about networking and how you can apply it to your job search, business initiative or unique requirements.
