She Said, I Said - Networking Works

Here are two mini-case studies that show you can get hired from people you interviewed with in your past job searches.

Diane Stafford, who writes an excellent job-search column for the Kansas City Star, offers this example of a woman you can learn from:

She was hired through contact with a person who previously had interviewed with her for a job at her previous company.

Here’s the extraordinary part: She had rejected that applicant. Yet she’d established a good enough rapport with the rejected applicant that they continued to talk periodically, sharing resources and ideas, since they both worked in the same field.

I hear many sorry tales from job applicants about how they were treated rudely or cavalierly on job interviews. (To be fair, I also hear from interviewers who are appalled at the lack of preparation and courtesy from some job hunters.)

If my correspondent had been dismissive or unpleasant to the applicant she didn’t hire, she might still be in a long-term job search. 

Catch that? This successful job seeker turned down a woman for a job, kept in touch with her, and was recently hired from a contact she made with that applicant she had not hired. I thought I’d heard them all, but I’ve never heard that version of networking.

Simple Lesson: If you interview candidates but turn them down for a job, do it nicely. They may end up getting YOU hired someday.

Now, here’s another success story, excerpted from my latest job-search column for the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Lynda H., from Apple Valley, Minn., interviewed with a Fortune 500 company in Minneapolis last year. They offered her a job, but rescinded when the departing employee, whose position Lynda was to fill, decided not to quit after all.

What would you have done?

Here’s what Lynda did.

“I included people from past job searches in my current search, including one company I interviewed with a year ago. Getting back in touch with them was as simple as picking up the phone and calling the executive I had talked to last year. It turned out that he had assumed more responsibilities, and the position they were hiring for now reported to him. Because I had developed a rapport with him last year, it was easy to get my resume to the top of the pile, schedule the interview and land the job!”

Simple Lesson: Write down the names of every company you interviewed with in your last job search. Then, make a plan to contact each this week to tell them about your current search, and why you’re a more valuable potential employee than the last time you spoke.

These networking tips are based on what you’ll find in my free Simple Job Search Manifesto.

------------------------------

Spread the Word:

 digg this  del.icio.us  Technorati  Blogmemes
 Ask Jeeves  Furl  Reddit  Rojo
 Simpy  Spurl  Socialize It  Earthlink
 Google  Netscape  Windows Live  Yahoo

------------------------------

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 at 4:48 pm and is filed under job search tips, networking. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.