You’re in mid-career and you’ve been told that networking is the best way to find a new job. If you’ve attended events where you are supposed to get up and tell others what you do and what you are looking for, you’ve probably felt uncomfortable and wondered whether that approach is really effective. It can be if the group is targeted at specific functional levels. This type of networking is something that you can do occasionally but it should not be where you spend most of your time networking.
From my experience of watching executives and managers who are most effective at networking and noting what it is they do that makes them effective, networking for employment is more straightforward and easier to do than most people think.
Networking for employment is NOT the same as networking for business. Networking for business is more akin to that described in the first paragraph where you are in a group focused on exchanging job information in a very short period of time.
Networking for employment is similar to how you go about developing social connections. In my coaching, I use the simple acronym IOU to keep my clients focused on their objectives when they’re in the three phases of networking. The three phases of IOU are:
- I – Initiate. Start by initiating a relationship. This is similar to making social connections. You meet someone and strike up a conversation so you can get to know them better. If you feel you’ve made a connection, mention that you are in transition and would like to talk to them more if they would be willing to meet. If they think you are genuinely interested in them and their opinions and you are not just trying to use them to find a job, they will generally agree to meet.
- O – Obtain. When you meet, you are looking to understand them better and their background so you know how they might be able to help you. It might be advice on how to connect with a particular company or transfer your skills from your industry to another one. It might be a referral to someone else they might know who made a similar transition as you are attempting or any other objective you need to accomplish.
- U – Use. If you’ve developed a relationship and you’ve met to learn more about them and you’ve successfully been able to get them to help, you can now use the information, referrals, or new knowledge to make decisions about a career path or to connect with someone who has the ability to hire you.
If you spend the majority of your networking time following the IOU three phases, you will meet others who will get to know you well enought that they will want to help you. They will be the ones who will leverage their connections by recommending you to your next employer.
The IOU will then remind you to thank all those who helped you through the IOU process.
I found that those who took their time and kept focused on their objectives during each of the three phases were far more successful than those who tried to speed up the process by trying to get to a referral without building the relationship first.
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Tags: career networking, Employment networking, job networking, job search, Networking
very nice and very practical