Feature Article: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Career Networking
Special Feature: Seven Rules for Networking Success
Bonus Feature: Five Strategies for Leveraging Your Online Social Networks
Extra Feature: Fast Track Your Job Search by Networking Through a Professional Association
Quintessential Site: Featured Career Web Site of this Issue
Latest Additions: What's New on Quintessential Careers
Q TIPS: Quick and Quintessential Tips to Guide Your Job Search
Notes from the Editor: About this Issue...
This month we mark the publication of the revised edition of my book, A Foot
in the Door, with an issue about networking.
First up is a set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Networking drawn from A Foot in the Door.
Next, an excellent article, on rules for networking success by contributor Barbara Safani, my colleague
on the executive board of the Career Management Alliance.
We introduce a new contributor, E. Chandlee Bryan, who is just launching her career practice,
Careers in Context, in New York City. She
brings us Five Strategies for Leveraging Your Online Social Networks and a sidebar about Twitter, the
micro-blogging application that everyone's talking about. I had the pleasure of meeting Chandlee
at the recent conference of the Career Management Alliance.
I researched Foot in the Door, in part, by conducting surveys
of both career professionals and job-seekers. Asked to identify
the best venue for networking, both groups overwhelmingly
chose professional organizations/associations. Thus, it's
appropriate to bring you Joe Turner's article on networking
in professional organizations, along with a sidebar by Lynn
Berger offering tips for networking in that venue.
A key networking strategy is to identify employers for whom you'd like to work and then find insider contacts
or those who know insider contacts. You can begin
that process by identifying employers using our job-search portal.
--Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., Master Resume Writer, Credentialed Career Master,
Certified Electronic Career Coach, and editor at
kathy@quintcareers.com
Feature Article: Career Networking FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Career Networking
An interview with QuintCareers Creative Director Katharine Hansen, Ph.D.
Q: Networking sometimes gets a bad rap; some job-seekers
worry that networking is equivalent to "using" people. How do
you define networking and what do you say to those concerned
about being users?
A: 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.
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with unmatched quality in the areas of career planning, professional resume writing, and interviewing, having
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Many people think that networking during a job search means calling everyone you know and asking them for
a job. They associate networking with being pushy, overbearing, and an overall pest. People often shy
away from networking because they don't want to be labeled as this type of person. But research shows
that 70-80 percent of all jobs are filled through networking. How can this be so if networkers are such an annoying,
self-serving lot?
Successful networkers are not egocentric, aggressive jerks. They show a sincere interest in their networking contacts.
They work hard to develop a relationship, establish their credibility, and share information. They follow the rules of
the game in which everyone has something to gain. Like the lottery, you have to be in it to win it.
Five Strategies for Leveraging Your Online Social Networks
by by E. Chandlee Bryan
In less than five years, Facebook has emerged as a household name and now has more than
70 million active users, according to Facebook statistics. A recent ExecuNet newsletter reports
that "60 percent of wealthy Americans with an average income of $287,000/year and net worth
of $2.1 million participate in online social networks, compared to just 27 percent a year ago." These individuals
belong to an average 2.8 networks.
While online social networks are useful in terms
of helping you make connections, developing a great
"brand" identity and maintaining a good online reputation
is of critical importance.
Fast Track Your Job Search by Networking Through a Professional Association
by Joe Turner
If you're looking to expand your job search, you'll eventually face this question: "Where can I find people who'll talk with me?"
Most job-seekers must grapple with this question when the well runs dry, and they're at a loss for new jobs to apply for.
How about professional associations?
It's been said that there is a professional association or almost everything you do. Every industry, profession,
specialty, or trade most likely has at least one professional association. These organizations perform various roles,
such as providing a public-relations liaison to the media, maintaining professional standards, and establishing a
vision for the future of their profession or industry.
Also includes: Tips For Effective Networking within Professional Associations, by Lynn Berger
New and Revamped Empowering Blogs
QuintCareers has launched a new blog and revamped 3 existing ones:
The Career Doctor Blog:
Especially for those who miss our former regular feature, Ask the Career Doctor, this blog each day features a question and answer from The
Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD.
Twitter is at this writing the hottest, most-talked-about social-networking utility of the moment.
Part of the cachet of Twitter seems to be an "About Us" section that really does not
explain what Twitter is. If you're "cool," you just know what it is. So, we turn to
Wikipedia for a definition: Twitter is a: "social networking and micro-blogging service
that allows users to send "updates" (or "tweets"; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long)
to the Twitter web site, via the Twitter web site, short message service (SMS), instant messaging,
or a third-party application, such as Twitterrific or Facebook."
Relevance to the job search? Writes Deb Dib at Job-Hunt.org:
"If you are managing your career, conducting an active job search, want to raise your visibility, love
to share information, want to build community for yourself and/or company, or just have to have
new Web 2.0 stuff, you need to know about Twitter."
(Read more.)
No cost to job-seekers.
Wondering what The QuintCareers team is up to? See below!
FRESHO -- an online
resume posting and job ad classifieds directory. Job-seekers can search
job listings (by keyword and location) or browse listings by state and major cities,
as well as by industry -- and post your resume. No cost to job-seekers.
ICanFreelance.com
-- a project site for IT, programming, marketing, and writing/translation freelancers.
Simply browse through the available jobs, register for an account, and then place a
bid for the job. No cost to freelancers.
JOBehaviors --
provides dozens of job-specific assessments for jobs in a variety of high-demand
industries with the goal of helping people find the right job. By identifying the behaviors
critical for success and job compatibility, the assessments identify the job that is the best
behavioral fit for you. No cost to job-seekers.
