Networking / Personal Contacts

This involves you building a network of contacts, both business and personal. Through this network you will hear of companies with a problem that needs to be solved (if you can solve it there may be a job for you), companies expanding/winning new orders (they may need to take on additional staff), job openings (people leaving a company or a new position being created), etc.

If you manage to uncover a vacant position or a new position before a company thinks of advertising the position there may be very few candidates or just one (you!). If you are a specialist in your field, companies have been known to create a position just for you to utilise your talents.

Your success in networking will depend on your ability to communicate and interact with other people. If you find it difficult to communicate or to get on with other people easily, then you will find networking a real struggle. If on the other hand you are very outgoing and enjoy meeting new people and possess excellent communication and interpersonal skills, you will take to networking very quickly.

You will be talking directly to the decision-makers and you must be confident both on the phone and in a face-to-face meeting. These people will always be busy, so you will have to pick the right moment to approach them and you will have to intrigue them fairly early on in any conversation otherwise they will lose interest.

To be a successful networker you must be prepared to talk to a large number of people both on the phone and in person. Expect to receive some rejections using this method. This approach to finding a new job can be much more effective than the other traditional methods, but these are still worth pursuing nevertheless.

In the following sections we will teach you how to build your network and how to use it as an active part of your job searching campaign.

4. Starting a network.

• FREE guides: How to dramatically improve your CV / resume, salary negotiation tips, job hunting secrets.
• Are you missing out on interviews because your CV is letting you down? Click here to learn how our professional CV writing service can substantially improve your chances of securing a job
• Are you struggling to find a new job at the salary level you want or do you just want to find out how to find a job in today's job market? Click here to learn how our job search services can significantly improve your chances of finding a job
• Do you want to improve your interview success rate? Click here to learn how our mock interview and interview techniques services can dramatically improve your chances of securing a job
• FREE: Psychometric Test. Discover the interview questions that will floor you and how to answer them.