Networking

Networking Advice from “The Godfather”

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter channels the voice of Marlon Brando in, “The Godfather” to make a point about a mistake people make when they network.

[spp-transcript]

I met have a little fun today and offer job search tip in the process. The phone is going to be around the idea of job search lessons from “The Godfather.”

One of the best ones comes early in the movie when someone comes to the Godfather to ask for help… Marlon Brando adopts a look that is wonderful and teaches one of the best lessons of networking.

“You never even invite me to your house for a cup of coffee and now you ask me for a favor.”

What is he telling him? You only contact me when you need me; the rest of the time, I’m nothing to you. That’s how many job hunters go about networking. They go out there and repeatedly ask, “Can you help me? Can you help me? Can you help me?” The person that there networking with, that there reaching out to respond by thinking, “You never even invite me to your house for a cup of coffee and now you ask me for a favor. Like I’m supposed to do something for you something”

In other words, you are being selfish. You’re showing no consideration. No respect for the other person.

I don’t know how it is for you but I received calls from people every few years when they’re looking for job. If I call them and ask for help with the search I’m involved with, their responses not to return my phone call. Why should I help them?

“Your earn a fee.”

I can earn plenty of fees and I do. The question is, “How should I conduct myself?”

You want to work toward creating and building a relationship of trust where people want to help you. Just waiting until someone calls you up or you call someone, you can expect the same response that the Godfather gives, “You never even invite me to your house for a cup of coffee and now you ask me for a favor.”

Again, don’t be selfish. Don’t be a mooch. Treat your relationships well and they will be very happy to help you. That will take time but hopefully you can learn this lesson and don’t have to repeat it year in and year out, lurching from one desire the network with the person to another and, instead, making it a part of your life

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Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

The Most Important Reason to Network

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains the most important reason you should be out networking.

[spp-transcript]

Today, I want to talk with you

about the most important reason you want to be doing networking.

There’s the most important reason why you should be doing networking, not just simply while you’re looking for job but after you are in a job, after you are settled in, why you should continue to network after you are onboard.

You won’t need much of a resume if you are doing great networking. Let me illustrate.

Often, when you’re sending out resumes, you have to tailor your resume to every single role and demonstrate a fit for the position because no one knows you. As a result, you have to “thread the needle” in order to get interviews.

Don’t believe me? How many resumes of people sending out for which they never get a response because in no way, shape or form to they fit the requirement.

What networking will allow you to do is to be slightly off target. It will allow you to overcome the objection someone will have where they say, “Gee, this person’s resume doesn’t look like it fits,” and allow someone who knows you to advocate for you and say, “Not the case. He does have this experience.” “She knows what she’s talking about on the subject. She is in a surround this.” “He knows this material called.”

In this way, you are able to overcome objections because you have an advocate for you. Having than advocate for you, not just simply from the referral perspective but from the vantage point of overcoming initial objections is a huge advantage for job hunters.

So I want to encourage you to build your network, support your network, work on building and enhancing a network after you join you next firm.

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Do you really think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

9 Tips to Help You Master the Art of Networking

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bike

Welcome to Recruiter Q&A, where we pose employment-related questions to the experts and share their answers! Have a question you’d like to ask? Leave it in the comments, and you might just see it in the next installment of Recruiter Q&A!

Today’s Question: Networking is one of the best ways to advance your career, land a new job, and help others do the same. For today’s Q&A, we asked the experts: What strategies and tactics did you use to become a master networker?

 

Continued

Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

What Are Some Networking Tricks When You Are Job Hunting?

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[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN0kMwNzhzs[/svp]

[spp-transcript]

What are some networking tricks when your job hunting?

I hate this question and I hate the implication of this question. Let me explain.

The first implication of the question is you only network with the job hunting. The second one is that you have to trick people into helping you.

What are some networking tricks? I know. I know. What are some networking tips that I can use when I am job hunting.

Step number one. Don’t leave network with your job hunting. That’s the real big one.

You have to think of networking has been part of her job at every stop in your career, not just when your job hunting. Your employer may not be paid you for it, but you will employer is – – namely YOU.

You are your own employer.

You are self-employed and every decision you make is looking out for their own interests, you and your career.

