Networking is the best strategy to search for jobs and career opportunities.
People do business primarily with people they know and like.
- Resume and cover letters are too impersonal to convince someone to hire you.
Online job postings draw large pools of applicants.
- Comprehensive listing systems put you in competition with hundreds of others.
- Networking makes you a recommended candidate of a much smaller pool.
The job you are looking for may not be advertised at all.
- Networking leads to new information, leads, and the hidden job market.
Connecting with new people infuses opportunities into your life.
- Networking introduces directions you would not have otherwise discovered.
Identify Your Network
- You already have a network and it is more powerful than you think!
- Your inner circle may include your family, extended family and family friends, your friends’ parents, your neighbors, and former teachers and coaches. These ‘strong ties’ can lead to new ties to build your network.
- Your secondary circle includes those you could meet through people in your inner circle such as your sibling’s co-worker, your best friend’s boss, and your aunt’s business partner.
Begin Building
Scott Frost John Cook Tom Osborne Herky the Hawk Lil' Red Pres. Carter Ronnie Green Start reaching out by sending an email to people in your inner circle who may know something about the field you hope to enter. Ask for a meeting or phone call to learn from them about it and/or their employer. In such a meeting, called an informational interview, you will ask questions about the person’s professional life, their f ield, and people in it who they know and would be willing to refer you to.