Job Hunting Tips Part 2: Networking and Social Networking

In a previous post, I asserted that there’s a lot of work out there, albeit contract and short- or part-time. But how do you find all that work? Well, I’ll tell you where I *haven’t* found it: on job bulletin boards (Monster.com), aggregators (indeed.com) although I really like indeed.com, bulletin boards (craigslist.org), or employer-specific online career postings. My first job out of college was doing placements with a temporary help agency, and one of my responsibilities was to create and place the weekly job ads. They were all figments of my imagination. They were designed to create a stream of applicants that we felt rounded out our candidate pool, so when a job opening did come in, we could say, “Sure! We have somebody you can interview tomorrow.” I am sure SOME of the openings today are real. After all, the internet provides an immediacy that didn’t exist back in 19**. I’ve answered some of them. I’m just not going to *rely* on them for my next gig.

So what do you rely on? This will be no surprise:  Your network. And social networking. In tandem. I hope you have already started networking. Like, X years ago, X being in high school or earlier. And while networking *can* mean keeping the contact information of colleagues you trust and admire, and it *can* mean occasionally lifting a beverage with people in your network, actually nurturing your network means doing things for others in your network whenever it’s conceivably possible, in advance of when you might need them.

In his book Never Eat Alone, Keith Ferrazzi points out that your network is working optimally when you have laid the groundwork in advance. Then, when you need an introduction, a recommendation, advice, or even venture capital, your network will be primed to support you. This may seem a little calculating. But you can’t approach it from a perspective of “I’ll help Fred so later he’ll owe me one.” Instead, I get a lot of joy knowing I may have helped someone, and it’s almost always turned out to be a surprise later on when they are able to help me, often indirectly. I hope that when you enter the job market, it’s with the knowledge that you’ve been able to help others. The mythical Karma train *does* come back around. I don’t want to belabor this as there are many better sources for networking than me. I’ll just say that I have been surprised (and delighted) many times by the crazy ways the network helps. I had a gig that I got by chatting with the girlfriend of my boyfriend’s second ex. We had referred some work to the second ex. xoxoxo, Karma!

But you already surely know about networking. How can networking work with social networking? I have played with Twitter, FaceBook, and LinkedIn. There are many others, but these three do it for me.

Twitter: I’m not sure it’s a good idea to mix business and pleasure on twitter. That’s because, if you want people to follow you, they need to know what they’re getting. Are they following somebody who knows a lot about UA or somebody who likes to cook and go to restaurants? It’s confusing if they’re interested in one but seeing tweets on both. Since I’m not the type to tweet (or even blog very often) about UA, it’s pretty much a toy for me, and I enjoy following people. On to the more useful ones!

Facebook: My FB friends are from HS, even elementary school, college, sorority, almost all former employers, current employers, and even friends of FB friends who I’ve friended via comments. Some of these folks are very helpful networkers, so when I’m looking for a gig, or for someone to fill a gig I don’t want, I post it as my status. I make sure it stays there for about 24 hours, and then I change it up. You never know when your friend who’s in the insurance business will need something edited. Also, they’re your friends; they should know if you’re lookin’ for work. OTOH, this is not the source of the real pay dirt.

LinkedIn can connect you with any target company you want. You just need an appropriately constructed network. Again, don’t wait til you need it to get started. I’m sure there are excellent competitors to LinkedIn. I just found LI first. Your reach with LI is based on your own personal collection of contacts. If everyone you are linkedin to is from one sector or company (such as infosec) guess what? You aren’t going to have great contacts in telco, for example. I *could* be directly linkedin to 50% or more of the colleagues from one particular former employer, but I quit seeking links after about the first 70, because at that point, I knew I could contact anybody I wanted via my existing links. I realized that I needed to link to people who were in completely different businesses and industries: consulting, telco, manufacturing, etc. because that is how you extend your personal reach into a vast number of companies. Also, link in to people from your HS (if local) and college. More reach.

There are tomes of “how-to” use linked in info, but I’ve yammered on long enough, so I’ll tell you the most important way it’s helped me. I read publications like Atlanta Business Chronicle and e-newsletters like TAG and any industry-specific pubs of industries I’m interested in. When I see articles about a company that’s got great revenue news or is in the press for whatever reason, I search on linkedin to see who in my network knows somebody at that company. I ask the person in my network for an intro, which includes the text of the email I would be sending their friend. In the email to their friend, I do NOT say I’m looking for gigs. In fact I do this *all the time*, even when I’m not looking for gigs (see earlier bit about casting your bread). I simply mention that I’ve seen blah blah blah in publication X, found it and am interested in Period. Every time I’ve done this, I’ve gotten invited to link in to the person. Although it’s never directly resulted in a gig, I have been contacted by a new contact’s contacts. One note: once you get past a first-degree connection, you need to be very aware how little you know this person and the limitations they need to put on their recommendation of you. When that happens, I ask to do lunch and get to know them a little. After all, according to Keith Ferrazzi, you should never eat alone anyhow

* LinkedIn clearly states, and others I know believe, that you should never link in to anyone you don’t “know and trust”. That’s a valid stance, however, I think you can expand your reach to people you don’t know well and still maintain your integrity as a referrer by carefully defining your limited knowledge of the person, should you be asked for a connection, introduction, or reference.

Finally, as a little note, I do not advise using the sites where people can bid on gigs. I’ve heard folks on TV stating that’s a good way to get experience (maybe, if you have none) or a foot in the door, but these jobs have such bad pay rates, you’re better off spending that time on your network, or working at Starbucks. You’re only as good as your portfolio, and how good can samples be that somebody is only willing to pay $5/hr for?

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