Hey It’s a New Year
There are two kinds of people in the world... those who make New Year’s Resolutions and those that don’t. One might argue that there are a third kind, people who makes resolutions on January 1st and break them January 2nd. Regardless of which group you fit into, the New Year is a wonderful time to take stock on your career and where you’re going.
Vince Lombardi was famous for beginning the first day of football camp with the statement: Gentlemen, this is a football. Each new season he focused his team on the basics. I suggest this is a good strategy for us, regardless of where we are in our career journey. If you find that you’re 35 years old and haven’t be able to move out of front line management, or you’re 55 years old and hit the ceiling with your company, or you’re 45 years old and you have been looking for work for more than six months, it’s a good time to go back to basics.
Revisit your goals. Some goals are longer term than first considered. If you want a new job or a promotion and you’ve been working towards that for three, four or five months, now is a good time to sit down and review the goal, evaluating your progress and what still needs to be done. Then get to work.
Who can help. Making a move in your career isn’t a solo act. The other thing to realize is that there are people in your life who are willing to help you. You only need to ask for their assistance. It’s been an axiom pronounced by Success Gurus that if you desire success, surround yourself with successful people. Associate with people who have achieved what you would like to achieve because these folks are often in a position to assist you. I’ve found that when people are in a position to help someone, they are hurt or offended if the person fails to ask for their help.
Make some phone calls. It’s a new year, you can call everyone you know just to say Happy New Year. While you’re at it, go ahead and ask them if they know of anybody who could use a person with your skills and abilities. You can ask them if they have any contacts at any of your target companies. When they say yes, thank them and then call the new contacts you were just referred to.
Meet and Network with a lot of people. You can schedule a face to face network meeting with anyone you call who lives or works locally. The more networking meetings you have with folks, the more opportunities you’ll have to meet decision makers... and decision makers are in a better position to offer you a new job or promotion. It’s the new year... make it a successful new year!
Job search coaches tell job seekers that they should start out with a list of 150 contacts and build from there. Oh the groans we hear. “Why so many?” “I don’t know that many people.” “What, are you nutz!” These are some frequent comments; so, let’s look at these objections.
Why so many? Simply that’s about how many it takes. Orville Pierson cites in his book, The Unwritten Rules of the Highly Effective Job Search, it takes talking to 15 decision makers to land the job. Plus, it takes talking to 10 folks to reach a decision maker. 15 X 10 = 150.
I don’t know that many people. Well that’s easy; list all the people you do know. If you have a list of 90 names, that’s a good start. If you have a list of 35 names that okay too, you’ll build from there. Even if all you have is a list of ten, ten is better than zero. What’s important is that you have a list of people to call.
What, are you nutz! Well that remains to be seen. Most job seekers only feel that way in the beginning; after they’ve landed a job, they think I’m a genius! (Yes, I know what you thinking; but it’s my story and I’m sticking with it.)
Okay, let’s say that you’ve got your list of 150 names and you’re an excellent and motivated job seeker. Let’s also say that you listen to all your coach’s directions and you’ve made ten phone calls a day and 15 business days later you’re out of names. (It could happen!) What do you do now?
Again, that’s easy... get more names. One way to get more names is to go back and touch base again with the best folks on your list. What do I mean “best folks?” These are the people who have given you names already. You’ve spoken to their previous leads and given them feedback and shared your appreciation. So, they are going to be happy to share other contacts with you.
If you’re not sure what to say, ask them if they have any contacts or connection at a new target company you’re interested in. Then let the conversation go from there. People like to know how you’ve progressed. They’ll want to help some more if you’ve already utilized their first offering.
Getting a job requires talking to people, and doing it more than once. Sometimes our first conversation isn’t at a time or place where people can help us. That doesn’t mean that they cannot help us later. Be open to repeat visits. Be prepared with something new with which to engage them. Always remember networking is about relationships. Relationships take time and repeated contacts. And if you’re not having fun, do it differently, but don’t stop doing it!
We have a good-natured competition going on at Harper's Career Stimulus Program. Our Director--or I should say our Dean -- Nancy Wajler has decided to up the number of her contacts in LinkedIn. One of Nancy’s strengths is competition and this is a perfect area to compete in. Very easy to measure and compare the number of our connections.
Whether you have 150 LinkedIn connections or 250 or 500 or over 600 like Nancy, the next questions is, what do you do with them once you get them? Nancy is a LION a “LinkedIn Open Networker.” She sees value in networking or connecting with everyone knowing that at sometime those connections can be utilized to help someone or to connect to someone else who can help her or someone she is connected to.
While I’m not truly a LION, I have many connections, and I will connect with most everyone as long as I know how I may help them and they know how I they can be of assistance to me. If I’ve never met a person asking to connect to me, I’ll invite them to a 15 to 30 minute meeting or a phone conversation if they are not local. There I find out about them and they learn about me. After all, networking is about relationships.
Sales professionals have an old adage that goes something like this, “Sales is a numbers game.” When I meet a new client, one of the first things I ask them to do is develop a list of contacts. I suggest they start with a list of 150 names. Often I receive a groan of protest, “I don’t know that many people!” they tell me. Some of my clients are on LinkedIn and they say, “Can I start with my LinkedIn contacts?” What’s the difference? LinkedIn has demonstrated to people the power of connecting. Being connected to people gives you a means to finding a solution to a problem.
