Career Q&A: Tips for Job Hunting Confidentially

“Matt: I took a new job a few weeks ago, but can already tell I made a mistake and that this organization isn’t going to be a good fit for me in the long run.  I don’t want to quit, however, until I have my next opportunity lined up.  What tips would you have for running a confidential job search when one is working full-time?”

Without question, looking for work while employed presents a number of different challenges from the typical job search scenario of somebody searching while between positions.  And while most people would still consider this to be a nicer problem to have than having to deal with the unemployment spectre, there are definitely some important guidelines to follow when you’re searching on the “down low” without your current employer being aware of it.

For starters, one should recognize that many employers will consider such a search by an employee grounds for instant dismissal, should they discover that one of their team members has a wandering eye.  This reaction is often based on the belief that looking for a new job constitutes “disloyalty” on the part of the employee and that the person is not giving 110% to their current assignment.  It might also raise concerns about intellectual property, trade secrets, non-compete agreements, and other issues if the employee appears to be looking for another position within the same industry.

Now granted, most companies seem to have little moral compunction when the tables are turned.  In other words, I don’t see a lot of organizations losing sleep when they decide to keep the news of a pending layoff secret from their employees, which is sort of the exact same issue, in reverse.  But that’s just life — and anybody who chooses to spend time pondering the relative fairness, unfairness, or irony of such behavior is going to get rapidly steamrolled by reality.

So long story short, unless you have an extra-special relationship with your current boss, it’s a very wise idea to keep the news of your job search under wraps and to do whatever it takes to minimize the risk of your employer finding out about your search efforts.  Several steps that will help in this regard include:

• Be extremely selective about whom you network with.  As opposed to a normal job search, when it makes sense to spread the word to the ends of the Earth about your availability, confidential job seekers should be very cautious about whom they entrust with the news of their attempt to line up a new assignment.  People are generally prone to gossip and word can get around if you’re not careful, especially if you divulge your secret to colleagues within your own office.  Even if your co-workers are trustworthy, a lurking manager could easily overhear some water cooler chatter and realize that you’re a “short-timer” whose future with the organization is suspect.

• Leverage your employment status.  When contacting employers, may sure to let them know that you are currently employed with another organization and running a clandestine search, since that puts a “psychological premium” on you as a candidate.  Companies pay big bucks for recruiters to hire away folks who are currently working at other places, after all, under the assumption that if somebody is drawing a paycheck at present, that says a lot about that person’s talent and marketability.  So milk this angle for all its worth, even if you don’t (or can’t) disclose the exact specifics of where you are now.

• Don’t job hunt from your workplace.  You’d think this was common sense, but I’ve come across numerous cases where people have used a company phone or work computer to engage in job hunting activities, without realizing that their employer may be monitoring their transmissions.  As a case in point, the IT Manager at the school where my wife works recently pulled her aside and asked her, out of concern, why she wasn’t happy in her job and was looking for a new position.  My wife initially had no idea what he was talking about.  After a quick chat, however, it turned out that this IT Manager had noticed she was sending numerous e-mails each day to a “career-horizons.com” e-mail address (my own, of course) and assumed this meant she was in conversations with a staffing agency and looking to jump ship!

• Tweak your LinkedIn settings.  If you have a profile on the LinkedIn networking website, and are searching for work confidentially, it’s advisable to go into the “Account & Settings” page of the system and turn off your “Connections Browse” and “Profile & Status Updates” options.  This will prevent people from monitoring what you’re doing on the system and who you’re connecting with, in case such activities could arouse suspicion.  There may be similar features on other networking sites (Facebook, etc.) you’d want to tweak in similar fashion, as well.

• Use the phone instead of e-mail, when possible.  To avoid having a “paper trail” associated with your job hunt, and minimize the odds of the wrong eyes coming across a resume you’ve sent out, try calling the hiring manager directly whenever you can to pitch yourself or respond to a published opportunity.  This will give you plausible deniability should a compromising situation arise.  By immediately stating your confidential search status when calling, too, you can usually pique their interest based on tip #2 shared above.

