What goes around, comes around
Most recruiters strongly recommend that job seekers reestablish contact with them every three months. That’s good advice, sound advice.
So, shouldn’t you be doing the same thing with all of your contacts – not just recruiters? If you’re tagging all the bases in your job search, you probably made contact with former co-workers, former supervisors, colleagues, etc. when you first began your job search. Good move.
When your job search lingers
Now, have you kept in touch with them as your job search has dragged on more than three months? You know the old saying, “Out of sight, out of mind.” Nowhere does that apply more than in a job search. When you’re looking – and, if you continue to search – it only makes sense to maintain contact with everyone in your network. In all aspects of your job search, persistence is a virtue. The same holds true here.
If you raise the red flag when you begin your search and then disappear, your contacts won’t remember that you’re looking and, if something does come across their desks, they’ll think only of the person who contacted them most recently. Without wearing out your welcome, that most-recent person should be you.
There is another element to all of this. After you are fortunate enough to land a job, not only does it make sense, but it’s also (not so common anymore) common courtesy to alert those same contacts. Let them know that you’ve found something and that you’re no longer in need of any referrals. From their perspective, how embarrassing is it to recommend some for a job who already has a job? There’s a faux pas of significant magnitude.
A final aside: When you find your new position and you notify your contacts of your good news, it’s also a good idea to take a few seconds to thank everyone for any part that they might have had in your success. One or two more sentences in an email won’t command very much time, but can pay dividends in spades.
Thanks for hanging in there with us.