15 Quick Tips for Strengthening Your Career Network

15 Quick Tips for Strengthening Your Career Network

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by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D.

As part of the celebration of Quintessential Careers's 15th anniversary, we're presenting lists of 15 tips on some of the most essential topics in college, job search, and career.

Networking -- often dreaded and misunderstood -- remains by far the best way to land a job. Study after study shows that networking is the most effective way to get a job. The annual Sources of Hire study conducted by the consulting firm Career Xroads consistently shows that referrals (from employees, employee alumni, vendors, etc.) make up the largest portion of external hires. How do job-seekers find out about vacant positions? By networking. You can beef up your networking efforts through better understanding of the process and following some top tips.

Here's our list of the 15 best tips for strengthening your career network.

It's not about "using" people. Networking doesn't mean asking everyone you run into for a job or even if he or she knows where the job openings are. It means establishing relationships so that you can enlist support and comfortably ask for ideas, advice, and referrals to those with hiring power. Leslie Smith of the National Association of Female Executives defines networking as the process of "planning and making contacts and sharing information for professional and personal gain." The key word is "sharing." Successful networking doesn't mean milking your contacts for all they're worth; it means participating in a give-and-take. Networking is at its most effective when both the networker and the contact benefit from the relationship. Even if your contact does not benefit immediately from knowing you, he or she should gain something from the relationship eventually.

Use networking to tap into the large chunk of jobs that aren't publicized. For many years, we went along with the oft-quoted statistic that 75 to 95 percent of job openings are hidden from the average job-seeker. Based on research, which we reported in Is the Hidden Job Market a Myth?, we no longer quantify the hidden job market -- but we know it still comprises a large chunk of available jobs. You can find out about these jobs only through word of mouth, and word of mouth means networking. See our article, How to Tap Into Jobs in the Unpublicized Employment Market for more.

Shoot for a goal of a network comprising 250 people. The consensus among networking experts is that 250 contacts is reasonable and effective. Why 250? Because, supposedly, everyone knows 250 people. If you were going to, say, plan your wedding, the guest list for your side of the aisle could have 250 people on it, according to Brian Krueger in his book College Grad Job Hunter. Others have put it more morbidly: If you died, 250 people would be affected by your death. Does that mean you should feel inadequate if your network comes nowhere near that number? Of course not. Only a small percentage of those I surveyed for my book, A Foot in the Door, had a network that large. Of survey respondents for the book, only 25 percent had networks of 100 people or more (and of those, only 7 percent reached the magic 250 contacts).

If you're a college student or new grad, you'll probably find these to be the best kinds of network contacts:
- Classmates
- Alumni, especially recent grads
- Parents
- Parents of classmates
- Other relatives
- Professors, especially your adviser
- Fraternity brothers, sorority sisters, and Greek organization alumni
- College administrators
- Coaches
- Guest speakers in your classes
- Informational interviewees

If you're an established job-seekers, you'll probably find these to be the best kinds of network contacts:
- Members of professional organizations
- Your past or present co-workers
- Friends you're in touch with regularly
- Old friends, such as college buddies whom you see infrequently
- Members of your religious community
- Peer volunteers
- Informational interviewees
- Your kids' friends' parents
- Your mentor(s)
- Business associates, such as customers, clients, vendors, and suppliers

Put considerable energy into the most effective venues for networking. Among the 240 respondents to the survey I conducted for A Foot in the Door, the three venues that survey-takers found most effective were at meetings of professional organizations, during volunteer experiences, and at charity events and fundraisers.

Letting your networking contacts do you favors will actually help you forge a closer bond with them. MSNBC Chris Matthews quotes Ben Franklin in his book, Hardball, about how the game of politics is played: "If you want to make a friend, let someone do you a favor." The art of letting people do you favors, which Matthews contends is a key facet of political success, is also one of the best routes to effective networking. "Contrary to what many people assume," Matthews writes, "the most effective way to gain a person's loyalty is not to do him or her a favor, but to let that person do one for you." Matthews explains that when you enlist someone's aid, you are soliciting that person's investment in you and your success. The person not only feels good about helping you now, but watches out for you in the future to make sure her faith in you was not misplaced. "Those who give you one helping hand very often make a habit of looking out for you further down the road," Matthews writes. "We tend naturally to remember the people we 'discover' along the way and seek to ensure that they prove us correct."

