Job search networking
How to get started

Job search networking, by far the most proactive of all the personal marketing plans that you can implement begins fairly simply.......with the preparation of a list of your contacts.

Without a contacts list it's virtually impossible to network in a strategic way. And.....it is important that you have a strategic approach, otherwise your networking activity will come to a crashing halt!

So, let's look at what's involved in putting together, and managing your list.

Job search networking - preparing your list

Your first goal - put together a list of 50-100 names.

Surprisingly this is where job search networking activity stops for many people - right here at the first step.

They claim that they either don't know that many people, and/or they don't have business contacts who might be able to provide them with relevant advice or assistance.

Who should put on my list?

This really is the easy part. Do a brainstorming exercise. Literally write down every name that you can think of.

To help you get started, list all the people you know from the following categories:

• All your immediate family members
• All extended family members - aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, in-laws etc
• All your friends - even those whom you haven't seen for a while, or that you may have lost touch with
• All your current and past co-workers, professional colleagues
• Your business contacts - go through your business cards file
• Review your email contacts list - at work and home
• People from your church
• People that you play sport with
• People involved in other recreational activities that you enjoy
• People involved in your professional activities - e.g. professional associations
• People you went to school with
• Have a look at your Facebook, LinkedIn and other contacts from social networking sites
• People with whom you have studied at college or university, lecturers and tutors
• Your doctor, dentist, lawyer etc - these can be especially rich contacts because of the diversity of people that they see in their professional lives
• People whom you know in your life generally because of regular interaction - e.g. retail assistants, your mechanic, tradespeople

Job search networking
Managing your contacts list

When you are in serious job search mode it is very important that you have a system for managing your contacts.

You will want easy access to telephone numbers, email addresses, and home and work addresses of your contacts.

You'll also want to record comments and notes about the networking contacts that you've made.

The easiest way to do this is to create a spreadsheet, or use a notebook to do this.

You can download a sample contacts list spreadsheet here.

You'll notice that in this sample spreadsheet that there is a column with the heading "referred by". I'm recommending you follow a highly effective networking strategy which is explained in networking tips.

Basically it's a strategy known as "referral based" networking.

When you use this system, it will be essential that you keep accurate records of how you got the name of some of the contacts in your data base.

Job search networking
Getting started summary

How did you go preparing your list of contacts?

The extensive list of suggestions above about people you can include on your contacts list should emphasise the point that you should not make assumptions about who your contact know or what they might know.

Now that you have a list you are ready to take the next step which is contacting those people on your list for information.

Note......I said contacting for information!!!

That's a clue about what job search networking is. To learn more about how to network go to networking tips