• Don’t post your resume out there, even anonymously.  Lastly, when job hunting in secret, you’d be well-advised to avoid posting your resume out on sites like Monster.com, CareerBuilder, and TheLadders — even if these sites offer an “anonymous” option that purports to hide your identity.  While such a feature might block your name and camoflouge your current or most recent place of employment, there are usually enough contextual clues in the rest of a person’s resume for companies to put two-and-two together.  Such a move is therefore not usually worth the risk, especially if you know your company’s HR department uses these kinds of sites on a regular basis to source hiring prospects.

Granted, there are probably many other suggestions (readers, feel free to post comments!) that would apply to people who are trying to conduct a “stealth” job search, but the above list represents the first wave of ideas that comes to my mind, judging from my clients who have attempted such searches in the past.  Ultimately, one’s hands are pretty tied in these cases and you won’t get the same results you’d get if you could job hunt on a full-time basis, and shout your availability from the rooftops, but at the same time you’re at least still drawing a paycheck — which is nothing to sneeze at!

Poll: First name reference in cover letter?

Interestingly, at least to me, I was completely outnumbered in a recent workshop on the subject of whether job hunters should address hiring managers on a first name basis when writing a cover letter — or stick with the more traditional form of address such as “Dear Mr. Smith” or “Dear Ms. Jones.”

My personal opinion is that when you’re writing to a complete stranger whom you’re hoping will hire you,  you should play it safe and stick with the more respectful “Mr.” or “Ms.” salutation.  My workshop attendees, however, felt that we’d outgrown this convention and that most people would rather have you address them by their first name, instead.  And just to clarify, we both agreed that many employers might not care, either way, but that you still had to pick one approach or the other when composing your letter…

Let’s put it to a vote.  What do you all think?

Strong Thoughts About Weakness

As part of my daily trawling of the web, searching for useful nuggets of career insight to pass along, I came across a great post here by Lance Haun, author of the exceptional “Your HR Guy” blog.  In this article, Lance (who always tells it like it is from a human resource standpoint) discusses the perennial “What is your greatest weakness?” interview question and how job hunters should approach it.

Essentially, Lance agrees with my own perspective on this question, which is that employers largely ask it as a test of an individual’s preparation and self-awareness.  And what they are looking for in terms of a response, in most cases, is an honest admission of vulnerability around some work-related characteristic — followed by a compelling statement of how you have learned to compensate for your area of weakness or improve on it over the years.  What they are most certainly NOT looking for is somebody to claim they don’t have any weaknesses or to try to sneak by with a cheesy, cliched answer like “I’m a workaholic” or “I’m a perfectionist.”

So in advising my clients on how to answer this common question, over the years, I’ve simply asked them to think back and find at least one area where their supervisors have requested improvement — or identify one area where they know they could benefit from further development.  They then should isolate this weakness and be ready to talk about it for a minute or two, touching upon how they became aware of it, an example of how it’s gotten in their way, and a discussion of how they’ve taken proactive steps to address the issue, over the years.  They might even look the hiring manager square in the eye and say “And while I’ve gotten much better in this particular area, I’d still look to you as my supervisor, if hired, to watch my back on this issue and offer any suggestions that might make me even more effective at dealing with it.”

Over the years, I can think of many people who have answered this question in a way that was really powerful and that made me more likely to hire them, not less.  For example, there was one executive who admitted his weakness was that he “didn’t learn as quickly as other people” and therefore got up an hour early, every day, to read and conduct research in the areas most pertinent to his job.  There was another individual who said her weakness was that “she gets extremely focused when she’s under a deadline” and has been told she can come across as cold or aloof to her colleagues in these situations.  So she said she warns all of her teammates, in advance, of this tendency and that they shouldn’t take it personally when she gets this way.  She also says that she is now much better at catching herself acting this way, now that she’s aware of the pattern, and that this has helped a ton in preventing issues from arising.

