Job Referrals – Do you base them on luck and hope?
Do you get enough job referrals in your job search?
Are you willing to roll the dice on your network?
Is the quality and quantity of job referrals based more on hope and luck than a consistent and focused effort on ensuring you’ve got the right network in place to deliver the outcomes you absolutely must have?
When was the last time you gave your network a check-up?
One of the services we offer is a Networking Assessment and Strategic Networking Plan to measure the strength of your network and recommend solutions. Through this service, we’re stunned by the lack of proactivity and initiative in a job search by candidates to continually tweak and improve their network.
Here are a five key questions you should be asking yourself about the quality of your network. We’ll discuss these 5 questions about your network and much more in our weekly Internet Radio Talk Show on Monday June 8th at 11 AM PST on LATALKRADIO.com. Join us for an hour of an in-depth discussion around “Generating Job Referrals in your Job Search“.
1. Do I have a large enough network to generate the referrals needed for the type of job I’m interested in obtaining?
2. Are there a significant number of hiring managers in my network who hire for this type of position?
3. Is there a significant number of people in my network who know on a 1st degree basis the hiring managers who would hire for this position?
4. Are there trusted advisers in my network who provide services to my ultimate boss that might hear of opportunities and make job referrals (One example might be a advertising account manager selling advertising services to the marketing promotions manager who would be your direct boss at a consumer products company. Another example might be the CPA auditing a company who is working directly with the Controller who might be your potential new boss?
5. Are there a large number of people in your network who are not competing directly with you for the position, but might hear about the job opportunities due to their proximity to the type of work you’re interested in obtaining (For example, the engineer in the R&D function might be aware of a product development role in marketing or the materials specialist role in the supply chain department).
Try ranking yourself on these 5 core questions about the strength of your network on a scale of 1-5 (1 being you’re a long way from completing your job search and 5 makes you a rock star in networking). Which one of these 5 components of an effective network should you spend time developing.
Are there gaps in your network that you should be focused on filling?
I hope these questions stimulate your introspection about the quality and strength of your network to generate good job referrals.
Barry
Tags: FREE Job Search Audio, Job Leads, Job Referrals, Networking Failure, Networking Mistakes, Networking Plan
Networking | Barry Deutsch June 8, 2009
About the Author
Barry Deutsch is a founding Partner of IMPACT Hiring Solutions, co-author of "You're NOT the Person I Hired", and "This is NOT the Position I Accepted". Barry is an award-winning international speaker, retained executive recruiter, and expert on hiring and retaining top talent, and executive job search.
