Networking Works – But How Do You Do It?

Did you also hear about the simple truth that finding a job goes best via via and that your so-called network is the best source to discover new opportunities, especially some vacancies that never even go public and are instead filled internally? Well, I did. Networking seems hot. And I can tell you that when I read that in these recession times it is the way one should look for a job, my first reaction was: I’m not like this, I have no network and it’s a shame to annoy people you know asking for help. As it turns out, networking is not as black-and-white as I thought it was. Now that I’m busy with career planning and research, I have come across the idea of networking as a perfect source of information and orientation on a number of occasions and somehow started to accept it. I also noticed that at birthday parties for example I try to talk to people about what they do for living in a different, more involved kind of way. And the moment I start asking detailed questions the way one does by a network interview, I get so genuinely interested in the subject matter that people themselves cannot but get enthusiastic to talk about themselves.

That’s how networking works, evidently. If you want to find out in how far certain branches or occupations would suit you, the best way to get information is to ask the people who do the kind of work you are interested in. You can say for sure that if the information you would like to receive about a certain sector, kind of company or position exists, it is to be gathered from the abovementioned people. The only question is whether they are willing to share it with you and it’s up to you to make them want to share.

If you are as terrified of having a so-called ‘network interview‘ as I was when I got this task from my career coach, here are some practical tips that might be helpful: 

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• The labour market is not easiest at the moment, so one should be creative to find employment: therefore do start networking as it is a nice an informal way to not only gather information you need about branches and professions, but also a way to draw employers’ attention to yourself as a potential candidate, though applying for a job is not directly your objective at this point.
• Networking can be ‘warm’, ‘lukewarm’ and ‘cold’, which stands for talking to someone you know directly, someone referred to by someone you know or talking to an unknown person respectively. Obviously, the difficulty level of making contact with the person you are interested in increases with the ‘drop of temperature’. Very comparable with marketing and sales, don’t you think?
• As ‘cold’ networking can be hard, start with a good preparation and make sure you can present yourself in a positive and powerful, but concise way – a famous ‘elevator pitch’ (preferably thoroughly practiced beforehand) would do – so that you can come through the gatekeeper (the receptionist) and be put through to the right person. Emphasize that you are not applying for a job, but merely doing research. If you are positive and enthusiastic, then you are most likely also nice to talk to, so it can be a great experience for the interviewee as well, only he/she doesn’t know about it yet. Turns out, people like talking about themselves, and if there’s someone who wants to hear it and also asks smart questions, chances are they’d be happy to tell you a lot.
• Also by warmer networking types it is essential to prepare well. Make a checklist of the items you would like to discuss and ask initially to take not more that 15 minutes of someone’s time. If they start enjoying the conversation too (people like talking about themselves, remember?) and if everything goes smoothly, they’d probably keep on talking, otherwise you’d be happy you could take your leave after 15 minutes. Try to keep a balance between asking questions and telling about yourself, this should be a two-way communication, not a question-answer session.
• Such an interview can be held on the phone, but a face-to-face contact would provide you with more information, including the subtle and intuitive things like, say, seeing the office, observing the non-verbal behavior of your interlocutor or feeling the ambiance.
• Bare in mind that you are not there to put the person to work for you or let him/her think about your future, you are interested in his/her experiences with the position or the sector.
• Take care formulating questions: if you want to know about the workload or pressure, whether there are jobs in the sector or if people are being laid off, use descriptive language or more general terms, for instance ”How would you describe the corporate culture?” or “I’m someone who needs a lot of variation in work, do you think I could find it in this kind of work?”.
• If you feel like you are running out of questions, you can always ask the person whether he/she knows of any other things that might be relevant.
• Make sure you have a business card with you, either with or without your current position (depending on whether you are employed at the moment), so that you can leave your own contact details behind. It’s even a better option to have cards with just your academic title (if applicable), name and contact information. If asked, you can also send your resume later.
• Ask at the end of the conversation for another name – a person who could possibly help you further – this way it’s always easier to come in contact with someone. Put down names or departments that could be of interest to you.
• Work out a plan of your activities and try to keep up with the schedule. Make a short summary after each contact and spend enough time on reflection. Research is the primary objective of networking, so try to analyze what appeals to you and how it would feel If you were in the position or did the work of the person you talked to.

 

Hope you find the tips here useful if you are to look for labour market information by means of network interviews. Of loads of information on this topic that I found on the Internet or elsewhere the abovementioned did help me a lot.

