Tip #9: How to find people for networking
Transform your job search with 20 Job Search Tips in 20 Days
This email is part of a series “20 Job Search Tips in 20 Days”. Every day in December, you’ll receive a job search tip for career changers.
Job Search Tip #9: How to find people for networking
You’ve heard about networking by now. It’s key 🔑 to your job search for so many reasons. Networking is not only important to your job search success but to your long-term success in tech. By building relationships with new people, you are building a network of loose connections who are available to help you now and later!
To start with, you’ll want to reach out to the right people, but it’s not clear WHO is open to networking. Here’s a quick guide on how to find people for networking:
Look around your feed, notice people whose posts you tend to like. Send them a connection request with an intro note saying how much you enjoy their posts.
Reach out to your alumni, they are usually very welcoming of their peers
Reach out to other people in your target roles from companies of interest, with an intro note, asking to learn from them
Notice who is posting helpful posts on Linkedin. Add a comment on their post. They might even reach out to you to connect.
Post about yourself on Linkedin. Watch as connection requests come in. These are people who want to help you.
When you post on Linkedin, ask to connect with anyone who likes or comments on your post.
In your job search, you’ll want to focus your networking with those people who can help you with referrals, information and intros. Check out this post for all the details
Linkedin is a huge database of people. Use it to find employees at companies who are willing to help. Not everyone will respond, but some will!
Use the Linkedin search bar along with the Company page ‘People’ section to find the people for networking when reaching out to people from a company.
You can even search for posts from that company and engage with content posted by someone at the company.
There are multiple ways to find a variety of people to contact on Linkedin. Just go ahead and start networking!
While not everyone is available to help, a LOT of people want to help. Reach out to more people than you think is needed so that you find the right people who are open to help.
Cast a wide net
Think of networking as trying to catch a lot of fish at once. You don’t see which ones are around, but you can cast a wide net to try to get the most fish. Same concept with networking. By casting a wide net when reaching out, you’re improving your chances of connecting with people who can become your advocates.
Even someone in a completely non-relevant role for you can be open to a referral. Or a Product Manager can help an Engineer learn about the company culture. Don’t worry about the titles so much as if the person is active on Linkedin. The more active they are, the more likely they are open to helping you.
📺 Free video training to get started on Networking
Watch the video training that 100s of job seekers have used to up their networking game. It’s a Free, 20-minute training that will transform how you look at networking.
To everyone job searching during the holidays… you got this, keep going 🌟
If you missed them, here are a few tips from last week: