Your Network
Although most job seekers claim to hate it, networking is crucial
Networking is a crucial component of your job search. Period. The only job-seeking tome you might hear more of is how important it is to prepare for an interview. Also true.
Which one is more important? It doesn’t really matter. They’re both at, or near the top of the list of everyone in the job search business – or those individuals who are actually looking for a job.
How important is it?
Some sources claim that as many as 70 percent of all jobs are found through networking. That could be true. Although not denying that claim, payscale.com states that the number of jobs found via networking could be as high as 85 percent. Yikes!
One recruiter friend recently advised job seekers that they should be spending about 30 hours per week networking. You can breathe a sign of relief. He was including a wide array of activities as networking. He said that everything counts: networking (group) meetings, phone calls (3-5 calls per day), 1-on-1 meetings, prepping for meetings, letters, emails, etc. Anything that keeps you in touch with individuals who could benefit your job search.
The folks at dictionary.com take a different, more restrictive view of networking. They see it as “a supportive system of sharing information and services among individuals and groups having a common interest.” That works too.
Regardless of how you define it, when you get right down to it, networking is not rocket science. It's mostly common sense. If that’s so, why does our recruiter friend note that 64 percent of job seekers find networking difficult and even painful.
Strip away the trappings and the pressure (most of which is self-imposed) and networking can be boiled down to meeting and speaking with people. People who are mostly just like you. Meeting and speaking with people is something you do virtually every day. You’ve been doing it all your life. How tough can it be?
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