So this is the type of answer I’d encourage you to craft in your own situation.  Hopefully, too, it goes without saying that you shouldn’t pick a weakness that would be a true “job killer” when responding to this question, no matter how much you may have improved on it.  Don’t say that you’re terrible with details, for example, if you’re an accountant or a quality control inspector.  And don’t follow in the footsteps of the one customer service representative I interviewed who said she “isn’t good at taking feedback” from her managers.  Wow.  I wouldn’t be surprised if this individual is still looking for a job, years later…

P.S.  And back to Lance Haun’s blog posting for a moment; make sure to read the series of comments posted UNDER the blog article, as well, since they deepen the discussion in a very interesting and useful way!

Entrance Interviews — What a Concept!

While enjoying a celebratory glass of wine with a client who just landed a new position, it struck me that I’ve never yet blogged about one of my my favorite tactics for the newly-employed: asking your new boss for an “entrance interview” shortly after being hired!

As most of you likely know, many companies engage in the practice of “exit interviewing” when an employee decides to leave the organization.  In these meetings, a representative from HR usually asks a series of questions to see why the person is choosing to leave and what the company could have done better to retain them.  For example, after conducting a quick Google search, I found a number of sample “exit interview forms” on various HR resource websites that recommended the company rep ask questions like “What are your primary reasons for leaving?” and “What did you find most frustrating about your job?” and “Is there anything the company could have done to prevent you from leaving?”

Does this practice strike anybody else but me as slightly absurd?

To me, an organization needs to be communicating with its employees constantly to figure out what key issues or policies might be contributing to chronic worker dissatisfaction.  Better yet, I think a lot of these issues could be short-circuited right up front if a manager were to sit down with a new employee and talk through some of the work style and communication factors that so often lead to conflict — and cause higher-than-normal attrition rates.  Since I hold out little hope that most managers will proactively make a point of doing this, however, I suggest to all of my newly-transitioned clients that they “empower themselves” and ask to hold such meetings themselves, ideally within the first two weeks of starting the new job.

Essentially, the new employee should simply request a 30-minute meeting with their supervisor to discuss how they can best work together and function most efficiently, going forward.  Upon securing the meeting, the individual in question can then prompt dialogue around a series of questions which might include the following:

•  What are the unwritten rules I should know about working here at XYZ Company?
•  What attitudes or behaviors tend to lead to success in this company’s (or workgroup’s) culture?
•  What types of personality traits or behaviors are publicly frowned upon in the organization?
•  What are your own personal preferences in terms of communication?  For example, when I have a question or issue, is it best to e-mail you, call you, or stop by your office?
•  How often should I check in with you about the status of my work/projects?
•  What pet peeves do you have?  What behaviors should I try hard to avoid, lest I drive you nuts?
•  What characteristics do you value most in your most successful team members?
•  How do you tend to act if/when you get stressed?  And what can I do in these situations to help you?
•  Would you mind if we touched base like this every 90 days or so to make sure I’m on the right track and doing everything I can to meet your expectations?

By initiating this kind of conversation with your next boss, you’ll be demonstrating a profound amount of emotional intelligence and likely identify many hidden “land mines” that you’ll now be able to avoid, having surfaced them.  Maybe your new boss will tell you he hates it when people don’t update him daily on their status…or when they ask too many questions…or when they e-mail, versus just stopping by his office.  Or maybe she’ll tell you there’s nothing she hates more than having “whiners” on her team.  Whatever the case may be, you’ll be in a far better position to maneuver effectively within the organization, politically, if you don’t have to learn these lessons the hard way!

So give it shot.  The next time you’re hired, ask whether the boss would open to holding a quick “entrance interview” to discuss how you can best support him/her and to help you navigate the new company culture in effective fashion.  From my standpoint, any halfway-intelligent manager would welcome the chance to hold such a meeting and would appreciate the proactivity and consideration such a request would demonstrate!

Website Review: Google Profiles

Are you ready for this?  Google, of all companies, is now jumping into the on-line networking game and has launched a new feature called Google Profiles where people can create a free page that talks all about themselves, their interests, where they grew up, etc.

