Taking the Awkwardness Out of Networking | JobSearchTV.com

hi I'm Jeff up in the big game hunter
I'm referred to as the big game hunter
because I've been hunting down leaders
and staff for organizations for 40-plus
years a person wrote to me recently
excuse me if I read it off the screen I
just want to make sure I get the
question correct it is actually a
multi-part question I'm going to deal
with the question the questions that
have been asked in multiple video so
here's the first one Jeff you provide
practical advice that's helpful what
would help job hunters is how to improve
networking to former associates friends
of friends etc so this isn't about going
to a networking group meeting it's about
how to reach out to your past and to
reconnect and he also goes on later to
ask how does that differ when you're
working versus when you're not working
to me it really makes no difference but
I understand that there's a degree of
urgency when there when you're out of
work or your aggressively looking for
work versus when that isn't going on but
the concept is pretty universal
networking is not about calling someone
up and say you know about a job do you
know about a job come on come on tell me
tell me you know better job is for a
pirate but I call I mention your name
it's not about that it's about
developing a space in people's mind when
people think about you or think about an
experience that you have and want to
refer you so part of the question is how
do you do this and there are many
different ways to do it the occasional
email even if done is a bulk email the
people in your past works wonders
messages through LinkedIn to people in
your past now again if you have an email
address i always encourage people to
reach out you know i don't know what the
correct timeline is for being able to
just call someone up out of the blue for
is dropping them a note and then
following up with a call but when all is
said and done what you want to do is
just reach out to someone inside I'd say
with a former employee former colleague
you call up someone and say I remember
me its Jeff Feldman it's got to be a
hundred years and I was thinking about
you this weekend let me just give you a
call or send you an email try to
reconnect with you hope you will let me
tell you what's going on with me what's
going on with you these days and it can
be just as casual as that because what
networking is really about as i said is
creating the connection with another
person you know it's a different name
for branding where your positioning
yourself in someone's mind as being
someone that they should think about at
certain times though you can talk about
what you've been doing in recent times
professionally you can talk about your
family you don't have to say the dreaded
J word you know job as in looking for a
job all you have to do is connect with
another person you can you know when
asked further follow-up questions you
can say you have been looking for
another job recently i'm going to
frustrated where I am I've been doing
such as in fact they ever been something
be great but it's not what I'm reaching
out to you and you can be that casual
about it and you know not create a
forced situation where awkwardness can
occur see it's not about dealing with
awkwardness it's by putting someone a
position with the relaxed and at ease
and willing to talk with you
and there's no awkwardness that's ever
going to occur now if there was
awkwardness in your previous
relationship back then it's just going
to resume where you are now but assume
you had a decent relationship with this
person and not a lot of time has gone by
it's just going to pick up where it was
now in the cases where you're dealing
with someone you haven't spoken to in
years that same introduction also occurs
but you have to go more slowly you know
like any new relationship or resume
relationship you know you can't just
rush into it in any way you have to give
them space for reconnecting with you as
well because although you've thought
about it for a long time they're the
ones that are surprised so patients ease
it's kind of like in dating you don't
want to be seen as a stalker you want to
be seen as someone who's genuinely
interested in the other person before
you move in and try and develop a close
relationship so that's my simplest
advice for how to pick up with people
from your past and to involve them in
your networking for the next position or
four positions in the future so this is
jeff off in the big game hunter i hope
you found this video helpful if you
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again come over to Jeff Ogden calm and
go exploring two more things first of
all if the firm's turn hire someone send
me an email at the address below let me
know who to contact and whether or not I
can mention the name I'd love to help to
firm staff positions and finally finally
are we connected on LinkedIn send me a
connection request on linkedin and
linkedin com /i n 4 / the big game
hunter I accept connection requests from
people all over the world except if
you're a third party recruiter or in a
country known for scams or spam so this
is jeff alban hope you have a great day
take care