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About ten years ago, I was going through a career transition period.  The company employing me was shutting down its Pittsburgh operations.  They hired an outplacement firm to offer laid off individuals a training course in how to find your next job.  Today, most of the training course is a blur.  Ironically, much of what was taught in the class is information I now provide when I am working with a job candidate.  I might have paid more attention back then if I would have known what my future had in store!  The one thing from this class that has stayed with me is this point.  Most jobs are found networking through ones contact base of family, friends, coworkers, fellow and neighbors. 

While most people prefer not to talk about their unemployed status because of embarrassment or our human nature not to want to ask for help, we were encouraged to let everyone know our status.  It was strongly recommended we let our “network” know we were looking for work.  Sure enough, my next job was the result of networking.  Today, the same rules apply and the advent of the internet has proliferated our networking contact base.  We are now able to build a contact base online which includes coworkers, business associates or partners, family, neighbors, former classmates, etc.  While we are searching through old friends to see if we can find them on-line, they may be thousands of miles away trying to find us.  Internet sites have popped up to help us connect to these people.  Probably the most prominent of these sites in the business world is LinkedIn.  There are several easy steps involved with building your networking base with LinkedIn.  After your initial registration on LinkedIn, you enter various details about your work history.  Quite often, people will only list their present position.  If the purpose of your developing your LinkedIn page is to build your networking base, you will want to go much deeper.  Past jobs, business associations, education are all necessary pieces of information.

Once you have entered this information, you are prompted to search through the contact base of people already on LinkedIn.  You will be searching through people who worked in the same place you have or went to the same school you attended.  You identify people you know and then request a connection.  Assuming the person on the other end accepts the connection (almost all will accept); they become a part of your contact base.  From here, you can send messages back and forth.  You are easily able to let your contact base know you are looking for your next job.  As with other networking sites, you are also able to post what you are presently working on right now.  A perfect opportunity here is to mention you are searching for your next position.  This message is then displayed as your status on all of your contact bases home pages.  Many members also opt to receive a daily or weekly email with their contact base’s status updates.  You never know who in your contact base might be willing and able to help you.

This is only one facet of LinkedIn available to you to use in your career transition.  Trade Associations and other Industry Groups are also included in LinkedIn and available to you as a resource.  You can search on groups to identify possible organizations or memberships that share a bond with you.  Once you join these groups, you are able to start dialogues, post comments, search their member base for someone to reach out to, etc.  Imagine how this will grow your networking base!  Members of the groups are also able to post job openings in their group section with hopes you will apply.

This alone might be enough to help you with your job search, but let’s dig deeper.  LinkedIn allows people you have worked with over the years to post comments about their experiences with you.  As you grow your contact base, you might want to consider those members of your network in a position to comment on your work accomplishments.  Ask them to post a comment about their experiences with you.  While you may think this to be a bold move, most people will gladly help when asked.  It is really no different than asking someone to be a reference for you.  This is extremely important because if you are using LinkedIn as a tool in your job search, anyone you network with or contact about a job opportunity will of course look at your profile on LinkedIn.  Your references are prominently visible for these people to see.  Even if you are not using LinkedIn to look for your next position, companies are now searching these sites to see if there is any information on a potential job applicant.  If they don’t do this, the companies doing the background check on their behalf will most likely go to LinkedIn to see what they can find about you. 

LinkedIn is mostly a business networking site.  There are also social sites you have probably heard about.  Facebook and MySpace are the most prominent examples.  I have recently spent time on Facebook connecting with high school, grade school and old church friends from my childhood.  I have enjoyed reminiscing about memories I haven’t thought about in years.  As with LinkedIn, you are able to post comments about your job searching.  A word of caution with these sites however.  People also like to discuss the fun time they had on the weekend doing who knows what.  Many take this a step further and post pictures of the fun time to share with their friends.  While this can be amusing, it can also backfire on you when you are using these same sites to network for your next job.  Prominently displayed on your site or your friend’s sites are descriptions of your “dark side” or your friends “dark side” and you’ll be guilty about association.  Maybe you think you are keeping your MySpace or Facebook site as your personal space and you think you are keeping your site private only for the enjoyment of your “friends”.  You’d be surprised at how well a potential employer might be able to “unlock” this information about you or the company you keep.  Used properly however, these sites will have a positive impact of helping you land your next job.  Good Luck!