The World of Professions

Here I am getting back to my blog after quite some time off ready to discuss the following topic with you – the world of occupations. It’s been a nice and joyful period of time, full of inspiration, a lot of sunny weather, blooming nature, being outside and other things that can be enjoyed about spring. As I did get back to my old job after all – which was a good thing to do and I’m happy I did it – I’ve also been pretty busy lately. But the thing that finally inspired me to write was a task my career coach gave me at the beginning of April. I received a 600+ pages thick occupations reference book from her and four whole weeks to study the book thoroughly. On reading it I had a number of tasks to do, but more about those later.

The book – in my case it was a Dutch edition from Malmberg publishers (for those who are interested – a lot of comparable materials can be found and ordered here, mostly in digital form though) – was a true revelation to me. It had a very handy index to it, so that one could look for professions in either alphabetical sequence or grouped by the types like “something with languages” or “working with hands”, which was very practical – obviously, you are not reading a book like this in one go. Also the necessary skills and matching personality types were described per occupation as well as responsibilities and possible activities on a day-to-day basis. I can’t really say it was a thrilling read – after the “50 shades of grey” trilogy my reading speed with this book seemed to have dropped drastically – but, boy, I wish I’d seen the book in my teens, or rather, at the time of my first study choice. Pity enough this didn’t happen back then, but I’m happy I got hold of the book anyway.

For a nitwit like me as far as the world of professions is concerned, it’s been a wealth of information to read this book. I didn’t know some of the professions I even existed, did you? Like, say, a tree surgeon or animal physiotherapist? But one of my favorites is by all means animal behaviorist, which made me think of behaviorism principles in psychology and psychotherapy, but then for animals instead of people. So, animal behaviorist = psychotherapist for pets? A kind of dog or horse whisperer, but then with some psychological background? As I figured out from the description, it’s a kind of animal trainer, but it did keep me wondering for a while. And think I even know someone who knows someone who does it for a living – according to my mother-in-law, someone who professionally trains animals did or say something to her usually pretty impatient and agitated dog, after which the poor thing listens to her, waits patiently before going outside and doesn’t bark at visitors. The guy is evidently good at what he’s doing, but it surely doesn’t seem to be my cup of tea.

Anyhow, I was supposed to make a selection of 20 professions I found appealing in some way, no matter how unrealistic or inapplicable to me. As a result I’d imagined myself to be anything from a diplomatic representative and seismologist to a radio/tv presenter, interior designer and an actress. This list had to be downsized to 5 and the ones remaining were: tour guide/(leisure) travel advisor, psychologist, communications professional, scientist and a (!) rock singer. The first four surprised neither my career coach nor me a lot – those are somewhat down to earth and not too unexpected given my background and interests. But the last one… Did I miss something in my childhood or adolescence that I actually didn’t expect this one to pop up in my shortlist of 5 most wanted professions? I mean, I don’t even take singing lessons or play any musical instrument, or should I say, I didn’t until now?

The idea behind the vocational counseling tasks is to take such things about oneself seriously, but … not necessarily literally. Of course, it’s important to think of what you would like to do if money didn’t matter (you probably also know this fantastic video by Alan Watts which I came across on a couple of occasions), but it’s better to start out small and closer to who you are now and from there on develop to who you want to be. Which means dreaming big, but having a clear focus and doing small steps at a time. In my case, learning more about the world of professions and trying on most appealing of them was just another little step on my long and exciting way.

Have you ever heard of a strange profession or job or pictured yourself having an occupation completely different from what you are doing now? Do share!

How Good is Your Employability?

Looking for a job and giving a thought to your so-called career planning you can’t but come across tons of information. Tips and tricks, dos and don’ts, best practices, top-something lists and how-to from those who have made it to the top are things you’ll probably find yourself reading if your ambition is not to miss the boat here. At least that’s what I’ve been doing a lot for the last 3 months and even decided to share my knowledge with those who might be interested by means of this blog. 

As far as I understand it, all it comes to, all the effort you make in relation to your career can be perfectly summarized by the comprehensive term ‘employability’ (unless, of course, you consider a business of your own and couldn’t care less). Let’s have a look at this concept. According to my favorite source of knowledge Wikipedia (which, unfortunately, was not good enough to refer to in my college papers, but is just great for giving a general idea and is therefore worth donating to) employability refers to a person's capability for gaining and maintaining employment that depends on the knowledge, skills and abilities individuals possess, the way they present those assets to employers, and the context (e. g. personal circumstances and labour market environment) within which they seek work. 

 

So if something of a career belongs to your life’s objectives – and it does certainly belong to mine – you’ve got to stay employable, no matter what. And if we can believe the career gurus, in the periods one doesn’t have a permanent (paid) job or other kind of activity that might qualify as a CV builder (like a business of your own or freelancing), one should at least make sure he/she does one of the following:

-       Travelling the world so that you can later tell your potential employer you’ve explored some places and yourself within the different settings and cultures and that it made you better, broader oriented and more flexible

-       Volunteer for something you stand for, so you can prove – and in due course demonstrate it to your future employer – that you can be a highly effective individual who doesn’t need money for something he/she does with a lot of pleasure

-       Enroll in a course to enhance your skills of project management, a foreign language, a computer program or the like, so that you can provide evidence (preferably in the form of some kind of recognized certificate) that you’ve done your best to use your unemployed time wisely in order to excel and be prepared to go even harder the moment you get hold of the job of your dreams

The list can be continued. This actually means that the contrary is also true: if you don’t do any of these, if you take some time off to, say, raise your little children or try to find out more about yourself and your aspirations, if you give yourself the space to explore what it is you like and what makes your heart beat faster (without having a paid job next to it), you can say with certainty that you’ll have to explain yourself to your future boss. Your employability will then presumably go down with a considerable number of imaginary employability ‘units’ per month or year of being unemployed. A gap in a resume is therefore a notoriously disliked and for some even scary subject to discuss in a job interview, which is – employability-wise – quite understandable.

On the other hand, you can always give a twist to your in between jobs’ activities which would seem to contribute to your employability this way or another. You can ‘frame’ your story so that your potential employer sees the value of your time off without you having to lie – even if you didn’t do much to improve your CV. Moreover, your future employer would also appreciate your honesty. A sabbatical – an expensive word you could use – is after all supposed to serve a function of changing the way your are, helping your on the way to your better self, which your potential employer might also benefit from.

As to my sabbatical, it’s going to end pretty soon as I’m getting back to my old job, while intending to stay looking for a new one in the meantime. Do I do it for the sake of my employability? Not primarily, it just feels like the right thing to do at the moment, but that this might also do good to my employability is just a positive side-effect.

Have you ever thought of how good your employability is and stays and whether it’s important to think about it at all rather than going with the flow? Please do share!

There’s no way back or is there?

As you may know from my previous entry, I’m in between jobs and am looking for a new opportunity that will hopefully bring me closer to my dream job / occupation, which might also be a business of my own, who knows. I’m doing my best to stay positive and be patient to see where this all leads me to. The economy is still bad (wondering how long this stupid recession is going to hold) and although I’ve always had a feeling that, career-wise, I’m not too bad off given my couple of college degrees, quite ‘employable’ age and some experience, it’s been three months now of writing inspiring application letters and having occasional interviews and I’m not any further yet in this sometimes really painful and otherwise merely confronting process. And that’s where my former employer comes in, letting me know I could temporarily work for him in my old role with flexibility to define my own working hours and days. A great opportunity, you would say, at least for this ‘transition’ period as we both came to the conclusion that our relationship wasn’t a perfect match. I could keep on looking for a job of my dreams (or the one that would precede it – my close-to-dream-job) taking my time and not having to worry about a gap in my resume growing bigger. But without knowing it, my former employer provided me with a huge problem, that is giving me a choice, while I hate making choices. 

Yes, I do hate making choices, don’t you? I wonder whether there’s one person in the world of approximately my age and in approximately my situation, who likes making important choices his/her life and future depend on. I don’t think so. Nienke Wijnants seems to agree with me, as she has written a whole book and an actual dissertation devoted to the phenomenon of the so-called ‘dilemma of the thirty-something-year olds’ (Dutch: ‘Het dertigersdilemma’). It’s all about the so-called choice stress that individuals, particularly between 25 and 35 years old, seem to experience most intensely. On the one hand, this intensity comes from the importance of choices that are being made around this age for the rest of your life: a choice of a partner, buying a house, getting children and especially various career-related choices. On the other hand, the consumer-oriented society we live in provides us with an overload of choices, from TV channels and vacation destinations to the brands of breakfast cereals in the supermarket, so that we simply refuse to choose and just want to have it all. For further details I’d recommend you to read the book, which is a fairly good weekend read, but to me it was a much-needed confirmation that I’m not alone fighting with the choice problem.

