Casual networking with friends during your job search:

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Today at job-search training, I was very glad to learn an alternative technique for contacting friends and family during a job-search. In previous training, it was recommended to give a 30 second pitch about ourselves, what you’re looking for and what your abilities are. This is always makes me feel uncomfortable. As a result, I haven’t been doing a very effective job in promoting myself.

This new technique is simply geared to gather information from your friends about their jobs. Throughout the conversation you may tell them a little about yourself, but the emphasis of the dialogue is about them. This procedure doesn’t feel as self-serving. To me as the other 30 second introduction. People may want to try either technique to determine which process works for them.

Here are some questions that you can ask family and friends. And of course, this would be discussed in a casual conversation.

–        Where you work?  This would give you a chance to learn more about your friend, and what they do. That is always good. It also gives you a chance to see how their company might have needs that may interest you.

–        As a <__putting your job title here__>, I’m very interested in XX. For the XX, you would discuss some topic about their company that would relate to your skill set.

–        How does your company handle XX. The XX would be the department of the company that would be normally using your abilities and skills. This has an advantage in that you get to learn how the company is structured by departments and how those departments interact with each other. You may even discover some of the job responsibilities within the company.

–        How many people work in XX department? This type of question can help you find out if they outsource certain responsibilities, or if multiple tasks are handled within the same department.

–        What do you see in that department that they do well?

–        What do you wish they get better? This could be valuable information. This is where you can find out where there is a need for the company that your skills might satisfy.

–        As you begin to wrap up the conversation, you might ask the following:

Who would you recommend that I talked to in the XX department?

I am much more comfortable using this technique. You get the added benefit of learn more about your friend, but you also learn about the industry, that particular company, and how your skills may contribute if not for this company, and maybe to other companies of a similar type. This also gives you a chance to learn about the business practices of multiple organizations.

This can be a very good information gathering tool with your friends and family.

After you meet with them for the first time, you will want to consider meeting with your contacts again for a follow-up.

After this initial conversation, is recommended that you meet with your friend and family member later to touch upon the previous topic of their company. When you reconnect with someone on a job related topic, there is usually one of the following three objectives you want to accomplish.

1. Get information so that you become well-informed of the company and the industry.

2. Give your contact of reason for them to want to hire you over someone else.

3. Thanking someone for how they may have helped you and for their referral. If you show appreciation for their help, they may be more inclined to continue giving you additional information.

If you have some additional ideas on how people can network their friends and acquaintances in the job-search, please feel free to share your ideas in the comment section this blog.

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