Don’t outsource that to your employer otherwise you are screwed. They are looking out for themselves and, although they tell you that they care about you and they think you are wonderful, they are not looking out for you, nor is it their job to look out for you. That is a seduction on your part is not true.

You have to think in terms of being self-employed and doing the things that are needed in order to build a brand for yourself. You want to become known as an expert in your field, as well as your particular level in your field.

So if you are junior developer, you can’t compare yourself to a CIO or a VP of technology. You are different and comparing yourself to them is a mistake.

Learn from those people, but comparing yourself to them is foolhardy.

So I hate this question because it’s just all the bad qualities of job hunting that cause it to become has hated as it is. After all, job hunting shouldn’t be about needing to suddenly network; that’s what career should be about – – building your relationships so that if you need one another at different times you are there to help one another at those times.

It’s a two-way street. It’s about developing relationships over the course of time. After all, if you are suddenly connected to someone on LinkedIn, do you expect them to jump through a hoop for you?

No! You wouldn’t jump through who for them; why would you expect them to jump through hoops for you?

Think smart. You are the chairman of the board of your organization (in my case, it is “The Altman Organization). Get out there, get known and build relationships. Then, people will be more than willing to help you.

[/spp-transcript]
I recently learned that the best way to land a job is to know someone within a company. But I also learned that I don’t know that many people….

I have been messaging people on LinkedIn (people I know, and that I don’t know) and, hopefully, that will get me something.

What do I do to expand my search?

Do you really think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn 

Networking and Keeping Score

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[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zPPZYfeswY[/svp]
There is a habit that people have to keep score when networking. Here, I speak to the impact and encourage you to adopt an attitude.

 

[spp-transcript]

I want to talk with you today about networking and the habit that people have where they want to keep score of referrals with their networking.

Sometimes you may be in a situation where asking for an introduction.

“Can you introduce me to so-and-so?”

“Sure.”

“Can you introduce me to so-and-so?”

“Sure.”

And when they ask you for an introduction, you’re in a situation where you have to turn around and say, “I can’t do it this time. I provided a number of introductions to them and I’ve been asked to stop for a while.”

People turn around and say to themselves, “I provided a number of introductions for them and they can’t reciprocate? Screw them! Next time they ask for introduction, REJECT”

People have the habit of expecting reciprocity and sometimes the scenario is real, just like the one I’ve described.

I really want to encourage you to do. Stop keeping score like you’re in the stadium and everyone is looking at the big board to see who’s help someone else more than another. It’s like looking at the Jumbotron for the score of the game all the time.

“In the left-hand column, Jeff Altman has given our five introductions. In the right-hand column, you’ve given out none, zero or one.” Whatever it is.

Don’t get me wrong. If you’re going to ask me for an introduction that could cost me a lot of money for fees that might normally earn, I’m going to refuse to give you that introduction. But you’re going to ask for introduction on LinkedIn or to someone who you want to get acquainted with or pick their brain, I’m happy to help.

That’s the philosophy you need to adopt. It’s like in the business networking group, BNI, they teach the attitude of givers gain. Think about that for second. Givers gain.

They gain in ways that may not be obvious to you. They gain from good karma Okay. I know some of you are going to roll your eyes when you agree that. Other people start to feel a sense of obligation. They want to help.

You’re helping the receiver of the introduction and they may feel like they want to turn around and help you, too.

So recognizing may not be obvious to you right away, but you always want to be open to the idea of providing introductions, being of service to others in order to obtain the sort of good juju that comes from such an attitude.

Again. Givers gain is an attitude that you need to bring into your life. If you don’t, the only thing that happens is that you get miserable, you get angry, you get frustrated. How’s that can help you?

The kind. Be helpful. I hope this helps you.

[/spp-transcript]

 

 

 

Do you really think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn http://bit.ly/thebiggamehunter

How to Get Better at Interviewing, Networking . . . or Anything for That Matter! (VIDEO)

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I discuss a proven technique for getting better at interviewing, networking or anything!

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

Follow him at The Big Game Hunter, Inc. on LinkedIn for more articles, videos and podcasts than what are offered here and jobs he is recruiting for.

Visit www.TheBigGameHunter.us. There’s a lot more advice there.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Pay what you want for my books about job search

Subscribe to TheBigGameHunterTV on YouTube  for advice about job hunting and hiring. Like videos, share and comment.

