Networking

NETWORKING uses existing contacts amongst friends, relatives, business colleagues and others, as a foundation for building a new and extended network of further contacts. It provides a proven route to potential employment opportunities.

Someone out there is looking to buy your skills and experience.

Your task is to find them, or help them find you.

Careers Springboard holds frequent meetings and discussions on how to make the most of your contacts, and teaches the techniques to use when networking by phone.

General Guidance

• Research shows that only 30% of all jobs are ever advertised. So if you limit yourself to only answering job advertisements you confine yourself to the most competitive method of recruitment.
  
  
• Networking is not about phoning contacts to ask for a job. It is about seeking advice and information on job opportunities from people who are in a position to give it, and through them to get more contacts.
  
  
• Start by listing all the people you know, plus all the people that they in turn know, who may be useful to you.
  
  
• Include in your list all your friends, relatives, business colleagues, former bosses, former customers, former suppliers, trade associations, clubs and professional bodies etc.
  
  
• Initially you may feel hesitant about approaching your contacts, but you will find most are genuinely pleased to help and are flattered to be asked.
  
  
• You never know when you might be introduced to a useful contact, so prepare and rehearse a response to the question "tell me about yourself".
  
  Have a version lasting about three minutes long for use at an interview.
  But have another version, only half a minute long for use on the telephone.
  Keep it by the telephone in case a contact rings you.
  
  
• When telephoning use polite persistence until you get through to the person you want.
  
  Get the PA or secretary's name and thank them for their help.
  Remember that you are seeking help and advice regarding career planning.
  Never ask directly for a job. This immediately puts your contact on the defensive.
  
  
• You may not get invited to a networking meeting, if so, then before the conversation ends try to obtain further contacts by asking "who else do you suggest I might contact?".
  Then, you will have another contact to follow up, and you can name-drop without hesitation - using the first contact as the introduction to the second - and so on.
  
  Ring your original contact back to thank the for their help and keep them advised of your success.
  
  
• Keep a data base, either on a computer or manually of your growing network.
  Record the date of all contacts made, together with the outcome.
  
  Link this to a call-back diary and always call back on any agreed dates.

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