Your Network
There’s no denying the economy has slowed down recently—not good news if you’re currently looking for a job or seeking a possible career change. With unemployment rates continuing to hover at high levels, it’s clear that businesses aren’t hiring at paces seen earlier this decade. Remember when websites such as monster.com and careerbuilder.com were filled with job openings? Well, not so much anymore. There still are postings on those sites, but don’t be surprised if it seems like there aren’t as many—or if they seem less lucrative—than if you searched back during the first half of the 2000s. It seems that these days, people are finding jobs through their networked connections. With the acceptance of social networking spreading across all age groups, each of our individual networks is larger, stronger, and continually growing—and this needs to be embraced.
Traditionally, networking in the business world has involved attending mixers or dinner functions with colleagues and peers: best pressed suit, name tag on the left chest, cocktail in hand, firm grip and business card ready, and schmoozing turned up to the top notch. This is still a great way to network in your respective industry—and is a very good skill to possess—however, there are other ways you can build your professional network. Below are a few that many of us have access to.
Alumni Association
All hail the alma mater! Joining an alumni association is an excellent way to network. Larger universities and colleges tend to have alumni associations all over the country and often hold monthly functions. My alma mater has associations based on city, region, ethnicity, and specific degrees. The best thing is, you already have something in common with everyone in the group (you attended the same school!), and people are more apt to help those who share a common bond. Search your school’s alumni website and see if there’s a group near you. Attend the functions—they can range from luncheons, to speaker series, to dinners, happy hours, and football/basketball viewing get-togethers—and build a comfortable rapport with other members. Fees may be involved, but it’s worth it.
If your school doesn’t have an alumni association in your area, most schools will have a Homecoming event—which is often paired with a football or basketball game over a weekend. Try and attend this to help build your connections.
Social networking has become such a large part of our daily lives, there’s no way you can ignore it—so use it to your advantage! Add some people you’ve met at your alumni association meetings. I’ve got 300+ friends on my Facebook account, and I probably talk to about 10 of them on a regular basis. I’ve accumulated most of these friends from college, but I’ve also added some from work, people I’ve met through work, and the occasional randoms. For the most part, I won’t ‘unfriend’ any of these people and neither should you. All of my ‘friends’ on Facebook make up a huge network of working professionals. Think about it, most, if not all of them have jobs and likely know other people in higher places. So keep that network intact—in the future, if you ever think about looking for a new job or career change, you can send a simple note to that college acquaintance, ex-coworker, or random person you met on the airplane. Who knows what doors that could open.
Also, a tip: I’m no longer a big fan of posting a lot of status updates on my Facebook. However, you might want to post something every now and then, just so people remember you. It’ll show up on your friends’ newsfeeds to help you maintain visibility to the contacts you don’t really talk with; thus, when you do send someone that note, they’ll at least have an idea of what you’ve been up to.
Twitter is a good resource for instantaneous updates, whether it’s breaking news, sports news, business news, entertainment news, and endless amounts of other topics. I have a Twitter account, but I don’t tweet anything—my main reason is for news updates. For example, I follow @cnnbrk (CNN Breaking News), @WSJ (The Wall Street Journal) and @SportsCenter (ESPN, SportsCenter), among others. You can also use Twitter for job postings. A quick search of the Twitter user database (search: jobs) shows a variety of twitter accounts that strictly post job openings. Some are specific industries and others are regional. Follow some of these accounts and you’ll see jobs being posted daily as they become available. Even though it’s not an actual, personable connection, this still builds your overall network. And, if you want, start posting your own tweets, follow other users you find interesting, and build your overall reputation—just always be cognizant of what you tweet.
FYI, you don’t need to follow actual accounts that post job openings. For example, just recently, @WSJ posted a job opening for VP of Digital Products and a Senior Editor for Custom Publishing with links to the actual job posting on their careers website.
All three of these examples are excellent ways to build your network of connections. Take advantage of them and use each to build and maintain your network.
Alex Brown
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