I’m not sure whether this will turn out to be another great Google innovation we’ll all wonder how we lived without, or whether it’s a sign of the pending apocolypse, instead, but if this thing catches on it could be BIG.  It not only will go directly up against sites like Facebook and LinkedIn that allow people to create an easy link to a bunch of information about themselves, for job hunting and other purposes, but it will also ensure that all participating professionals have their personal data captured in digital form for all eternity.  Sure, creating a profile is totally optional and there are a number of privacy settings one can deploy, but the bottom line is that almost nobody is going to be able to “hide” anymore if the world starts revolving around these types of tools and technologies.

Don’t get me wrong, however.  Google did a nice job in executing this new application and overall it’s very approachable and user-friendly.  Admittedly, I don’t quite get the point of asking people to describe their “superpower” or list “the one thing they can’t find via Google” on their profile, but I guess they’re trying to add some fun and whimsy into the site, which isn’t a terribly bad thing.

As for whether this new tool will take off?  Bet on it.  As much as Facebook and its social networking brethen have captured the imagination of millions of people around the globe, this number is dwarfed by the billions of people who use Google — and I also think the Google brand has become incredibly strong, to the point where many people will start using this new Profile site simply because it comes with the G-word attached.

So if you’re paranoid about identity theft or worried about being tracked down by somebody you jilted or borrowed money from, years ago, creating a Google Profile may not be the right move for you.  But for the rest of us, jumping on the bandwagon right away might not be a bad idea.  Not only will doing so generate a little extra “PR” for ourselves, but you’ll also get the chance to grab a customized profile address with your name in it, while one is still available!

Is It Wise to “Settle” on a Job?

In the sea of career-related articles, newsletters, and blog postings out there, I’m always on the lookout for pieces that I feel are truly “exceptional” in terms of presenting some excellent and original points about today’s job market — and how professionals can adapt and thrive within it.  The short essay I’ve pasted below falls into this category, at least to me.  It was written by Matt Bud, Chairman of FENG (The Financial Executives Networking Group) and I’m reposting it in its entirety with Mr. Bud’s gracious permission.

From my own perspective, I’d just add that I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Bud’s premise that it’s almost always better in the long run to take a temporary or less-than-ideal job, if one materializes, rather than butting your head up against the unemployment market for a protracted period of time.  Doing so not only provides much-needed cash flow, and confidence, but also helps keep one’s skills sharp and avoids the development of large gaps between various positions on a resume.  Having said this, however, I still wouldn’t suggest this strategy until one had spent at least a few intensive months searching hard for the “right” position.

I’d also echo the points the author raises about people and technical skills now being the all-important ingredients of career success.  While it may not be the message that some older workers necessarily want to hear, there’s no denying the reality that companies today are seeking people who can contribute vibrant networks and state-of-the-art competencies in their field.  In years past, I think “institutional knowledge” counted a lot more in terms of one’s overall employability.  Given the pace of organizational change today, however, such knowledge is now only of limited value — and might even be considered a detriment in certain situations.

Now on to the article…

—————————————————-

AND NOW FOR TONIGHT’S EDITORIAL (author: Matt Bud)

“It is always better to be working.  Given our current economic conditions, I thought I would repeat a thought I mention to those who ask.  Plain and simple, it is always better to be working.  The strategy you take early in your career has to be one of growth.  Each job you take has to move you up the ladder of success.  However, once you have been a Chief Financial Officer or Controller of a significant firm, and especially if you have reached the advanced age of mid-forties like most of our members, I would suggest to you that it is simply better to be working.

My own observation has been that most of our members move from large firms to smaller ones.  The reason for this is pretty straightforward — parachuting in at the top of a large company closes off career tracks.  That’s why large firms don’t generally hire senior executives.  Those of us who have enjoyed long careers with one firm have to accept the fact that part of our compensation was the result of our intense knowledge of our firm.  We knew the people, and we knew what they would do before they did.  We could protect them from themselves, so to speak.  That was why we earned the “big bucks.”  If we now move to another company, we are in a sense pushed back to the value of our technical and people skills.  Sure, we may click with the interviewer, but the truth is that there are lots of folks who have the technical and people skills to do any job.  It is a market, and we may not have the same value to a new employer as we did to one we had been with for many years.  Sad, but true.

