Busy Busy, Give Give

I haven’t had time to post the last few days, as I write an article for a major business magazine (to be named later), pull together a presentation for tomorrow’s Star Tribune Career Expo in St. Paul, and put the final touches on a new job-search coaching program to launch in early June (watch these pages for updates!)

So, I hope the following quick job search tip will tide you over for the next day or two …

According to a recent Gallup poll: “… job seekers are most likely to say they used friends and family (74%) and referrals from current employees at a company (70%) as resources when searching for a job.”

Now. The two most used — and most effective — job-search tactics in the survey are networking with friends and family, and referrals from people at a target company. Both involve personal connections with live people.

But, some vital success metrics are missing from the poll, namely:

1. how many friends, family and people at target companies do job seekers contacted by and

2. how often.

Because this was overlooked by the professional pollsters at Gallup, it’s probably being overlooked by you.

So, starting today, make it a point to track whom you’re networking or seeking referrals from and how often. This will let you see what’s working (so you can do more of it) and what’s not (so you can change or stop doing it).

My experience is that 70-80% of job seekers think they’re “networking” when they send one email to 20 people asking, “Do you know anyone who’s hiring?” and maybe call their brother or sister.

That’s usually it.

There’s no plan for contacting 100-200 people over 30, 60 and 90 days with an interesting message about what job you seek and why it would be a good idea for other people to recommend you.

Take this two-question pop quiz:

1. How many new people did you meet last month and add to your list of contacts?

2. Has it brought you any closer to a new job?

If you’re at all average, your answer to 1 was less than 10, and your answer to 2 was No.

So, why not change that?

Why not make a plan to meet just one new person per day, Monday through Saturday, for the next 30 days? That’s about 25 people in a month, if you take Sundays off.

Then, find just one bit of useful information to give them every 10 days or so, with no expectation of getting a job lead.

Why?

Because, otherwise, you come across like the neighbor kid who’s always selling stuff.

If you ring the doorbell selling Girl Scout cookies, I’ll buy a box. When you come back in a month selling wrapping paper for school, I’ll grumble and say, sorry, my wife has the checkbook. When you come back selling Christmas wreaths, I’ll hide behind the blinds and not answer the door at all.

If you’re always asking for something, people won’t be happy to see you more than once.

Give first to get later. And, as Dave Opton, CEO at Execunet.com recently told me, information is the currency of networking. Which is nice, because information is free. So, what knowledge have you accumulated over the years that you can dole out to your network every 10 days that will make them want to recommend you?

Still don’t know what to give? Set up a Google Alert based on topics that resonate with the audience in your network or among target employers. Then get busy giving.

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 4:54 pm and is filed under job search tips, networking. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.