Even shy people can network. I offer a number of tips for shy folks in A Foot in the Door; here are just four of them:
- The buddy system is an effective defense against shyness at networking events. Pair up with a friend and make the rounds together. In an article on the buddy system, Clay Barrett tells the story of Joan and Cathy, who worked in different industries and in different job roles but were both were laid off at about the same time. They met at a local networking group and hit it off immediately. Joan was shy but felt much more comfortable at the events with Cathy along. Meanwhile, Joan held Cathy accountable for following through on her networking efforts, previously her weak spot.
- Even if you're feeling uneasy, try to smile and project enthusiasm and confidence. Networking for the shy and introverted is something of a performance. Sometimes you have to be a good actor. Even shy individuals are capable of acting like confident people. You simply have to step into your self-assured persona. You can slip back into the shy identity you're more comfortable with after you've accomplished what you need to. Does this basically amount to faking it -- pretending to be someone you're not? Probably not. You're just using the tools within you to get a job done. They may not be tools you enjoy using every day, but they are tools you can employ when you need them.
- One good strategy is to redirect your shyness toward helping others have a productive time, says the National Association for Female Executives. If you pretend it's your party and your responsibility to ensure everyone's enjoyment, you can relegate your shyness to the back burner.
- While you should avoid using as a crutch online methods of networking that keep you out of the social fray, the shy person can learn to get the most out of online discussion groups, Web-based networking, and discussion groups. You can also use online networking to pave the way for face-to-face networking, so you don't have to feel quite so much as though you're talking to a stranger. Let's say you know of someone you'd like to have as part of your network who will be at an upcoming networking event. Locate the person in a venue such as LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook. Make contact and tell the person you'll be at the same event and would to spend a few minutes with him or her. You can then grease the wheels by communicating with the contact online before the event. By the time you meet at the event, you'll feel as though you already know each other.

Career changers can deploy networking both for research and making effective contacts. A chapter in A Foot in the Door that describes a week in the life of a networker happens to be about a career changer. He attends the meeting of a professional organization in the new field into which he's interested in entering, making some good contacts, collecting business cards, and asking questions to learn about the field. Later, he follows up with some of the people he met at the meeting. He makes plans to have coffee with a woman from the meeting to get more advice. He writes letters to some of the other people he met since he doesn't know them well. At his coffee meeting, the career-changer gives his new contact copies of his resume to distribute and gets referrals to other people who might be able to help him enter the new field. Afterwards, he phones some of the folks he's been referred to and sets up a golf game with one of them (some of the best networking is done over golf). The networker has lunch the next day with a member of his inner circle of contacts, who via phone, gives him an introduction to someone in his prospective career field, who in turn invites him to an informational interview the next week. Next the career-changer follows up with some of the people he wrote to earlier in the week and gets more referrals. He takes some time to organize the information on all his new contacts and read trade publications in his would-be career field. He ends the week with the previously scheduled golf game and obtains more advice and referrals. That's a capsule version of a chapter that illustrates the learning and networking process for someone who wants to change careers.

Use your strong, thriving network to alert you to "pipeline jobs." Pipeline jobs are vacancies that an employer is in the process of creating but is not yet official. If you are constantly adding contacts to your network, and telling members of your network what you're looking for, sooner or later, you will likely encounter a network contact who responds with, "Oh, my company is planning to hire someone like you, but the job hasn't been posted yet." When that happens, you can ask if your contact can refer you to the hiring manager, perhaps even deliver your resume personally to him or her. "It often takes the right person at the right time, with a well presented and compelling reason to propel that 'pipeline' idea into reality," says Judi Perkins, the How-To Career Coach and founder of Find the Perfect Job. The beauty of this scenario is that if you make contact with the hiring manager while the job is still in the pipeline, you will have virtually no competition. Once the hiring manager starts asking for internal referrals -- and especially when he or she posts the position to the public -- competition will increase exponentially.