Trying to hire someone? Email me at JeffAltman@TheBigGameHunter.us

Do you need more in-depth coaching? Join my Coaching program.

Want to ask me questions via phone, Skype or Facetime? Have your job search questions answered.

Seven Steps to Better Networking

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If published statistics are accurate, employment agencies and search firms fill about 22% of all jobs in the U.S. Job boards fill anywhere between 2% and 8%. So how do the others get filled?

Networking consistently fills more jobs than any other method. Yet people often don’t know how to network well, act only in crisis (I need a job now!). Networking when you don’t need a job will help you cultivate relationships that will help you find work.

Here’s what to do:

1. Develop an elevator speech. If you’re not familiar with the term, an elevator speech is a 30-second synopsis of your experience that you want people to remember about you. It needs to be delivered with enthusiasm, as an actor or actress might. Every single time but not seem like you are vomiting one of those canned speeches some job hunters do.

2.Participate in trade groups. The “mega-functions” are harder to be successful in than smaller ones. The more targeted the group, often the better. Get involved. Join committees. Let people get to know you through your contributions. Ask for support.

3. Cultivate your network of relationships. Tap into your existing relationships — friends, family, former colleagues, people you know. Just let them know you’re looking for work and ask them if they might know someone in your field who might be able to you advice. Ask each person you are referred to for at least three referrals. Create a snowball effect.

4. Help others. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, “Give more, get more.” Help others and things will come back to you. Contribute to others and their successful search. This can also occur when you genuinely listen to others and their professional needs and offer assistance. There is advice that you will receive by supporting others, ideas that will emerge from helping others work through their problems and opportunities that will be afforded to you through listening.

5. Focus on creating a great impression and asking for support. If all you do is ask for a job, a lot of doors will be slammed in your face. If you focus on creating a great impression, rest assured that when you are in front of someone who needs you, they will be smart enough to see the fit.

6. Cultivate your relationships. Like dating and good marriages, relationships take time to develop and blossom. Don’t expect instant results. Send thank you notes (www.hallmark.com and other online greeting card sites will help you keep the cost low or free), a quick e-mail or a periodic phone call to stay in contact.

7. Follow through. Act on all the leads you receive. If you promise to do something, do it when you say you will do it. Imagine what it is like for the other person who is trying to help you, who may have even alerted the other person to a phone call and then not have it acted upon.

 

Take the time to network, ideally when you are working and don’t necessarily need a job. The investment will be worth your time.

 

© The Big Game Hunter, Inc. Asheville, NC  2010, 2016

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Do you really think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

LinkedIn – Connecting, Not Networking

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Someone wrote a letter that asked, in effect, why, when someone asks a question, the replies are either platitudes or brief.

My response was to tell the questioner to be thankful for any kind of response since he was probably connected to many people with whom he had no relationship and that these people were taking time out of busy lives to help him.

The question has caused me to correct a mis-impression you probably have about the value of your LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo, myspace, Ning and other networks.

When LinkedIn was formed, it had the idea that you should only connect with your friends and business associates.

They still encourage the same thing but the members have a different idea; they believe you should try to connect with anyone who might be able to help them in some way at any time in the future.

The result is that we are all connected to people with whom we have no real relationship.

As of today, I have 15,305 direct connections that connect me to many millions of people worldwide. As recruiters go, that’s pretty good but not extraordinary.

Generally, I do not request connections. Instead people reach out to me and have done so since I joined LinkedIn many years ago.

How many of these people do you think would be willing to help me? How many of your connections do you think would actually help you get a good connection with their employer or with someone that they really knew?

Probably very few.

 

© The Big Game Hunter, Inc. Asheville, NC  2008, 2016

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Do you really think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

 

Seven Steps to Better Networking

by

If published statistics are accurate, employment agencies and search firms fill about 22% of all jobs in the U.S. Job boards fill anywhere between 2% and 8%. So how do the others get filled?

Networking consistently fills more jobs than any other method. Yet people often don’t know how to network well, act only in crisis (I need a job now!). Networking when you don’t need a job will help you cultivate relationships that will help you find work.

Here’s what to do:

1. Develop an elevator speech. If you’re not familiar with the term, an elevator speech is a 30-second synopsis of your experience that you want people to remember about you. It needs to be delivered with enthusiasm, as an actor or actress might. Every single time.