Lets say you need to talk to (network with) 15 people in order to meet with one hiring manager or decision maker. Now let’s say you need to talk to at least 10 decision makers in order to get one job offer. The more people you’re connected to the better your chances of landing the next job. But wait!!!! It’s not just about being connected: you need to talk to these folks. Call them up and ask for a meeting so that you can describe what you have to offer them. So you can ask them who else they know who you can talk to.
I was reading the other day and saw that online resume posting yields an 8% chance of success in uncovering the next opportunity. This was a bit of a shock to me, even though I’ve been telling clients forever that only about 20% of jobs are advertised. Therefore, if a job seeker’s efforts are solely focused on answering online ad, then in all probability they will receive a low return from their efforts.
What’s the alternative? Start looking elsewhere... in the 80% of the job market where jobs are not advertised. Finding those non publicized opportunities greatly improves the job seeker’s chances of landing the next job. But how do you find these opportunities?
First, assemble a contact list of all the people you know. This includes but isn’t limited to: Family members, friends, past and recent co-workers, acquaintances, and people you know through your kids’ activities. Also include professionals like doctors, lawyers, and trades people like plumbers, carpenters and even the kid who cuts your lawn. Also list people you know through church groups, civil organizations and of course people from groups via social media like LinkedIn, Facebook and Meetup. I caution folks not to judge or qualify the contact, that will come later; the goal here is to get a list of names as big as you can. Shoot for 150 to start.
Once you have your list of names, qualify them. There are a few ways that work. One is the ABC method and the other is the Near-Far method. The ABC method requires you to evaluate whether or not you think the person can help you toward getting an interview. A, if the person is really connected and knows your work. B, if they may be able to help and C, if there is little chance of receiving truly helpful assistance.
Frankly, I have difficulty with this method, simply because I don’t believe that people really can guess who will connect them to the people with an opportunity. Great Aunt Tilda may very well be connected to an employer that you have no idea about. Great Aunt Tilda tells you to call little Billy, the “boy” who use to cut her grass. Only today, William is the big boss at a local manufacturer and he sends her a Christmas card every year telling her that he is willing to do anything for her, she only need ask. You just don’t know who someone knows.
I like the Near-Far method. Near contacts I meet with face to face. Far contacts I talk to over the phone. Easy Peasy!
Regardless of which method you use, call the person on the phone and ask to meet with them. (Of course if the contact is in the next state, don’t make a special trip, but if you’re going to be in the area this will work.) Let them know you’d like to use them as a reference and you’d like to talk face to face in order to let them know what you’ve been working on and what direction you are going. Then meet with them and ask them the three networking questions.
Then persist in following the steps of calling your contact, asking to meet, and then asking for other contacts who will get you closer to your goal -- Landing the Job! Good Hunting!
Lets begin with some interesting stats*:
- According to the Wall Street Journal, 90% of jobs are filled through networking on one sort or another.
- Historically, men have become more likely to learn about opportunities through networking than women.
- 26.7% of external hires made by organizations came from referrals, making it the number one external source of hiring
- 90% of recruiting firms do a Google search on candidates.
- 85% of hiring managers use social networking sites like LinkedIn to look for potential candidates who’ve been referred by other professionals.
I help job seekers find jobs through networking; by employing two different lists. A contact list and a target company list are both necessary in conducting a job search focused on the 80% of the jobs that are not advertised.
First, assemble a contact list of all the people you know. We’ll discuss this list in another blog posting. The second list that you’ll use is a list of target companies. This list involves a little imagination and research. If one of the people on your contact list is a librarian you’re a winner; if not, you’re about to add a new name to your contact list, because the library is a great place to get company names for your target company list.
Let’s say you are interested in a career in “high performance, high efficiency, home energy.” Ask your librarian how you find the companies in that market segment that are 25, 50 and 100 miles from your zip code. Maybe you are a truck driver want to know who are the 5 best trucking companies in your area to work for. Maybe you’re interested in a bigger paycheck, what are the best paying companies in your industry? Your librarian has that information right there, ready for you to use.
Of course you can use the Internet if you were traumatized when you were a child when you paid an overdue fee to a librarian. But, then you’ll have one less name on your contact list. Most librarians are nice, even if they insist on your speaking in a whisper.
Another way to find companies to put on your target company list is to do a keyword search with any of the job boards, like Monster or CareerBuilder. See what company names come up and then add any onto your list. Whenever anyone tells you about a job, put the company name on your list, even if you already have a contact at that company. You never know who can help and as someone wise once said, “Many hands make for light work.” What companies are in the news? If you like the company or are interested, put their name on the list.
You could have 25 to 50 names on your list of target companies, and that’s okay. Your list should have more than ten companies though. When you print out your list to show people, keep the printout to between 10 to 15 company names so that the reader isn’t overwhelmed. Then ask them if they have any contacts at any of these companies. If they don’t have any contacts at companies on your list, ask them if there are any companies that they could suggest for you to include on your list. This way your list is never stagnant but always growing and changing.
Good Hunting!
* According to career change challenge website
Make some phone calls. It’s a new year, you can call everyone you know just to say Happy New Year. While you’re at it, go ahead and ask them if they know of anybody who could use a person with your skills and abilities. You can ask them if they have any contacts at any of your target companies. When they say yes, thank them and then call the new contacts you were just referred to. 
