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I'm plenty approachable and have no problem making the first move- networking for a job doesn't work for everyone. I don't feel I'm doing anything 'wrong'. Not being able to meet the right, well connected people isn't something I'm failing at. It just doesn't happen.
Whenever I'm at the post office, the grocery store, the restaurants or whatever- I'm not swinging around looking for someone to network with. If I run into someone great but I don't jump people...'hey do you know of a job??'
I've never found, ever in my life, someone that has walked up to me in Home Depot...'hey there, are you in hotel management?? Boy do I know of a job for you..'
I understand the talking/chatting/putting the word out there and I do that- but the sort of folks I meet and talk to don't have connections to anyone in my business.
Again, if you have YOUR own business and you're a CPA or home builder or dog groomer or something that could be widely appealing to many folks, then it's easy to 'network' to drum up business.
I'm a hotel manager.
The odds of running into a random person who is well connected who would gel to me on a 'by chance' meeting at the bowling alley or the supermarket then run to someone and recommend me for a job is astronomical.
Sort of like winning the lottery. I'm not being negative about networking, it's great if you can by chance hit upon the right folks, but unfortunately that's not a dependable way to find work. Or for me it never has. Nor for anyone I know.
That't not the kind of networking being described here. Running or meeting someone on the street is not networking. It can be and is the beginning but not the meat of it. I'm a Lead Software Analyst for a Fortune 250 company. My last 3 positions were all directly related to someone in the same field in other companies via networking. Networking/Keeping in touch with others in your industry can help tremendously. I routinely keep in contact, go have a beer, have lunch ... etc ... etc with others in my field around the city and the country. Whether it is someone that I met at a conference, worked with in the past or have exchanged knowledge regarding our particular field. Within the last several months I have been contacted by two different acquaintances about positions they knew of in their organizations. 1 of which I was offered the position but financially it wasn't enough to lure me away from my current gig.
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According to a report from ABC News, 80% of today’s jobs are landed through networking.
I posed the question on another message board I am a member of, how they aquired their current position. This particular board is a good cross section of professional people. So far, only 7% got their current job via traditional Job Posting/Application route.
I understand what you're saying... however in a previous thread it was determined I might be unapproachable or 'not doing it right'.
I am unfortunately not in any sort of position where I can network with people in my field. I don't belong to any Chambers and couldn't join because I'm not affiliated with any business. I'm sure hotel managers sometimes meet up with each other at Chamber meetings or area sales gatherings or at big meetings such as for Marriott, etc. However I'm not privvy to attending any of those sorts of functions where networking would work for me.
You were perhaps working when you networked for a better or more lucrative job, or when you were ready to move on. I have tried to keep up with people in my industry but frankly don't really know anyone outside of the property I worked at and 99% of them are hourly associates who either still work at the property or have moved on elsewhere.
You were perhaps working when you networked for a better or more lucrative job, or when you were ready to move on. (
My current position was because I was being laid off of my previous job. As soon as I found out my position was going to be part of a reduction in force I immediately started working my network. I started reaching out to everyone in my industry or other companies that would hire my position. Either via email, phone calls, Linkedin, recruiting companies and so on. I of course also started applying for jobs posted on various web sites. Not one of the applications garnered an interview. My contacts got me 3 interviews and eventually my current position. Though I do know that the application process is much longer and I was already off the board in 3 weeks.
At any rate, good luck with your search. Remember looking for a job is work.
Interesting because after I got laid off from The Boeing Company in the spring of 2003 I decided to pick another profession beside Technical Illustration (what I did at Boeing) and get an Associates Degree in it. And, of course, a job in that same field. One Saturday morning approaching layoff time my wife and I drove from Burlington, WA, over to Bellingham, WA, to go to their library and hunt down a job I felt I was compatible with.
Well, long story short, I decided on 2 jobs I wanted to get trained in and start working in.
1) Respiratory Therapy
Applicants for this program should be good and interested in math and science and human anatomy, etc. There was a 45% increase in hiring need for this skill so that sounded good, too.
2) Hotel Management
Indeed, this was my 2nd choice to be trained and get a job in. I just thought it sounded like a good match for me and what I can do the best.
I ended up choosing Respiratory Therapy. There was only one place I found in western Washington and that was in Burien, WA, south of Seattle. Not a choosable choice for me. It was too far south of Burlington, WA, in Seattle's awful traffic. I'd be on the road for about 4-5 hours per day + attending class. It was not gonna work at all. So I needed to look for a cheap place to rent near a college that taught Respiratory Therapy. My wife is from Chicago and she remembered an oakie town in Missouri that her Dad would drive through on the way to Bull Shoals Lake in Arkansas for boating vacations. That town was called Rolla, MO. I got online and found the small college, it was called East Central College. Articulated with Rolla Technical Center who taught the Respiratory class one could enroll there and get an Associate's Degree in Respiratory Therapy. Bingo!
That's the program I decided to take. Boeing, using a program called the Trade Act, funded the schooling (tuition + books) completely. Plus, if I kept up a 2.0 GPA I would receive about $450 a week in unemployment insurance for the entire 1 year, 9 months of schooling I was enrolled for. Not a bad offer from Boeing. Plus they gave me over $10,000 in severance pay.
We needed to sell our house first in Burlington, WA. We found a great realtor in Mt. Vernon, WA, who told us to get a cell phone and she would sell our house within 3 weeks. She would communicate with us by cell phone and fax. We either gave away or sold all of our possessions. I bought a 4'X8' utility trailer and a hitch to connect the trailer to our 2001 Kia Sportage 4X4 and the time quickly crept up ta drive across country to Missouri. That was in late May of 2003.
Blitzing forward ta now...I'm a Respiratory Therapist and work at the Regional Hospital here in Alamo as a Sleep Technician. But it has taken me 8 1/2 years of working as a Respiratory Therapist till I could find a niche inside the Cardiopulmonary field that I like doing and that I do well. My point: it seems that anything good you have found in life takes a lot of determination and hard work to get. I had to be my own best advocate throughout this process to connect Boeing, the State of Washington and the State of Missouri and all the bureaucracy involved. Connect and dot all the i's and cross all the t's. It was very, very frustrating and very, very exasperating at times. People didn't do their jobs, often. I had ta stay on top of it constantly. If I didn't it wouldn't get done and I wouldn't have been able to start college in August of 2003 like I did.
For some reason your connecting with people and networking with people story has sparked within me the need ta share my "2nd major career" story. I put in a tad over 20 years with Boeing and wanted to keep working another 20 years with them and retire there. Boeing said otherwise and I had ta do something else. Even though my story differs from yours, I had ta constantly keep connected to people in order to pull my plan off that was to get me ready for my 2nd major career choice.
I agree with you that networking seems like it won't work very often. I urge you to look for other workers in your field and try to connect with them. Perhaps an online forum of some kind?
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