This morning I appeared on WCPN - 90.3 FM, the Cleveland NPR radio station, on "The Sound of Ideas" with Dan Moulthrop. The program was about searching for a job when you are over 50 years old. Listen to the MP3 here.
When is the best time to plant a tree?
20 years ago.
When is the next best time to plant a tree?
Today!
Chinese Proverb
What is true for trees, is true for networks -- build your network before you need it!
It is best to have been building and expanding your strategic personal network for all of your professional life. Unfortunately, most people don't come to that realization until they are let go from their current job.
Most people have small, dense networks composed mostly of their immediate on-the-job colleagues, friends and family. These networks are the first resource of the newly furloughed employee. Asking around, the job-seeker finds that immediate contacts often do not have much more job information than the job searcher has -- they are all in the same network neighborhood where everyone knows what everyone else knows at about the same time.
Once the job seeker exhausts the obvious job openings that s/he and their immediate contacts are aware of, they become stuck. What to do next? The common advice is send out or post resumes on-line, attend job fairs and start "networking". The first two suggestions get the job seeker onto the overcrowded freeway to the HR office. In today's recession, this route is a clogged artery with little or no movement -- time to get out of this traffic jam and try an alternate path.
The next suggestion -- "networking" -- sounds good, but is often approached wrong. Networking is commonly defined as quickly connecting with many people -- focus on quantity over quality -- sometimes mockingly called schmoozing. Building strategic connections is much different than just "networking" -- you build trusted relationships that bring you information and access that you currently don't have in your small circle of friends and colleagues. Quality trusted ties are like the trees planted many years ago. Quality trusted ties develop when people work on something together -- they don't develop over a handshake at a conference, a quick conversation over coffee or a speed interview at a job fair.
Networking may get you many new business cards, but are these people willing and able to introduce you to the hiring manager [the route around the clogged freeway]? If I just met you at a conference, or you called me out of the blue "to network", am I going to risk my professional reputation to introduce you to my boss or trusted colleague? Probably not. Yet, if you are introduced to me by a trusted friend, colleague or peer then I will listen and we will both benefit. Better yet, if we work on a volunteer project together, I see you "in action" and we bond -- I feel confident in recommending you.
Once you exhaust your inner circle of people who can make introductions, what do you do? Two things: 1) re-activate trusted ties from the past that are now dormant and 2) build new trusted ties via volunteering and part-time work.
Everyone has dormant connections that can be re-activated. Many people are now getting on Facebook and LinkedIn and re-connecting with former colleagues and college chums. Do so, but be careful. Do not re-connect with a transaction in your back pocket -- "Hi, nice to to hear from you again, do you know of any jobs?" I have a former colleague who re-connects with me every 5-7 years -- but he does so only when he is in the job market! He expects a connection, but is not eager to offer one of his own. Needless to say, he does not get far. Once you re-connect with one or two trusted ties ask them if they have remained in contact with others from your old social circle. You want to be expanding/re-activating your current network out 1 and 2 steps -- your contacts and hopefully their contacts. This will help you reach people with information about jobs you have not heard of yet.
A friend of mine, a job-seeking HR executive in Chicago, has done an amazing job of building her strategic network in the last year. She has dozens of new connections she built in prolonged interactions. She has volunteered on several projects in her field and also sits on several advisory boards. She has helped organize several local HR conferences and meetings and therefore has face-to-face work experience with a totally new cadre of colleagues. She now has a handful of strong trusted ties that she did not have last year. They have seen her in action, they like her work, they trust her, they give out their personal cell phone numbers to be references for her! Like a tree establishing a root system, it has taken her a while to grow this strategic network, but it is now vibrant and ready to provide her with many opportunities.
In addition to job offers and business opportunities, a wide strategic network also provides other benefits. Health and happiness! When I talked to my HR colleague in Chicago this week, she did not come across as a person that had been out of work for a while. She was very upbeat and full of energy -- which comes across in an interview! She was very positive because her network was growing and bringing results. She was meeting new people, sharpening her skills and learning new behaviors -- she was very positive about her future. More and more research is pointing to the health benefits of building social networks. Employers like to hire positive, high energy people.
Out of work? Form new ties -- not casual connections, but collaborative caring connections, built up over time. They will bring you a variety of rewards. Also, when you start your new job, do not stop your network building. Keep expanding your network, make new connections in new places. Keep growing that tree, you planted, with wide-reaching branches.
"Only connect!
Live in fragments no longer."
Howard's End
E. M. Forster
UPDATE: The friend mentioned above DID get the job with glowing references from the strong ties she had formed working on various local HR conferences and events in Chicago. She built a real network and it paid off!
I can relate to this post. My first layoff 21 years ago resulted when the defense industry in CA virtually collapsed due to eco-political changes. I underestimated the value of connections, as well as the infinite number of opportunities and possibilities that are available in the world. After moving across the country, I got on the phone and promoted myself in the new city. While this landed me some free lance work and one or two longtime friends, it didn't net a sustainable job. The next time I was laid off, my attitude was shifting from scarcity thinking to abundance. I began expanding my sphere of connections by creating my own opportunities, as well as volunteering. This landed me a well-paying job that lasted almost 5 years. This year, I was laid off a third time. Although some family matters had taken my focus from networking while I'd been employed, I was "up and running" again very quickly. People expressed amazement that I had joined the ranks of the unemployed. How could I be so busy all the time? What was the "secret" to my positive behavior and mood? No big secret. The joy of meeting new people and viewing life differently (not as a corporate victim oft-portrayed in the media) made me far less anxious and agenda-driven than I'd been following the first two layoffs. I was more prepared in many ways and more accepting of economic and job market changes. My focus had changed from negative reactivity to . . appreciation and abundance. Oh, and curiosity.
ReplyDeleteNice stuff, Valdis. Very valuable, as your work and insights always are.
ReplyDeleteQuestions:
ReplyDeleteDoes contributing quality content to blogs and sharing quality online content count as the kind of volunteering that grows a network of trust?
Do employers recognize the "strength of weak ties"? I.e. do they advertise for jobs, recruit people online and at conferences because they want to bring connections, knowledge and talent that lie outside their network neighborhoods?
I think the answers to both of these questions are typically "no" at the moment.
I wonder if this will change as people's connections are increasingly created, enhanced and most importantly, evaluated online?
Are there additional strategies that you would recommend to stretch into more "resource" embedded networks?
What if the job seeker is qualified to make a senior level contribution, however their dormant contacts are not positioned to recommend them for these kinds of opportunities?
They did not go to the right schools, live in the right places, etc. Local volunteering does not solve this problem.
Is there a dark side of social capital that is a real productivity and innovation problem?
Valdis - I really like the distinction you make between schmoozing & building trust by doing stuff with people. Which kinda leads to the question: How stong does a weak tie with someone have to be before it can help you professionally?
ReplyDeleteI'd paraphrase your comment about reactivation by noting that all all relationships are maintained by exchanges. These are necessarily financial - or even tangible. Which prompts another question a job seeker could ask themselves - "What 3 things could I do to help further someone else's job hunting/career development/general happiness in my network (without seeming like a suck-up)?"
Your writings are very informative sir. It's like reading Tipping Point and Freakonomics. You must write a book on social networks. It will be extremely interesting if you add on your book your thoughts on MySpace, Facebook, Digg, and Linked In. We ordinary people will learn a lot from it.
ReplyDelete