As we set about on our quest to have a slightly larger office with more potted plants and a few more side chairs (and, of course, a slightly larger paycheck), I would suggest that you not lose sight of the fact that you need to be careful not to stay out of the game any longer than absolutely necessary.  If you are not employed for an extended period of time, even those who know you and like you may start to believe that there is something wrong.  There may not be, but perception is everything.  What I am suggesting is that if you happen to stumble across a less than perfect job that is in fact offered to you, you might want to view it through the lens of your current age and real requirements.  If you take a job for less than you used to earn, no one will actually know other than you.

Since you are a member of The FENG, you are actually keeping your job search active, and if something better comes along, you can take it.  (Yes, I know all about ethics in business, but as far as I know in today’s world it isn’t illegal to quit a job for one paying more money.)  You will, however, have been working, and you will be perceived for this new opportunity as more valuable than if you had waited it out.”

Matthew R. Bud, Chairman
The Financial Executives Networking Group
32 Gray’s Farm Road, Weston, CT
MattBud@TheFENG.org
(203) 227-8965 Office | (203) 820-4667 Cell | (203) 227-8984 Fax

Got Help, Part 2

Well, the hits just keep on coming!  In the last few days, I’ve been thrilled to witness a continuing wave of “unabashed helping” taking place out there in the job market, which is absolutely great to see.  Story after story has come rolling in to my inbox lately of people who have been on the receiving end of some generous (and frequently unprompted) assistance from friends, acquaintances, and often even complete strangers.

What I believe this trend underscores, more than anything, is a rediscovered realization around the importance of community.  Simply put, people have banded together since the dawn of time largely out of the realization that it’s a wise strategy to surround yourself with other trusted individuals, given that all of our fortunes (literally and figuratively) are extremely fickle and uncertain, at best.  Sometimes you’ll be in a position to be a “giver” when those around you are in need, and at other times, you’ll need to become more of a “taker” when your own personal chips are down.  But that’s the beauty of it.  Communities get this, intrinsically, and operate based on the time-tested principle that what goes around tends to come around.

So in an era when many traditional community structures (e.g. bowling leagues, town hall meetings, the church, etc.) are not quite as commonplace as they once were, it’s great to see people banding together in new ways (e.g. LinkedIn Groups, networking gatherings, political “tea parties”, etc. ) to replicate the same awesome power of the community construct.  Not feeling that you’re part of an active community of any kind?  If so, it’s time to find one.  Or perhaps even more than one.  Searching for work as an “island unto yourself” is too stressful of a proposition these days for the average person to take upon themselves, alone.

As for some specific upbeat stories to pass along, related to helpfulness, I’d first steer people to the recent blog entry written by Mark Ippolito here that encourages everybody to take an hour of their time each month and devote it to reaching out and helping somebody they know who is in career transition.  What a great concept, especially if you don’t wait for a person to ask you for this help, but volunteer it proactively, instead.  Such a gesture can go a long way to reviving the flagging spirits of a job hunter, even if the help you offer is of a fairly modest variety.  Mark has even created a Facebook page here where people can share stories about this “pay it forward” project.

On a related note, I know that I’ve personally referred three people along lately to a few of my former clients who are all extremely busy individuals.  And to their credit, each and every one of them stepped up to the plate and agreed to lend a hand!   While I’ll keep their names anonymous to protect the innocent, I’ll post a snippet of each of their e-mail responses, below, just so we can all bask in the spirit of their generosity…

•  “It would be my pleasure to speak with him.  Have him email me and I’ll have my admin set up a time we could meet and discuss career options with him. Thanks for thinking of me for this sort of thing.  I really enjoy giving someone tips on how to proceed with a career.”

•  “Please feel free to pass along my e-mail address to your client and I’d be happy to spend some time, either over the phone or in person, discussing career options in the SEO/SEM/Online marketing field.”

•  “Always happy to help out.  By the way, it really is no problem to shove people toward me who need some insight into [my current company] since this is what Networking is all about, isn’t it? And I am pretty sure I am getting the better part of the deal anyway.”

