Tag Archives: Networking

What the master of the good old boy network does

Posted on March 14, 2013 | Leave a comment

I wrote an ad for a perfect job networking guru a few years ago.

“I need to hire someone who knows how companies work.  He has to quickly figure out what really motivates people.  He has to walk into a room of executives and figure out which ones are the real decision makers, not just the ones with titles.  If he can’t figure out who the influencers and elephants are during a one hour group meeting, I don’t want him.”

That was one of the most difficult recruiting assignments I ever worked on.  That describes the perfect executive and the perfect salesperson.  The perfect team leader and assembly line worker can do the same thing. It really describes the master of the good old boy network.

The good old boy network is really a bunch of people, men and women, who have learned to trust each other.  They know what motivates the other people in the network.  They know the hidden agendas as well as the stated goals.  Some people want to be executives with a home life.  Others want to get away from their family as much as possible.  One guy wants money and another wants fame, a third just wants more people reporting to him.  Then there is the guy who wants most to be an influencer.

This ad hoc network offends many people.  It exists in most companies, even small ones. It is a major part of every industry and government. It is the groupings of people who rely on each other to really get things done.  The good old boy network is reality.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about some ways to exploit those good old boys.

Something to do today

The first step towards exploiting the good old boys is to recognize who they are. Get in the habit of asking people who put off a decision they should be able to make, “Who should we run this by before a final decision is made?”

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Later: Exploit the good old boys

The money question

3 kinds of death

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12 networking tips

Posted on December 11, 2012 | Leave a comment

Not only are jobs scarce these days, but those that do exist are highly competitive. Whether you are just entering the workforce and trying to land your first job, or whether you want to continue to successfully climb the ladder, successful job search networking can give you a leg up on your competitors.

This article explores 12 tips designed to help you become a more effective networker.

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Job search networking and Christmas tree lights

Posted on April 25, 2012 | Leave a comment

Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family.  Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one. (Jane Howard)

I plug in a string of Christmas tree lights and they shine.   The next set of lights plugs into that string, and they shine.  String by string I build the decorations for a tree, the outside of my home or a wedding reception.  If one string isn’t working, I replace it with another.  I won’t hurt the feelings of the string of lights that is not working.

Three things are relevant to your job search:

  1. You plug in strings of lights until you get the coverage you need.
  2. Just because the lights worked last year doesn’t mean they work this year.
  3. Replace the strings that aren’t working.

Your network needs to be big enough to get you a job.  Your network starts with your friends.  Ask each one, individually, for help. Next come your acquaintances.  Next are the people you work with or have worked with.  Finally come all the people you meet while job hunting.  For each one figure out exactly who they know at companies that might give you jobs.

There’s a time and place for everything.  The time to ask someone who is interviewing you about other jobs is when they have told you that you are not suited for their job.  They may tell you to apply for a different job in their company, or at a friend’s company.  Build your network until you have the coverage you need.

Last time you looked for a job, it may have been someone from the synagogue or the Elks Club who helped you find it.  Definitely try that approach again.  Keep asking people about who they know.  Don’t rely solely on that single group of people this time.  Be sure and expand your network.  Use all your contacts.

Sometimes people refuse to help or can’t help.  So what?  Go on.  Find the next network starting point.  Plug in that network.  Try another and another.  Don’t let one person’s refusal stop you.  For example:  Our recruiting agency refuses to help half the people who contact us.  That just means you contacted the wrong agency.  We have a narrow focus on banking, accounting, computers and sales.  We just couldn’t help the two rocket scientists who applied for a job over the years.

You need to plug in enough networks to show a bunch of jobs to apply for.  It is hard work for most people.  It also pays great dividends.  It helps you get into that huge pool of jobs that are never advertised anywhere.

Something To Do Today

Make a list of companies you would like to work for.

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Tomorrow:     Spaghetti networking

Later:              Calls to companies

Intelligent use of recruiters

Get famous, get a job

Sneaky no good cops set a trap for me

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Posted in Finding jobs, Networking

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Cowardice in job seeking

Posted on February 16, 2012 | Leave a comment

A 5000 email resume spam campaign may get you a job.  That’s why there are people who will legitimately mail, email or fax your resume to a boatload of recruiters.  If you want to spend the money on it, go ahead.

Putting your resume on a hundred job boards may get you a job.  On my blog sites I have a link to Resume Rabbit, who will do it.  If you want to spend the money, go ahead.

How to REALLY get a great job is personal contact. Here’s why: if I put an ad in the paper or on a job board, 50 to 1000 job seekers will reply.  Most of those will be unqualified for the job.  Basically, I have to wade through spam to get a few gems. Similarly, last week the same resume was sent to me 5 times.  It was from a guy in Texas who tries to hide where he is from so I will call him with a job “anywhere in the US”.  It is spam.  I delete a lot of spammed resumes.  I call 1 out of 50 of them.

