If you want to get ahead on the job, you should run with winners - those who have influence and power to get ahead. Therefore, you will want to continue your prospecting, net-working, and informational interviewing activities on the job. However, you must refocus these activities on the career advancement process. What, for example, are the major criteria for getting ahead in this organization? How important is "whom you associate with" to advancing in this organization? Are you associating with the right people and are you clearly communicating your competence, honesty, trustworthiness, enthusiasm, and likeability to these individuals? Perhaps more important, are the so-called winners - those you need to run with in order to get ahead - worth the time and effort You may decide career advancement via such individuals is less than preferable to working elsewhere in the future. The phenomenon of "working for a jerk" is more widespread than many employees have been willing to admit!
Remember, whether we like it or not, all organizations are more or less political in terms of their internal relationships. The sooner you learn about the interpersonal structure of your organization, the sooner you can begin networking with the right people.
DEVELOP LINKAGES TO OTHER ORGANIZATIONS
Regardless of how happy you may be with your present job, there may come a time when you decide if s time to move on to other opportunities in other organizations. You may decide you have advanced as far as possible in Organization X; ifs time to look for greener pastures where you can better use your talents. Or you may wish to change careers after deciding you would like to do something else with your life. On a more negative side, you may find yourself on the "outs" with your present employer, experience termination, or are just plain unhappy with your present job. Whatever the positive or negative rationale for looking outside your present organization, there is a 90 percent probability that you will change jobs and careers again within the next 10 years.
If you are like many other people, you suddenly turn off the job search once you find employment You are no longer concerned with setting career goals, conducting research on organizations, writing resumes, networking, and interviewing. If and only when you are forced to look for a job is that you again activate the job search process. When this happens, job seekers find it difficult to get "back into" the job market because their jobs search skills - especially resume writing and networking -have become so rusty.
Networking should be the one job search skill you keep active while you are employed. Assuming you will one day be looking for another job outside your present organization, it is a good idea to develop, maintain, and expand your networks with professionals in similar types of positions and organizations. You can do this by joining professional organizations. But more important, you should become active in these organizations. For example, many of the associations are organized at the national and local levels. Local chapters meet regularly to promote their professional interests. They function as networks for exchanging information, advice, and referrals. Many also conduct net-working activities and operate job search and placement services for their members of workers by focusing on wages and benefits. Other associations/ such as the National Association of Manufacturers, are organized to promote the interests of employers and their companies. All of these organizations provide services to their dues-paying members. These include anything from a monthly magazine and newsletter to insurance/ travel/ training/ and job placement benefits. Indeed/ many such associations maintain job bank and referral services/ periodically sponsor networking meetings/ and provide job search training for their members.
Most important for those seeking employment and advancing careers/ professional and trade associations link individuals who work for one employer with individuals who work for other employers. In so doing, they provide a critical communication and networking bridge between organizations that assist members in making job and career moves from one organization to another.
INFORMATION SOURCES
You will discover thousands of organizations and associations that perform these linkage functions as well as provide networking opportunities relevant to finding jobs and advancing careers. Most of these organizations can be easily accessed by surveying a few key directories that provide the names, addresses, telephone numbers of - as well as inside information on - these organizations. The two most important directories, both readily available in the reference room of most major libraries, are:
- National Trade and Professional Associations
- Encyclopedia of Associations