Your online networking efforts can bolster your face-to-face initiatives. Job-seekers should endeavor to raise their visibility, become known for their expertise, and "brand" themselves through such activities as writing articles, speaking to organizations, and preparing branded job-search materials -- resumes and networking cards. They should ensure that any employer searching for someone like them on the Web will be able to find them. This endeavor might include having your own Web site, online portfolio, online resume, and/or blog. Job-seekers should also comment on appropriate blogs and get involved in online social media -- venues like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, discussion groups in your career field, and other online communities.

Avoid the biggest online networking mistakes. The two mistakes I see are spending too much time networking online at the expense of the more effective face-to-face networking and failing to eliminate or counteract "digital dirt," negative information about you that employers may uncover when they search for you. Digital dirt can especially be a problem for younger job-seekers who post risque photos of themselves or discuss sex, substance use, politics, and other dicey topics online.

Avoid the biggest networking mistake a job-seeker can make either online or offline. Failing to express gratitude is the biggest networking mistake. A simple thank-you goes a long way in networking, and many networkers forget their manners.

Be sure to deploy "the ultimate networking technique," informational interviewing. Informational interviewing, is just what it sounds like -- interviewing designed to produce information. What kind of information? The information you need to choose or refine a career path, learn how to break in, and find out if you have what it takes to succeed. Informational interviewing is an expanded form of chatting with your network contacts. It's the process of engaging one of your network contacts in a highly focused conversation that provides you with key information you need to launch or boost your career. The term "informational interviewing" was invented by Richard Nelson Bolles, author of the best-selling career guide of all time, What Color Is Your Parachute? Bolles refers to the process as "trying on jobs to see if they fit you." He notes that most people screen jobs and companies after they've already taken a job, while informational interviewing gives you the opportunity to conduct the screening process before going after or accepting a position. You can learn all about how to conduct an informational interview in our Informational Interviewing Tutorial.

Use informational interviewing as a route to an employer-needs-based created job. "Find what a company is lacking and make a compelling case for why they need to hire you," says Scott Byorum, director of business development, Nationwide Real Estate Tax Service, Inc., Santa Rosa, CA. With this technique, the job-seeker identifies employer's needs and/or problems and proposes that employer create a job that the job-seeker will then fill and meet the needs or solve the problems. So how do you find out about the needs and problems? Research is one way, especially research into recent news stories about the organization (Is the company expanding to new markets? Introducing a new product? It will likely need to hire). Another way is by networking with organization insiders and asking them about company needs and challenges. But the best way is through informational interviewing, a sub-set of networking in which you conduct brief interviews with people inside targeted organizations and ask what keeps them up at night.

Final Thoughts on Career Networking

If you are still unsure with whom, where, and when should you network, the short answer is: everyone, everywhere, and all the time.

Learn more in our Art of Career and Job-Search Networking.

Questions about some of the terminology used in this article? Get more information (definitions and links) on key college, career, and job-search terms by going to our Job-Seeker's Glossary of Job-Hunting Terms.

Katharine Hansen, PhD, QuintCareers.com Creative Director

Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., creative director and associate publisher of Quintessential Careers, is an educator, author, and blogger who provides content for Quintessential Careers, edits QuintZine, an electronic newsletter for jobseekers, and blogs about storytelling in the job search at A Storied Career. Katharine, who earned her PhD in organizational behavior from Union Institute & University, Cincinnati, OH, is author of Dynamic Cover Letters for New Graduates and A Foot in the Door: Networking Your Way into the Hidden Job Market (both published by Ten Speed Press), as well as Top Notch Executive Resumes (Career Press); and with Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D., Dynamic Cover Letters, Write Your Way to a Higher GPA (Ten Speed), and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Study Skills (Alpha). Visit her personal Website or reach her by e-mail at kathy(at)quintcareers.com.

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