The people who get my attention every time are:
1. Recommended to me by their friends, or
2. Call me personally and introduce themselves, or
3. Are recruited by me when I call them directly at their jobs.

All three are guts and glory ways of contacting someone.  Getting a friend to recommend you or calling yourself is a very high risk and high reward way of looking for a job.  Sending an email or applying online is a no risk and very low reward way of looking for a job.

Cowardice is too strong of a word, but an effective one.  Email is not cowardly, it is just the least effective avenue of attack you have.

Personal calls and recommendations from friends are the most effective way to get that job you really want.  Hiring managers insulate themselves from job hunters so they aren’t bothered by unqualified and ill prepared job seekers.  If you are absolutely qualified and prepared why not use the absolutely most effective job hunting techniques you can?

Do a search for “networking” on my blog site archives.  I have written a lot of articles on how you can find the people you need to contact.  Look for a title that includes “networking”.
The easiest way, however, is just to call the company.  Ask, “Who is in charge of US sales?” or, “Who is the head of computer programming?”, or “Which VP runs commercial lending?”  Then call that person and ask them what you can do for them.  Say, “I’m Jim Tarrington.  At my company I report to the guy who does your job.  I’m looking for a job.  Is there a place I would fit into your group?”  Then listen.

Try a high contact, high risk, and high reward way to job search.  Give it a shot.

Something To Do Today

Which 3 companies would you most like to work for?  Or, which 3 advertised jobs do you want the most?  Get a friend to recommend you, or call in yourself.

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Posted in Networking, Resumes

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How to find a job at a convention – you pay

Posted on January 14, 2011 | Leave a comment

The trouble with corporate America is that too many people with too much power live in a box (their home), then travel the same road every day to another box (their office). –(Popcorn)

I know of one consultant who flies to meet his clients for lunch anywhere in North America.  He lives in the small Colorado town of Telluride. He has chosen to live in paradise and pay the price of frequent travel.

In your job search, instead of flying across the country to meet one person, you can meet with 100 potential employers. You will only pay for one plane ticket and 2 nights in a hotel.  So bite the bullet.  Pay up. Go to a convention related to your field of work.

But how do you effectively work, or network, at a convention?  Five steps:

  1. Get a list of all the exhibitors and speakers. Don’t be picky at this stage. Research and call every company that is close to the field you want to work in.  Don’t ask for the HR department, ask for a manager, marketing or sales.  Talk to them about who will be coming to the convention.  Call the best contacts who will be coming. Tell them you’ll see them at the convention.
  2. Go to the convention and make your first pass in the morning of the first day.  Quickly go to every booth on your list and collect materials and business cards.  Just explain that you will be back, but need to work quickly this morning.
  3. Go back to every booth on your list and talk in depth with the people you want to contact.  Work a priority system.  Who is most likely to hire you? Ask them questions you have about their company and their field.  Make sure you have the business card of everyone you talk to.   Give them your card.  You are building a network.  You might discuss employment, but this is not the time to apply for a job.
  4. Everyone who made it to the convention has influence where they work.  They have been talking to new people, finding things out about the industry.  Enlist them in your job search. When you get home, contact everyone you met OR WANTED TO MEET.  Call them.  Chat briefly.  Then ask if they heard of any openings for someone like you.  Ask who else you should contact.  What if they are a techie and you are a salesman?  Call them anyway.  They’re a CEO and you are an engineer?  Call them.  A conversation about the convention leads naturally to what is happening in your field and job openings. 
  5. Send an email to everyone you talk to.  Thank them for their time and ask them to forward the email to anyone who might get you closer to the job you are looking for.

If you work a convention aggressively you will find dozens of openings that are NOT advertised.  You’ll even find out about jobs at companies not at the show.  Why?  Because the people manning the booths are the best and the brightest.  They are heavily recruited by other companies.  They know which companies are looking for talent. Aren’t those the people you want in your job search network?

Something To Do Today

You need a list of conventions.  Most people forget to include the association conventions they can attend that are less than 200 miles away.  Go back over your list of conventions and add a list of local and regional association conventions you can attend.

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3 ways to do a thank you horribly wrong

Posted on November 22, 2010 | Leave a comment

HR said, “We are still going to bring George in, but his Thank You note wasn’t professional at all.”

I cringed as she told me the problem.  Then I decided to do a survey of managers, directors, and HR folks to see how a Thank You can be done wrong.

