Do You Avoid Contact in your Job Search Networking?

I coach High School Girls Basketball and I’ve noticed that the most successful girls love the physical contact of playing basketball – they attack defenders, they draw contact going to the basket, they get physical underneath the basket, and they don’t escort dribble-drive penetrators to the basket.

Job Search is like basketball (my HS daughter who also plays basketball frowns ever time I tell her I’m making another basketball metaphor – I just can’t help myself)

Candidates who are job hunting must seek out the face-to-face contact with others to conduct a successful job search. It’s not enough to sit behind a computer screen all day reading emails, answering job postings, and participating in on-line discussion groups. Learn the fundamental elements of job search networking and personal face-to-face contact through our 5-Step Career Success Methodology.

The very best job search networkers reduce their job search time by half or more through turning the job hunt into a contact sport like basketball. Discover the best practices of master networkers who make job search networking a contact sport.

Here a 5 key thoughts to begin an introspective look at whether you’re doing enough in the physical contact element of your job search:

1. Do you belong to a job search networking group that meets at least every other week in your local community with people at the same level as yourself?

2. Are you asking for and obtaining information interviews with hiring managers who currently do not have any openings?

3. How many meetings are you doing every week with the “A” list of your network – those who are strong connectors and influencers – those with extensive networks – the 20% of your network that will generate 80% of your job leads and referrals.

4. Are you active in at least one non-profit group in your local community by which you’re making a valuable contribution and as a side benefit expanding your network?

5. Do you attend the meetings of the professional networking groups and local chapters of trade associations in your local community. For example, if you are a Controller or CFO, are you attending the FEI, FENG networking meetings. If your company is a manufacturer, do you also attend the local chapter meetings of APICS – the American Production and Inventory Control Society?

When you start getting out of the house and meeting people – one-on-one, in groups, at events – great results will start to happen. One of the basic elements of networking is that people are uncomfortable making referrals and giving you leads until they trust you. To gain trust, you’ve got meet and know people on a more personal level than email, twitter, Facebook wall postings, and lurking in discussion groups.

Barry

photo credit karenphotos

Generating Referrals In Your Job Search

If you’re looking for a job, are you are frustrated that you’re NOT getting enough job referrals or job leads from your network? We explore the mistakes, errors, and frustrations candidates experience in trying to generate job referrals or job leads. We offer five key ideas in job search networking to guarantee you’ll generate an abundance of job referrals and job leads. Stop crossing your fingers and using hope as your primary strategy to obtain leads and referrals. Listen the best practices that can reduce your job hunt by half.

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

Only 5% of resumes receive an “A” rating

Marc Cenedella, Founder & CEO, of TheLadders.com, Inc. recently sent out an email that didn’t surprise me as a recruiter, but may surprise many candidates. Marc indicated, “About 5% of the resumes we review get an “A” from us. The vast majority are “B”s and “C”s.” Given this statistic it might help candidates understand why their resume isn’t getting noticed.

As recruiters we often review upwards of 300 resumes for a search. Of those 300 hundred on average only 30 will get calls from us and 5 will go forward to the client.

The main reason for the low number of calls is too often candidates leave off so much important information, the reader just doesn’t have the full picture needed to go forward. This is basic information I’m alluding to. It is not reasonable to expect recruiters or hiring managers to call every person to determine if they excluded some vital information from their resume.

Having an “A” resume is the candidate’s responsibility. PERIOD. It is not the reader’s responsibility to try and figure out your background.

I applaud Marc for clearly stating what most recruiters already know.

We have a free 1 hour audio available to help you make sure you know what vital information to include on your resume. To download this free resource CLICK HERE and it will take you directly to the download.

Clicking this link will show you all our FREE CANDIDATE JOB SEARCH RESOURCES.