MORE Networking Tips for Job Hunters

Adding to earlier post on tips for job hunters, here are 3 more that came from questions asked by participants in our free teleseminar for women in transition.

Connecting and Reconnecting

I would like to network with contacts from my previous career in sales. I have not been in sales for approximately three years. What should I do?

Go ahead, pick up the phone, find them in LinkedIn (or other social networking sites), dust off their email addresses. Develop your Courageous Ask™ and go to it. Most people are happy to be in touch with old colleagues because they recognize that it builds a bank of good will they can count on later. Do your homework before you reconnect… find out what their company has been up to, have something interesting to tell them about what you’ve been up to, if something in the news reminded you of them, use that as an entre. Try to make the reconnect as personal as possible.

What do you do when you feel you have tapped out your network and have no more leads to follow?

Create new ones – volunteer, get active in industry-related or professional associations. Cycle back to your existing network with a different request. Reach out online. Contribute to professional/industry discussion groups. Find a need and meet it.

Asking For Help

I have a hard time asking for peoples’ time. I have a ton of contacts, but I am embarrassed to ask for their help since I am laid-off.

Don’t ask for their time, approach them with a very specific “ask.” The more specific the better. For example, “I’d love to talk with someone in HR at company x, do you know anyone?” is a much better Courageous Ask than, “Could you spend some time with me?”

A Courageous Ask™ is straightforward request for assistance with goal achievement. A Courageous Ask is made from a position of strength and competence, not from a position of weakness and neediness. It’s clear, explicit, overt, direct and made without apology. It is easiest to say “yes” to if there’s a win for the other person. The win may be in the near term, in the past or in the future (bank of good will). Remember, networking is always about the give and the get. If you’re always asking and never offering, you will dry up your bank of good will very quickly!

Network ON!
By Susan Colantuono