It seems I already tried everything, from making a famous list with pros and cons to asking people around me to help me come to a decision, but so far the conclusion was: you have to make the choice yourself, no one can do it for you. And still I don’t know whether it’s a good idea to go back and work for my old employer or not. Terrible, I’d rather have some circumstances I could lean on to make this choice (and to blame later, if it’d turn out to be a wrong one), but it doesn’t seem to be the case. My most arguments in favour of doing it are rational, but arguments against it are more of an emotional nature. Risk losing something you already have, or just wait a little bit longer and have a chance to gain something new, something you don’t have yet? Dilemma = drama, hate it…

My last hope is the magic of Google – I turn to the web wisdom with the following keywords: ‘back by old employer’. To do or not to do? And guess what? I get plenty of hits. Different experiences are being shared, from that it was a terrible idea to that it was all people needed to finally feel happy in their jobs (read: get promoted, earn respect, etc.). Well, it doesn’t really help me further. Oh Lord, is it Friday evening already and I’m not there yet?

Does anybody have a working strategy of how to make a choice in something that is really important to you? Meditation, a list of arguments, listening to your intuition? Did anyone ever turn back to an old employer and can tell anything about it? Just help me out here, HELP…

Of job openings, unemployment and passion

When 3 years ago I came up with the idea of this blog, my aim was some kind of writing exercise and I didn’t intend to actually share it with anybody. Obviously, not more than one post came out of it. Now three years, a diploma, an internship, a real job and two months of unemployment later the question of how to make a living of something I really like doing is still keeping me busy. And trying to find the answer for myself, I read, watch, collect and analyze tons of information on this issue mainly online (LinkedIn groups and discussions, updates from thought leaders, career-related publications, websites, blogs and posts on FB and Twitter) as well as in good old papers or talks with family and friends. Being not the only one concerned with the issue – as far as I know, at least some of my friends and peers are having the same concern at the moment – I cannot but start sharing the information and insights I already processed myself. That’s why I decided to dust off my good old blog ‘In Search of My Professional Self’ and to start posting again as the subject matter is relevant to me as never before…

Another reason I started contributing to my blog is maybe also a little, how should I call it, pragmatic. Looking for a job now, I react to job openings of communication professionals in a broader sense of the word. And then I already know how it goes – picture a hypothetic conversation between me and a potential employer:

EM: So you have an ambition to become a copyrighter / communications specialist / pr agent [the list may be continued]? Is there something of you we could read?

ME: Well, my master thesis, I suppose, would that be all right?

EM: Do you maybe also write other things, like articles or like a blog?

ME: Nope…

EM: Oh, well, don’t you call us, we’ll call you…

Enough said, there’s nothing of me to read. Time to change this misconception.

So, communications, huh? And this is really something you sincerely like and are good at? I don’t know.

What did you want to become as a child? Nothing in particular, grown-up, I guess.

Then maybe at school there was a subject you were very good at? Well, like everything actually, if you consider good grades an indicator.

Maybe you had hobbies, did something artistic or were a member of some club? I danced some, sang some and even painted some, but don’t remember being especially wild about any of these.

How did you come to choosing your college? I kinda only had a choice of two very similar ones where I didn’t have to pay the tuition, so I just chose the older one.

Did you like what you studied at the college? I think I did, at least I didn’t hate it. How much did you know of different professions before going to college? Close to nothing!

I think this might be my biggest problem. The changing education system of young and independent Ukraine provided me with some profound knowledge of foreign languages (in my case, English and German) and maths, but never gave me any information on some kind of basic professional orientation. Maybe due to the changing reality where the old occupational system was making place for the new one, but my choice of a profession was left to my family or simply to chance. And now 2 college educations further (my second one being closely related to the first one, but then in the Netherlands) I still doubt the choices I made were the right ones. And therefore looking for a job without a real focus of someone who knows what he wants…

In the Netherlands it seems to be a hype at least of the last decennia, that one should choose a career according to his passion, or with other words, something he likes most and therefore does best. Job coaches and trainers of different kinds are there to help you find your passion if you still haven’t found it yourself. Their services are tailor-made and customers of all ages are welcome. No wonder I’ve been trying to find my passion as well, now it’s such a hot item on the labor market and my previous job sort of turned out not to be a perfect match with who I am.

