Different ways of Networking for a successful Career Change
Using the Network for a Career Change Word of mouth
Using word of mouth means involving all of the people you know in your research for information, contacts and opportunities, by telling them what you are looking for and asking for their help in the event of them finding out about something. It means putting out the word that you are looking for information or work. This method allows you to simultaneously use lots of pairs of eyes and ears to pick up and collect useful information.
Professional networking
Professional networking is based on the (true!) assumption that you are the most suitable, qualified and motivated person for conducting the research and therefore nobody else can replace you or represent us. In order to do it you need to follow three fundamental rules:
contact everyone you have been told about that could be useful to you;
come away from every meeting with at least the name of another contact;
don’t leave your presentation in someone else’s hands.
This is the type of networking used by salesmen, whose objective, aside from selling their product/service, is that of extending their customer portfolio. Using this method means directly contacting the person you were told about or whom you identified yourself.
Focused networking
Focused networking follows the reverse of the methods descried above: once you have identified the person you are interested in meeting, the objective is that of finding a contact that can introduce you to that person. In other words, if, for example, you want to have a meeting or want to to present your self-candidacy to Mr Rossi, the marketing manager of the company Enterprise, you need to find someone who knows him, so that you can use their name to get an appointment.
Online networking
The Internet is an excellent networking method that provides immediate access to a vast number of people in our area of interest. In particular the instruments it offers include the professional social network par excellence, Linkedin:
- jobs,
- groups,
- company websites,
- profiles of company managers,
- possibility to be introduced,
- company updates,
not to mention the scores of posts that we have seen in recent months even on this social network and the perplexity this has caused:
- Does this person posting something every day actually work as well?
- Is a constant presence on social networking sites coherent with your profession?
- Does it make sense to post articles by other people without even leaving a comment or providing your own thoughts or articles? Would it not be better to offer fewer more authentic contributions?
