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Networking – A Personal Experience
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Any careers advisor will tell you that there are four primary routes to the job market – responding to advertisements in the press, head-hunters and job agencies, cold calling, and networking. Of these the most successful, but the one that many people find most difficult, is networking, particularly for relatively senior jobs. This is hardly surprising when you consider the odds for the other options. An advertisement in the Sunday press can attract four thousand responses; each agent in a job agency will typically receive and review over twenty CVs every day; and sending your CV directly to a company will often lead to it joining a similarly sized pile for that day on the desk of a junior HR person. Only with networking do you get to meet someone face to face and tell your story the way you want to tell it and so have the chance to capture his or her interest before any formal interview.
Some while ago, I found myself made redundant for the second time in my career, dusting off my CV and reviewing what I had learned about the market a decade earlier. The previous time, against all the odds, I had gained a job by targeted cold calling on small companies, sending my CV directly to the Managing Director. Since then I had been headhunted twice. But now, I wanted a much more senior role and a very specialised one at that. I wanted to use the sudden change in my circumstances to make a big step forward in my career rather than just move sideways. It rapidly became clear that networking was the only likely route for me.
Networking operates on the principle that you ask people for twenty or thirty minutes of their time to give you advice on your next career move. Few people will refuse such a small amount of their time and may are flattered that you should seek their opinion. It is tacitly understood that you will never cause embarrassment by asking outright for a job. Instead, the objective is to obtain the names of at least two other people to whom you can talk, and, if possible, to gain an introduction to them. The principle of doubling tells you that five levels of referral from an initial list of eight people will put you in direct contact with two hundred and fifty people. And the probability is excellent that several of them will want someone with skills and initiative like yours.
In the course of four months, I made contact with over seventy people – most of them face to face. I learned rapidly from constructive feedback the many ways in which I could sell myself, and the ambitions that were almost certainly futile to pursue. Based on this feedback, I reshaped my CV – a painful and lengthy task but which is invariably time well spent – and immediately increased interest.
I had to pluck up my courage numerous times to make difficult calls to total strangers, asking for something from them and offering nothing in return. The fear of rejection is always hovering close at hand, and I had my share of refusals, and felt absurdly snubbed; and I had some really unexpected successes and felt exhilarated. Over the four months I received three formal job offers and five other expressions of serious interest that would in all probability have led to offers. Although it seemed a long slog at the time, that is a percentage that no other route to the job market is likely to achieve. But most importantly of all, I met over seventy fascinating people who gave me advice, encouragement, ideas and hope.
The job I took was not what I conceived at the start of my campaign. It grew from a networking meeting with a business acquaintance over dinner during the first month of my search. He provided some powerful challenges to my still woolly thinking, offered me a role, which I turned down on the spot, and then brainstormed with me the sort of role that would provide me with the challenges and interest that I sought. At the end of a delightful evening, we agreed to meet again six weeks later. When we did, he had developed the idea, and proposed that I set up a business in partnership with him. I had never run a business, or worked in a start-up company, but the concept was interesting. Over the next two months, in parallel with my networking, I developed a business plan. And slowly the idea took shape until I found myself telling my networking contacts that I was probably going to undertake this venture and instead of asking them for contacts, I was asking them for feedback and advice.
I achieved and greatly exceeded my goal of a big step forward in my career; I am now the CEO of an international company. The networking not only gave me this opportunity, but also convinced me that I could succeed in it. It has given me potential customers for my business, and friends who have helped me in establishing it. To most people, embarking on networking for the first time is a nerve-wracking prospect. My advice is to take courage and make contact. Most people are friendly and helpful. After all, next time around it may be their turn!
Copyright © 2009 PDR Partners, incorporating Bob Gammon Associates. |
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