The 3 biggest mistakes:

  1. A text message thank you
  2. A sloppy ugly note
  3. Spelling and grammar errors

A text message thank you

Nothing says I didn’t really want to send this message as much as a text message.  The short, compressed, choppy text message can only give a bad impression. An email is the most common thank you note.  Email is fine but text messages reek of insincerity to many hiring managers.

A sloppy ugly note

A clean typewriter paper page with a short handwritten note is great.  A card from the store with nothing inside but your neatly written thanks is wonderful.  Typed is okay if your handwriting is bad.  Short is best.

Paper ripped from a spiral notebook is horrible.  A napkin with a note — please, don’t even consider it.  A pen that skips and was restarted on the page, don’t send it! A card printed from your PC – don’t!  They just don’t look professional.  We are going for professional here.

Spelling and grammar errors

If you have any doubts, don’t send it.  Hand it to someone who is good at spotting bad grammar and spelling.

In a nutshell

You will be judged by what you send.  If it looks professional, heartfelt, and personal, you will be judged well.  If it looks unprofessional, so will you.

It is best to send a nice professional looking note.  If you can’t, sending nothing is better than broadcasting your incompetence.

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Posted in Interviews

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Getting past the resume trash can

Posted on November 3, 2010 | Leave a comment

Do not say a little in many words, but a great deal in a few.  (Pythagoras)

When is your resume being thrown away? Yesterday I gave the 4 major trashing points in your resume’s life.

You have two ways to break through the cycle:

  1. Have someone give your resume directly to the boss with their recommendation.
  2. Have a resume that passes all 4 trash points.

Networking will get your resume directly to the boss with a recommendation.  Outstanding networking will get you an interview without a resume.

For the rest:

Do you pass the idiot test and the expert test?  Assume an idiot and an expert will each try to find a reason to throw away your resume.  Assume they have too many resumes and want to throw away as many as possible.  They are proactive trashers.

The secretary has to see an obvious, undeniable fit with the job description.  She won’t understand all the acronyms, but she knows they have to be there.  She knows how much experience is required.  She knows it has to be a manager or a worker. She trashes resumes that don’t shout that they fit the job.

The boss has a lot to do.  He wants a great person to work for him, but doesn’t have enough time to talk to everyone.  Like the secretary he throws out the obvious problems.  The difference is that he understands the resume.  He throws out the resumes that just don’t feel right.  Time is critical to him.  The first person he calls has the accomplishments he needs in his company.

Run a test. Take your resume and the job ad you are responding to.  Hand both to someone who doesn’t know the field.  Do they think you pass?  Do the same with an expert.  Do you pass?

Stop wishing and hoping.  Either network your way in or find your own screeners.  You need other people to help you get your resume out of the trash can.

Something To Do Today

Who do you know that is up front and brutally blunt?  Take your resume and the job ad you are responding to.  Ask them read the job ad thoroughly.  Then give them your resume.  Ask them to decide in 10 seconds if it looks like the resume passes.  Then ask them to take 45 seconds and look closer.

Do you pass the test?

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Posted in Accomplishments, Networking, Resumes

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Halloween and your job search

Posted on October 28, 2010 | Leave a comment

Tips for job seekers and Halloween trick or treaters are just about the same.  Think about how each of these directly applies to looking for a job.

  1. If you are scared, get your dad (a coach) to help on a few doors.
  2. Dress for success.  Look the part from your hair to your shoes, bag and greeting.
  3. The neighborhood you call on defines the size of the treats you get.
  4. Not everyone is giving out one pound candy bars, but they are all worth visiting.
  5. The more houses you call on, the more likely you will get a one pound candy bar.
  6. Go BACK to the biggest house with the best candy later.
  7. The most successful trick or treaters plan their routes and run from door to door.
  8. If you don’t knock, they won’t answer.
  9. If the porch light is out, you won’t get any candy, but you may get advice.
  10. Some of the scariest houses give the best treats.
  11. You get more treats if you start early and work late.
  12. Asking for candy in the traditional way works, ingenuity may get you more.
  13. Helping a little kid can double your take.
  14. Always say thank you.
  15. Sometimes they just ran out of treats, sorry.
  16. Going with friends (groups and social media) can make a scary neighborhood safer.
  17. It is a night of cold calling, even if you know the people.
  18. Trade candy (leads) afterwards to get what you really want.
  19. If you go to a party instead, and complain, you won’t get a big bag of candy.
  20. Don’t blow out the candle in the pumpkin.
  21. Do it again next year, only better, now that you have experience.

Wow!  I could write 21 articles based on those points.  Let me make a few quick points instead.

