- To compile information that helps with focusing your job search objectives, learning about trends, events or facts relevant to your search, and, if you're really lucky, hearing about existing job openings;
- To gain as much exposure as possible in the job market;
- To gather more names and referrals so that you can continue to expand your network, gain more information sources, get more exposure, obtain still more referrals, and so on.
This hit-or-miss approach, particularly if you don't communicate your job search objectives clearly or if you imply that you're willing to take any job that comes along, may produce an occasional lucky accident, but it's not an effective way to develop a variety of opportunities. No wonder so many disillusioned would-be networkers give up in disgust, take the first position that's offered and are heard to say, "I tried that whole networking thing with my friends and it didn't produce anything."
Skillful networking may appear low-key and informal, but it's not just a matter of randomly calling a few friends in the hope of a magical rescue from the miseries of the job market. It's a planned, structured and very time-consuming campaign that usually starts with friends, acquaintances and relatives. This stage is often called "contact development", but rapidly moves on to meetings with people you don't know, who refer you to still more people you don't know.
If you follow the maxim that a successful networking meeting is one that yields two more names than you went in with, you'll see a rapid geometric progression in your sources of information and your opportunities for market exposure. This multiplication effect produces greater knowledge, deeper perspective, more choices and, above all, the feeling that you're in control of the job search process and have left almost nothing to chance.
In a world where all the valuable information and attractive job openings aren't neatly organized like supermarket aisles, your best chance for success is to do anything and everything you can to get the word out and bring the information in. An effective job search is basically a numbers game: you have to play a lot of numbers to have the best chance of winning the game.
You will reach a point in your job search where all the broad-scale information you've gathered will help you to narrow your focus and to define your objectives succinctly. At that point, when your local library and other usual sources are no help, networking can be a remarkable vehicle for tracking down specific pieces of information.
Where Did Networking Come From?
Thirty years ago, the word networking wasn't in the common parlance of the job seeker. "Normal" people found jobs through ads. "Top executives" were placed by headhunters. College graduates and entry-level applicants flooded the job market with hundreds of form letters stapled to exuberant resumes. That was how it was done then. Life was simple.
Headhunters changed all that when the executive search industry went through a period of dramatic growth. As they conducted high-stakes searches, the headhunters soon learned that working informally through contacts was the best and fastest way to get valid information and identify attractive candidates. Placing ads produced a need to screen hundreds of resumes, each of which depicted a "bottom-line-oriented, shirts sleeved go-getter." The anecdotal information derived from informal chats and contacts often unearthed the best talent and gave a much more accurate picture of candidates' strengths and weaknesses. Most major headhunters don't welcome unsolicited resumes, and many throw them away without reading them.
Headhunters rapidly refined informal gossip into an art form, a creative technique. They found that they didn't have to begin with known contacts. Starting absolutely cold and using networking phone calls, one person suggests another person, who suggests another, and so on, a skilled researcher at an executive search firm often can identify several qualified candidates within a couple of hours. In these calls, the headhunters aren't dealing with the polished and sanitized information presented in resumes and cover letters; they're getting subjective, personalized opinions that often paint a far more accurate picture. Another advantage of skilled networking is that it develops good information, not just a lot of information.
What Does Networking Look Like?
Picture yourself engaged in a brief, informal, face-to-face meeting and you'll be picturing yourself networking. A lot of thought goes into planning, scheduling and orchestrating networking meetings, but the main mechanism is people chatting with people. Networking is essentially a social activity. It can be done by phone or letter, but it gets stiff and creaky when subjected to too much formality, lofty rhetoric or the confines of the written page. Because it's rooted in human nature, networking brings out the best and worst in people.
As in other expressions of human nature, we see a strange mix of altruism and self-interest, logic and irrationality, integrity and pettiness. Networking can be exhilarating and uplifting, or it can produce hurt, frustration and anger. Expect those results going in and you'll be all right.
The great networking adventure can include a fair amount of coincidence and twist of fate: overhearing chance comments on a commuter train, running into a college roommate on a street corner, seeing an intriguing item in The Wall Street Journal, getting a bit of gossip by phone from a breathless friend. Networking is built on information and comes into play whenever and however information is shared. Remember: You may receive information from unplanned and unexpected places, but it's the systematic, planned use of that information that makes networking more effective than any other job search technique.
Over the years, networking has moved from use to overuse and then to frequent abuse. The word has become a cliché, a catchall for a variety of activities that don't even remotely resemble the planning and organization of a structured campaign to gather and disseminate information. Unless you consider any informal, interpersonal contact as part of networking, for example, you can hardly consider the practice of swapping business cards at a singles bar as effective networking. True, the primary vehicle for the networking process is an informal, brief, face-to-face meeting; but an effective networking meeting has a predetermined purpose, a structure and an agenda. Slipping your resume under someone's vodka gimlet doesn't qualify.
Another common misconception is that networking involves asking a lot of people whether they have any existing job openings. This isn't networking at all; it's another technique called direct contact. Whether you use mass mailings, targeted letters or face-to-face interaction, direct contact is a straight-out request for employment. By contrast, networking involves the sharing of information.
With direct contact, the underlying question is; "Can you employ me, here and now?" Everyone shies away from such high-stakes solicitation, especially people who know you and really would like to help you but can't. If you're unemployed, have you noticed how many of your friends seem to be avoiding you? They're afraid you're going to dash up to them, drop to your knees, and beg them to rescue you. Odds are they can't do much to help at the moment. By asking for a level of help they can't provide, you provoke enormous guilt in them. They find it easier to stay away from you than risk experiencing such discomfort.
One major reason why networking is getting a bad name is that too many job seekers disguise direct contact overtures as networking meetings, thereby making a high-stakes confrontation out of what was supposed to be a low-key get together.
In one job search seminar, participants were being instructed on how to "decompress" a request for a networking meeting with a gentle disclaimer, such as, "Let me emphasize that, in asking for this meeting, I don't expect you to have a job for me or even to know of any openings. At this point in my job search, my purpose is to get some advice, a little market exposure, and perhaps the names of a few people I could call to expand my network of contacts."
A contemptuous snort came from the back of the room. "I could never say that!" boomed one participant. "I am looking for a job! I'm not going to lie like that."
He was absolutely right. If you think there might be an opening or opportunity with a certain employer, it is devious to use a networking request as a subterfuge to get a quick-and-dirty job interview. Suppose, however, in a networking meeting, someone suddenly says, "Gee, we really could use someone with your credentials. What would you think about working in a place like this?" Great! At that point, you're not networking anymore; you've entered interview country. But unless and until the other person raises the ante, it's up to you to keep the networking meeting low-pressure, informal and conversational. There's nothing illicit about direct contact and no sin in directly requesting employment if you think someone might have an opening. But direct contact and networking are fundamentally different techniques, and job seekers confuse them at their peril.
In this same vein, networking isn't interviewing. An interview is a high stakes negotiating session in which someone is trying to decide whether you're worth a lot of a company's money. A networking meeting is a low-stakes conversation that works best if almost nothing is involved except a few minutes of the contact's time. An interview is the potential employer's meeting: he or his representative sets the agenda, drives it and is responsible for its outcome. A networking meeting is your meeting. It is a favor someone has granted to you, and it's your responsibility to make sure it goes only where it should.
For this reason, you should eliminate the phrase "informational interview" from your vocabulary. A few years ago, this was another name for a networking meeting, but the term encourages confused agendas. If the phrase is supposed to suggest an interview where nothing is at stake, it's an oxymoron.
