Networking like you mean it...

 

Back in 2003, my high school German teacher explained to me how lucky I was to be an American who would someday enter the US job market.  She told me that Germany’s unemployment rate was 10.5% and ours was 5.8%.  Those numbers always stuck with me and, even as an adult, that lesson shaped what I think is high unemployment and what isn’t.  5.8% meant prosperity.  It meant graduating, going on to a fancy liberal arts school and finding a wonderful, high paying job where my contributions are recognized and my possibilities are limitless.  10.5% meant the opposite – student debt, a grueling job search, and settling for something I wouldn’t really enjoy…

Well, nine years have passed and I can say I’m one of the luckier members of my generation.  Despite an unemployment rate that is a long way from 5.8%, both my husband and I (knock on wood) have found meaningful work that we enjoy.  How did we manage this?  Well, the same formula that bright, ambitious, young Americans have been using for generations – good grades, hard work, and playing nice with others.  Oh, and one more thing…networking.  The word gets thrown around a lot lately, and it seems that its value has been diluted. When someone is looking for work they immediately get on Facebook and let the world know they are out there.  They start going to networking events and asking you to “put in a good word for them.”  They get desperate and start asking strangers for LinkedIn recommendations.  I understand why people do it, but I have never heard of a stranger giving someone a job because of a Facebook message…

It’s not what worked for me.  I networked with people in college – classmates and professors.  I built professional relationships with them with solid foundations.  I didn’t just LinkedIn them.  I helped them. I shared ideas with them.  I made sure they knew both my work quality and ethic.  When the time came for me to look for a job these contacts were comfortable advocating on my behalf. They used their contacts to help me get my name out there.  Two years later, when I found myself job hunting again, the coworkers with whom I had built relationships at my past job were happy to contact other employers who could use someone with my skills.  I had a networking apparatus in place before I ever left a position, and the apparatus was built on past actions.

So, the moral of the story, build your networking apparatus before you need it.  Build relationships.  Build a reputation.  Help your coworkers.  Help your boss.  Be someone who people can count on.  LinkedIn and Facebook are incredible tools and I’m not discounting their value, but I am advocating for using them correctly and never thinking that they can supplant building solid relationships.

-Nicole P