To Find A Great Job, Build A Great Network
By Bob Roth
Picture yourself standing in the center of a circle surrounded
by all of your friends, relatives and acquaintances, approximately
200 people. Then, picture each of those 200 people at the
center of their own circles, surrounded by everyone they
know. If you were to contact all 200 of your relatives,
friends and acquaintances with a question, you would have access to
information and feedback from the more than 40,000 people in their
networks. That is the power of networking.
You may think that you don’t know 200 people, but most
students do. You just don’t realize it yet. So
let’s see if we can identify the 200 people you
know. Start by listing your relatives, friends and
acquaintances. Include everyone in the following groups:
High School - Use your yearbook to list classmates. class
officers, club members, team members, teachers, administrators,
counselors and service personnel.
Also include acquaintances in the classes ahead of you
and behind you in school.
College - Roommates, dorm mates, friends, classmates.
class officers, club members, team members, professors,
administrators, counselors and service personnel. Also include
acquaintances in classes ahead of you and behind you in
college.
Local Community - (At Home and At College) Neighbors, Police,
Fire, Ambulance, Bank, Hospital, Religious Institutions, Library,
Recreation, Accountant, Barber, Hair Stylist, Car Mechanic,
Retailers, Business Professionals, Politicians, Community Leaders,
City Employees, Village and Town Employees, etc.
Relatives - Parents, Siblings, Close Relatives, More Distant
Relatives
Employers - (Past and Present) Supervisors, co-workers,
executives, employees in other departments, suppliers, customers
and delivery people.
Associations - Local and National Business, Professional and
Community organizations.
Military - Active and Retired Military Personnel, Members of
the Military Reserves
After you complete your list, you will find that you know more
people than you thought. Record their names, mailing
addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses and notes about your
relationship, their professions and information exchanges. The
group that you’ve just assembled is your
network. However, to be effective, your network must be
cultivated and nurtured. Most of all, it must be used and
strengthened.
“An effective network is the secret weapon of the best
job hunters.”
College students who create and effectively tap their networks
can unleash a plethora of targeted and useful job hunting
information. Whenever you need information and contacts for
your job search, you would be wise to tap your network. There
will be people in your network who have the information and
contacts you need.
Your network can only work if you contact the people within
it. The key to a working network is mutual respect, concern
for others and a genuine interest in helping
others. Importantly, you must understand that networks operate
in both directions. Not only do they provide you with
information and contacts, you must be willing to share your
information and contacts with others.
Creating and maintaining a network is very difficult, since a
network requires constant attention. That means that you must
contact and share information with the people in your network on a
regular basis. If you only contact people when you need help,
you may turn them off. The best networkers take a genuine
interest in others. They contact their network just to keep in
touch and to see if there is anything they can do to
help. Because they can unleash the power of their network,
giving people will always receive more in return.
Since networking can provide critical information about
people, employers and job opportunities, it makes a lot of sense
for college students to take advantage of this job hunting
technique. It works in even the worst economic times and helps
to uncover the jobs that never get advertised. That’s
why I say, “To find a great job, build a great
network.”