 

  1. Participate in trade groups. The “mega-functions” are harder to be successful in than smaller ones. The more targeted the group, often the better. Get involved. Join committees. Let people get to know you through your contributions. Ask for support.3. Cultivate your network of relationships. Tap into your existing relationships — friends, family, former colleagues, people you know. Just let them know you’re looking for work and ask them if they might know someone in your field who might be able to give you advice. Ask each person you are referred to for at least three referrals. Create a snowball effect.
  2. Help others. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, “Give more, get more.” Help others and things will come back to you. Contribute to others and their successful search. This can also occur when you genuinely listen to others and their professional needs and offer assistance. There is advice that you will receive by supporting others, ideas that will emerge from helping others work through their problems and opportunities that will be afforded to you through listening.5. Focus on creating a great impression and asking for support. If all you do is ask for a job, a lot of doors will be slammed in your face. If you focus on creating a great impression, rest assured that when you are in front of someone who needs you, they will be smart enough to see the fit.6. Cultivate your relationships. Like dating and good marriages, relationships take time to develop and blossom. Don’t expect instant results. Send thank you notes (www.hallmark.com and other online greeting card sites will help you keep the cost low or free), a quick e-mail or a periodic phone call to stay in contact.

    7. Follow through. Act on all the leads you receive. If you promise to do something, do it when you say you will do it. Imagine what it is like for the other person who is trying to help you, who may have even alerted the other person to a phone call and then not have it acted upon.

    Take the time to network, ideally when you are working and don’t necessarily need a job. The investment will be worth your time.

 

© The Big Game Hunter, Inc. Asheville, NC  2008, 2016

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Do you really think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Use Your Contacts, References, Former Colleagues, Family & Friends to Help Land Jobs

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Some years ago, I was working for an employment agency where the owner was “difficult.” I won’t go into details other than to say that the environment he created was perpetually tense and stressful far beyond what is normally derived from the work itself. I was very successful there so he tempered his “being difficult” with me – sometimes. But he listened in on telephone calls and kept logs of computer activity. His personal conduct with an employee was so bad that he was sued in an episode that made the wire services and newspapers around the United States.

When I decided to change jobs, like you, I had to look at my options and consider going to work in a new environment, with new people, systems and problems. I called a former employee whom I had trained and maintained contact with and asked him about the company he joined.

He invited me over. I met with several people and decided that this was the place to join after our son’s adoption was completed. I joined in March, 2002.

Could I have answered ads and spoken with twenty or thirty agencies before joining? You bet. But I knew a lot about this shop before joining and that made a huge difference to me.

So who is your network of contacts and how will you maintain contact with them? Well, you probably have friends and family that you could call upon. If you’re religious, there might be members of your place of worship. But the key people you need to maintain some relationships with are former colleagues and bosses.

Why?

First of all, you will probably need references at some juncture in your career and who is better to praise your work than people who have seen it and will speak kindly of it.

But the biggest reason is that maintaining contact with former colleagues or managers will give you the potential for entrée into the next company you join.

After all, they may join in leadership roles where they need to hire and may wish to hire you because your skills blend with their needs and they already trust you to deliver on an assignment.

Secondly, they will hear about others who may need what you have to offer.

But the simplest reason to do this is that it extends your reach to many more people beyond your own circle of influence.

So before deleting them from your  cell phone or address book, consider calling them to say hi and catch up. Or send them a quick note to let them know what you’re up to. A Christmas card or e-mail works wonders.

Don’t wait too long. They may change jobs again and your ability to contact them may evaporate.

 

© The Big Game Hunter, Inc. Asheville, NC  2008, 2016

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

Follow him at The Big Game Hunter, Inc. on LinkedIn for more articles, videos and podcasts than what are offered here and jobs he is recruiting for.

Visit www.TheBigGameHunter.us. There’s a lot more advice there.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Pay what you want for my books about job search

Subscribe to TheBigGameHunterTV on YouTube  for advice about job hunting and hiring. Like videos, share and comment.

Trying to hire someone? Email me at JeffAltman@TheBigGameHunter.us

Do you need more in-depth coaching? Join my Coaching program.

Want to ask me questions via phone, Skype or Facetime? Have your job search questions answered.