WiserWorker.com --
a job site designed to help baby-boomers and older workers in finding employment. Job-seekers can
search job listings (by keywords and location), find a collection of career articles
and resources, and listings of local job fairs across the country. No cost to job-seekers.
Find even more career and job site additions to Quintessential Careers by visiting our
Latest Additions section.
Q TIPS:
Quick and Quintessential Tips to Guide Your Job Search and Work Life
Reports the Conference Board: Social interaction platforms, including MySpace and Facebook,
have grown dramatically in recent years, with more people joining every day. Once a niche activity,
online social networking now engages millions of consumers and has become an integral
part of many people's lives. Currently, one out of every four people
online visits social networking sites, according to the Consumer Internet Barometer, which
surveys 10,000 households across the country and tracks who's doing what on the Internet.
About half of social networkers visit these sites daily. In fact, half of these people say they log on several times a day. Among other
household members, those age 12 to 17 are more likely than their siblings to be daily users, with 57 percent saying they frequent
social networking sites at least once a day.
Women are more likely to frequent social networking sites than men. In general, women use the Internet more than
men for personal communication.
The No. 1 reason cited by the vast majority of online consumers -- at least four out of five -- for visiting social networking sites
is to be able to connect with friends. In addition, about half of all users report using sites like MySpace and Facebook to
update and maintain their online profile, email, and connect with family. At least one out of five social network users logs
on to blog or meet new people. Among the 30 and over working-age population, one out of eight uses social networking
sites to conduct business.
With the price of gasoline now at $4+ per gallon, it would seem to be the ideal time for more companies to initiate
and/or expand telecommuting programs, says outplacment firm Challenger, Gray, & Christmas. These programs
would probably be welcomed with open arms by workers seeking ways to decrease fuel costs and increase
work-life balance. However, the downturn in the economy could be the biggest obstacle to increased telecommuting.
When companies begin struggling to turn a profit, they tend to want all their people on the front line.
Further, with the constant threat of downsizing looming over employees' heads, now is not the time to decrease face-time
at the office.
The current economic conditions, especially gas prices, may contribute to increased anxiety, stress and conflict in the office.
As skyrocketing costs of food and gas hit both working parents trying to provide for their families, and other workers trying to keep
their homes or pay off student loans, tension in the workplace may follow.
Roger Herman and Joyce Gioia of The Herman Trend Alert believe that the recent spike in unemployment figures, the biggest percentage-point
gain in 33 years, indicates that that employers are holding on to their skilled, experienced workers, while those with lower skill levels
are considered more expendable and easier to hire back -- as employees or contractors -- when conditions improve.
What these data reflect, Herman and Gioia assert, is that the US has a real problem with its under-resourced schools -- schools
that are either not engaging students enough to keep them there or preparing them for the job market. "As a nation, we need to wake
up to our workforce development challenges, including the lack of connection between employers and the community and technical colleges,"
the futurists say.
For nations abroad, these data also mask critical skilled-labor shortages that present real opportunities for them. Lacking the trained,
skilled labor here will mean location of future facilities in places like Brazil and Southeast Asia, where there are pools of skilled workers,
capable of handling work that US employees cannot. -- From "The Herman Trend Alert," by Roger Herman and Joyce Gioia, Strategic Business
Futurists. The Herman Trend Alert is a trademark of The Herman Group, Inc., (800) 227-3566.
The Quintessential Guide to Surefire Resumes for New Graduates and Other Entry-Level Candidates,
by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., and Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D., provides seven chapters
that will help you pack punch into your resume and cover letter and then gives you two chapters
of tools -- worksheets and samples to guide you to applying what you've learned from the book to
creating surefire career-marketing documents.
We'd Love You to Link to Quintessential Careers!
If your school, organization, business or other
entity has a Web site, we welcome you to link to Quintessential Careers.
If you already have a link from your site, we want you to know we
appreciate it. If you don't have a link to us, please
send a request to your site's Webmaster to establish a
link to Quintessential Careers. Thanks so much!
For more details (including sample HTML copy), see our
Link to Us page.
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QuintZine: Topics in Upcoming Issues
WATCH FOR feature articles on these topics in upcoming issues of QuintZine:
* Credit Reports and Job-Search
* Hiring Decision-makers' Top 30 Peeves about Executive Resumes
* 10 Critical Interviewing Tips
* Study Skills
* Academic Success
* Wheel of Wellness
* 3 Generations of Workers: Y, X, Boomers
* Employee Healthy Benefits
* College Financing
* Scholarship Do's and Don'ts
* The Academic Job Search
* Perks of Working in Higher Ed
* Signs Your Job is in Jeopardy
* Blogging Way to New Job or Holiday Job-Hunting
* Office Politics
* Maternity Leave
* Jobs on the Cutting Edge
* Job Search IQ Quiz
* Resume Bullet Points: Before and After
* GLBT Job-search Issues
* The Value of Internships Abroad and Study Abroad
* Top 10 Fears of Job-seekers
* For Job-hunting Success, Develop a Detailed Job-Search Plan
* Keep Your Career Dreams Alive
* MBA Career Portfolios
* Pre-Hire Background/Credit Checks
* Financial Aid/Scholarship Timetable
* Build Confidence and Avoid Insecurity in Job Interviews
* Empty Nest Job-seekers
* Lifelong Networking
* Networking for the Shy
* Working Night Shifts/Odd Hours
* Quintessential Career Profiles of YOU, our readers
* Q&As with well-known career experts
* Book reviews
. . . and much, much more...