Perhaps these short sentences don’t seem like much to some of you, but to me, they represent a layer of exciting evidence that people are starting to wake up and realize that generosity is a downright smart life strategy, plain and simple.  Who knows how these people will be repaid for their time, either by me, the person I referred along, or in some other way known only to the universe?  I’m just happy to count such people as friends in my own “community of contacts” and if each/any of you are reading this, my thanks, again!

And as a very appropriate ending to this post, I’d urge you to each click here and refresh yourself on a classic fable that addresses these exact issues — despite being over 2,000 years old!  Can we all learn something from this savvy lion, or what?

Book Review: Make Your Contacts Count (Anne Baber & Lynne Waymon)

Alas, I’ve long been searching for the “perfect” book about networking, but have come to suspect that such a thing is probably impossible — since such a book would have to address a massive number of different styles and situations in terms of the relationship-building process.  Make Your Contacts Count makes a determined effort at being the go-to guide for all things networking, however, offering nearly 250 pages of advice for people on how to build, strengthen, and leverage their relationships for maximum impact.

In terms of distinguishing characteristics, my first comment about this book is that it contains more checklists than an aircraft instruction manual!  Throughout the course of the book, you’ll come across the “Top 20 Turnoffs in Networking” list, the “Eight Ways to Leave a Conversation Gracefully” list, the “10 Ways to Get on Board Quickly at a New Job” list, plus dozens of other outlines.  Additionally, the authors have broken down many other networking facets into a series of useful mnemonic devices and acronyms, such as suggesting that people use the word REAL (Results; Expertise; Access; Leads) to characterize their agenda heading into any networking conversation.

Among my favorite parts of the book was one of the initial sections discussing the importance of building trust with those around you, including a list of recommended trust-building behaviors that include “be unfailingly reliable” and “When something goes wrong, ostentatiously make it right or compensate generously for your failure.”  These pointers, I felt, were right on the mark.  I also enjoyed a model that Ms. Baber and Ms. Waymon presented called the Trust Matrix that stresses the need to consistently demonstrate both your “character” and “competence” to those around you in order to establish the credibility needed for consistent ongoing referrals.  This approach is quite similar to the Focus/Professionalism/Likeability model I’ve used over the years to help many of my own clients increase their networking success, but to be completely honest, I like the approach in this book even better than my own!

One area of Make Your Contacts Count where I do disagree a bit with the authors’ advice, however, is the chapter where they instruct people how to answer the ubiquitous “What do you do?” question that arises in networking situations.  Ms. Baber and Ms. Waymon suggest that people deliver a two-sentence response they call the BEST/TEST method that first focuses on a statement addressing your BEST talents, followed by a short TESTimonial about a recent success you’ve experienced.  One example given in the book for a travel agent is: “I send people on vacation.  I just got a note from one of my clients thanking me for the most stress-free vacation he’s ever had.”  Now to me, this second part sounds a bit too much like bragging for me to be comfortable with it.  If I asked somebody what they did for a living, and within their very first breath they told me about a key accomplishment, outside of the context of the conversation, I’d feel they were trying too hard to impress me.  But I certainly get the authors’ point — and agree with them that people need to think hard about how to make themselves interesting and credible within a short period of time.

Ultimately, I think this book would be a great read for anybody who is fairly new to the professional networking process or who, like me, is simply fascinated by the subject of networking in general.  It’s not a perfect publication, by any means, but my hat’s off to the authors for packing so much information into a single written endeavor!

Website Review: TradeVibes.com

Interested in working for an Internet startup?  Want to know as much as you can about it before taking the plunge?  If so, TradeVibes is the latest in the wave of “full transparency” websites that seek to pull together a rich mix of both objective and subjective data to help job seekers (and others) research various organizations.

For example, on the objective data front, you can use TradeVibes’ advanced search screen to pull up detailed information on over 285 startup companies in Washington State.  The data available includes standard stuff like web address, location, phone numbers, and such, but also some pretty impressive info in terms of each company’s executive team, board of directors, funding status (e.g. Series A, Series B, Series C…) and the like.  I’ve never before seen this information compiled all in one place on so many companies, so the site gets a huge thumbs-up from me for this reason alone!