  1. Planning and preparation. If you want the best chance of quick success, take 15 minutes each day and an additional 4 hours each week to review results, make lists, THINK, and plan for the coming week.  And make sure you have resumes that are attractive so people to call you back.
  2. Work hard and fast. Actually do what you plan.  Make calls and contacts daily.  It is amazing how often luck follows hard work.
  3. Go back again. You should be talking to your best prospects at least monthly.  If you spend 15 minutes thinking and looking for a reason to call, you can usually come up with a helpful reason to call almost anyone.
  4. Work together. Share leads.  Offer to critique other’s resumes.  Suggest websites, books, and other job search ideas.  A lot of people find the perfect job in the castoffs and contacts from someone else’s search. Go to someone else’s house and both of you make calls at the same time.
  5. Be polite. Just because they say “No” doesn’t mean they hate you.  Say thank you and contact them again if it is a company you really want to join.  Never burn bridges or “blow out the candle” with anyone.

Have a great Halloween, and an even better job search.  Good luck finding that one pound candy bar!

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Posted in Accomplishments, Attitude, Finding jobs, Focus, Networking, Perseverance, Resumes, Time management

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Nebraskan Networking

Posted on October 13, 2010 | Leave a comment

It’s not who you know, it’s who will help you that counts.

196 people in Nebraska were sent a package and asked to forward it to anyone who might be able get it closer to a named stockbroker living near Boston. All they had was a name, an occupation, and a very general location. Milgram, a researcher, assumed: 1. Nebraskans know no one in Boston, 2. they would never complete the task.  Amazingly, those Nebraskans eventually got the packages to the stockbroker.

It took an average of 5 mailings to get each package to the right place.  Each mailing was to someone they thought might be closer to the final intended recipient.  That step is called a degree of separation.  This experiment is the basis that people use to claim you can get to anyone in the world in 6 steps.

Here is some more information that makes this study usable in a job search, sales or your career.

Milgram stacked the deck in his studies.  In previous experiments, lower income people often ended sending chains. Milgram recruited higher income people to start these chains. He made the package as impressive as possible by using a fancy Harvard document richly signed.  He asked each person in each step to send a reply card to him to track progress.  This was an experiment in getting strangers to help.

Tomorrow I will show you how I have been using these facts and results to expand my network dramatically.

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Something To Do Today

Go over your network list.  Who do you know.  How many people do you know.   Tomorrow I will show you how to dramatically increase your network effectiveness.

You might have fun reading  about Milgram’s studies. This article is the closest to the original documents that I can find. I got a free copy by googling milgram study original documentation. For some reason I can’t reproduce the link.

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The Phantom Girl Scout Networking Mistake

Posted on September 30, 2010 | Leave a comment

Last night my wife Laura got a call.  A woman called Laura’s cell phone, and Laura’s number is rarely given out.  The caller said, “I’m a Girl Scout raising money for a trip.” Laura heard something about cookies and knew that Girl Scouts don’t sell cookies in September.  The Caller-ID was blocked. The woman never identified herself. Hmm.  It sounded like a crank call or a con job.  So Laura firmly told the caller,  “Girl Scouts don’t sell cookies this time of year, I’m not interested.” Laura hung up.

A minute later Laura’s cell phone rang again with the same blocked ID.  Laura let it ring.  No reason to encourage crank calls.  When she got a voice message she listened.  An upset mother, who never identified herself, told Laura that she had no excuse to be so rude to her daughter.

So now we are trying to figure out who we offended. At this point we are not even sure cookies were mentioned.  Maybe Laura just assumed she said “cookies”.

The Job Search Application

You are a potential crank caller or con job when you call a hiring manager you don’t know.

That Girl Scout made a few critical mistakes:

  1. She didn’t identify herself
  2. She didn’t identify the person who sent her
  3. Her starting point was ambiguous
  4. She was calling at the wrong time of year
  5. She was “not human”

Number 5 is the real problem.  By having a problem with the first 4, she guaranteed that Laura did not see her as a human, but as a threat, crank call, or con artist.

When you are calling to network, be very clear who you are and who sent you.  Let the person know exactly why you are making this particular call.  Realize that they probably do not have a job for you – it is the wrong time of year.

To turn yourself into a human.  First say in 10 seconds or less you are job hunting.  Less is better. They will tell you if they have a job opening. Then give them something they can easily help you with.  Ask them to recommend a business association, certification, trade publication, online community, or to link to you in LinkedIn. Get their email so you can send them contact information in case they think of something else.

Thank them for their time and hang up.

Send them a thank you email.  Now put them on your list.  Make a few notes so that they are human to you too.  Figure out what would interest them that you can do for them every 2 to 3 weeks.  Every time they see an email or hear from you, you become more human.  Every time you help them, they want to help back.

Don’t be a Phantom Girl Scout.  Be a human.  Get them to like you and want to help you.

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Posted in Finding jobs, Networking

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