"Not what you know..."

You’ve heard that saying, “It’s not what you know, but who you know.” 

I always kind of hated that saying. It leaves great people out. It focused too much on the “in-crowd” to me. And yet… the more I journey this career road, I do find that it is often very true.

You do have to genuinely have skill, talent, and ability to land a position, but often getting your foot in the door involves an introduction by SOMEONE WHO KNOWS SOMEONE.

At the beginning of 2021, I took a poll from my LinkedIn network on what is their biggest challenge to networking? 

Here are the results:

• 32% — Hadn’t seen the return on it
• 30% — Not good at it / Don’t like it
• 26% — Don’t know HOW to do it now
• 12% — Don’t know WHERE to do it now

Interestingly, 70 - 85% of jobs are NOT posted online and are filled INSTEAD by networking.

If I look back on the positions I’ve accepted, my own career history proves 80% of them were obtained by networking.

• First internship — my grad school classmate worked at an architecture firm and they were hiring Summer interns for a research project. She put in a word for me.
• The move to Chicago from Denver — a friend of a friend made an introduction, which led to an opportunity to interview.
• After a Jan. 2009 layoff due to the recession — my former client put in a word for me at another firm, and I ended up landing the position only 4 months post layoff.
• My 1st Career Pivot — An Executive Recruiter reached out to me for a position. I declined because I was making a career change, but I stayed in touch and later proposed working together based on my industry experience.

Hmm… I think these stats show we need to take this networking thing a little more seriously in the job search efforts. So, let’s address those challenges to networking from the poll.

No Return On Networking Investment

When it comes to networking, the biggest mistake professionals make is expecting a short-term return on their time investment. In each of my own examples, the relationships that led to the job opportunity had been nurtured at a minimum of 9 months and upwards of 2 years prior to seeing “the introduction.”

The easiest and fastest way to see the return on networking is to throw out the timeline and remember that you’re investing in people.

Flip the narrative in your mind and make it about the people you’re interacting with and not about you. When we remove our own selfish needs and seek to serve others, it always comes back 100 fold.

Not Good At It / Don’t Like It

I have a strong suspicion that the folks who haven’t seen a return on their networking investment could also be the ones who loathe doing it.

I do understand the hardship of trying to be a “people person” while networking when you just are not. So I want to address this from the vantage point of personality and perspective.

First, recognize that networking is a small portion of your time in the grand scheme of things. When you calendar a networking event (in person or virtual) you need to also calendar in the quiet time as a follow-up. Introverts require time alone to fill the cup back up. So as long as you give yourself the appropriate amount of time to recharge, you shouldn’t be in a deficit overall.

Second, if you can identify the core reason behind why you should invest time to network, it will change your perspective when doing it. The focus of this article is networking related to the job search, but certainly networking yields dividends when it comes to client referrals, business deals, new projects, etc. Keeping the “why” in mind helps you with rationalizing the time spent. 

Don’t Know How To Do It Now

The massive switch in 2020 to “All-Things-Virtual” certainly kept us on our toes in the networking space. I applaud the creative thinkers in the Event and Planning industry who found ways to engage the audience behind the screen.

Whether the networking opportunity is virtual or not, the focus is still about the other person.

I know the pain of wanting immediate solutions to urgent problems in the job search. You just need to know that networking is not going to do that for you. As mentioned already, it’s a long game. So enter into a networking opportunity with this change in mindset:

• “I truly have something to offer, and I also care about others. Let me seek first to serve, not to get.”
• “Active listening means that I’ll seek to understand, not to respond. I’ll come prepared with some questions that allows me to get to know the professionals I plan to meet.”
• “Thinking of a time that brought me immense joy… I’ll enter into this networking event with that on my mind.”
• “I’ll repeat the person’s name back when they introduce themselves, and associate it with something I know to remember them better.”

The change in mindset outlined above brings the focus towards others, encourages listening to others, starts the event in a joyful attitude, and reinforces a practice of remembering names.

Don’t Know Where To Do It Now

Thankfully many professional associations, clubs, and groups took their typical in-person events and brought them to our home offices, living rooms, and kitchens this past year.

I’m going to take a leap that you still participated in these, even if you got “Zoomed-out.” :) 

With the advances and innovations in technology, it means new and creative ways to get to know professionals will continue to exist. Clubhouse is a recent example of this.

For most of RP4C clients, we created unique outreach ideas for them through LinkedIn because it is the largest professional networking site. 

The Where and How of networking are closely tied. My encouragement is that as you may try a new networking platform, perhaps Clubhouse, Alignable or others, you simply need an intentional plan when doing so.

Decide the reason WHY you are networking, which will fuel both WHERE and HOW you show up.

*************************************************************************

Article shared with permission from the RP4C blog archives. If you're wanting to kick-start an effective job search with a targeted networking strategy, visit RP4C's Career Coaching Options. For more career + mentoring inspiration, follow Michelle Rademacher.