TradeVibes doesn’t stop there, however.  As you click on each company listing, you can discover whether the majority of site visitors are “bullish” or “bearish” regarding the organization’s future.  While such rating systems are far from an exact science, this information is still extremely useful if one is considering rolling the dice with a startup firm, especially since you can read many further details in the ongoing discussion threads that are tracked regarding each company.

So long story short, if you’re a job hunter or career professional interested in working within the Internet/Web sector, this site is definitely one to watch!  They’ve already gathered an impressive array of data on a staggering amount of start-up firms, so as soon as this site really catches on, the “subjective” aspect is likely going to get more and more valuable, over time.  Check it out…

Social Capital is King

While I’m out sick from the office today, nursing a cold and suffering from an almost complete loss of my voice, I’m thankful that at least my fingers still work — since I’m a bit behind on my normal blogging regimen and this will be a good chance to get some thoughts out of my brain and onto the page!

Primarily, looking back at various experiences over recent weeks, what stands out the most in my mind is the growing and critical importance of “social capital” as part of the career success equation.  I know, I know.  Everybody has figured out by now that networking is supremely important and that landing a job is most likely going to come through a word-of-mouth interaction, as opposed to published ads or staffing firms.  And yet, in recent months, I’ve seen multiple forms of evidence that suggest this dynamic is even more pronounced that in has been in years past, and that personal relationships are now accounting for perhaps 80-90% of all hiring activity — compared to the traditional 60-70% statistic that is most frequently tossed around!

Now unfortunately, I don’t have the resources to launch a major longitudinal survey to prove this hypothesis beyond the shadow of a doubt, but I can attest, anecdotally, that the vast majority of clients I’ve been working with who have landed recently have done so primarily through a personal relationship of some kind.  To me, it’s as if companies have largely given up relying on advertisements to find the talent they need, at least for mid-to-senior level positions, likely due to the fact that they a) don’t want to have to invest dozens of hours in resume screening and interviewing and b) they figure they’re virtually guaranteed to find a trusted, vouched-for candidate from among their network if they put the word out far and wide enough.

There was a recent article I came across discussing the massive growth of the Craigslist job board, in fact, but then commenting how some companies have stopped using it since they were getting overrun with resume submissions.  And on a separate but related note, one of my clients who just landed (hooray!) mentioned that the reason he was selected for the job was because the hiring manager knew him from a few years back, at a previous company, and figured it was just faster and easier to hire him — as opposed to wading through the hundreds of other resumes that were sent in.  So on the surface, one might have seen the advertisement in question and thought it was a level playing field, but as in so many cases, the spoils went to the person who had a personal connection to the company, behind the scenes.  Ah, nepotism can be a beautiful thing when it works for you, rather than against you!

So from my standpoint, based on the activity currents I’ve been observing out there in the market, the importance of networking has taken yet another quantum leap forward in terms of job search effectiveness, leading me the main “advisory” point of this posting: it’s high time for every professional to take their relationships seriously and get their social capital in order!

What does this mean, exactly?  It means that if you walk into my office, and ask me why your job search and career prospects don’t seem to be faring very well, the first thing I’m going to want to know about is the quality and quantity of the relationships you’ve built over the years.  And if you’re not able to produce a list of some kind, outlining the various people you have in your network, I’m going to send you off to create one.  I don’t care whether you use a simple Excel spreadsheet, Microsoft Outlook, a fancy CRM system like Act! for Windows, or even good old-fashioned pen and paper — we just need to get a handle on who you know, how you know them, and how well you’ve communicated with them about your current situation.  It’s really that simple.  And it’s the absolute baseline starting point for anybody who wants to engage in a serious discussion about either generating new business for their company or generating fresh leads from a job search standpoint.

You wouldn’t consult a financial advisor (or at least expect useful advice) without being able to show them where all of your financial capital is tucked away, would you?  Along the same lines, don’t consult a career coach or seek out help with your job search strategy until you can account for the full spectrum of your social capital and how it’s distributed.  It’s an absolute necessity to have such a system in place, no matter which corner of the professional world you inhabit, and your system doesn’t have to be complicated — just complete!