A critique to this craze with finding one’s passion I came across claims that you’d better start doing something and give it as much dedication and hard work as you can. Then in the process, making some little choices on the way, you’ll shape you working reality to something one can call a “dream job”, a job with lots of autonomy, some meaningful contribution to the society and something you feel and know you truly are good at.

Whether it’s pursuing your passion or just starting doing something and making it your passion, I haven’t found out yet. And though my personal statistics isn’t that bad – until now 1 job interview out of 10 applications – I’m 20 applications further and am still searching and thinking. I’ll keep you posted…

The second Interview's crisis

None of those numerous books my reading of the last months mainly consisted of mentions it - the crisis of the second interview. Look, the titles like "Your career guide", "ABC for starters" or "Top 500 Dutch employers" will tell you loads of stuff about what you have to wear to an interview, how you need to shake the hands of those you will be talking to or what examples you can give to prove that you really ARE industrious, knowledgeable, creative and an out-of-the-box-thinker (these buzz-words are really annoying!), but they'll never warn you that at the second interview your chance to screw it up is even bigger than at the first one!

And I know what I am talking about. A second-chance starter - that's what I'm calling myself - I cannot afford to make a wrong (career) choice again. Neither can I postpone making one any longer. With 22 en 23 it seemed all right to go and study a couple of years extra, my argument being well, all Dutch people hang around for a while and go to universities (if they do at all) only in their mature mid-twenties; so I thought to myself go, Anna, get yourself one more degree, in a couple of years you'll definitely know what it is you want to do. Never happened, of course, and now, a short week before my 27th birthday, I am even further from knowing what I want... All or at least most of my peers have made something of a career by now, and I am finishing my second (how ironic) university education ('Ganna, in your resume I saw that you studied a lot!') and all I practically can do is part-time selling discount sports apparel and shoes at the outlet centre where I've been making my living for the last 4 years!

But back to my second interview and to staying somewhat positive about myself. I'm just looking for an internship, for god's sake, not even a job, and things are already so complicated! After a couple of futile attempts to find one via an internship intermediary, I was really desperate and followed my friends' advice to really spam the potential employers. According to some of them the statistics were as follows: 20 should be like a real minimum of applications you are supposed to send out, and if you do, then you might get 2 to 3 positive reactions, which means they' ll invite you for an interview and then maybe one of these 2 or 3 will want you. Another number that was mentioned was 50 applications. But, boy, I am glad I stopped at 8 because the need to choose out of even 4 companies that invited me for an interview seems like a torture to me! This way, endless optimism from being demanded filling my entire body, I refuse the first one. Then I still hesitate about the second and the third one still waiting to have an interview with the fourth company. Feels like it's such a pity you cannot sit on three chairs at a time!

And there it comes - a second interview, where you think that there's no need to flirt with the recruiters any more to make them like you and choose for you, because they already did - would you think - as they'd invited you for a second meeting, which almost means you are the one who has a choice to make and they are the ones who have to convince you to choose for them and not for the other. And with all those thoughts in mind - read: thoughts of which chair it is I would love to staying sitting on - you forget to concentrate on the content! You are still being asked questions - no contract has been signed yet by the way! Shame on you that you stopped selling yourself even before the deal has been closed!

And this is where they go asking you about what it is you achieved by now and whether there's anything written by you they could possibly read. And no, there's nothing, because you haven't thought of good answers beforehand, and giving them out of the blue somehow doesn't sound all that convincing. And that's only at this point that you mention that there was ONE MORE place you are having an interview with and thus haven't made up your mind yet as to where you would like to stay. And at the end, the picture they are most likely getting of you is that you actually don't know who you are, you cannot do a thing, you still have to find out what you want in this life, your both studies have been a total waste of time and if you had a chance to start a new life, you would have never chosen to do what you have done so far. 'You' means me here, naturally.
Wrong-wrong-wrong (as Depeche Mode would sing)!

So remember this: don't go rest on your achievements even before you have achieved something! I screwed it up I'm afraid with these people, but I still have that first interview at the fourth company, and I didn't say 'no' to the second employer yet (neither did they say 'yes' to me actually), which means that I am still not such lost a case I was thinking I was when walking away from that unfortunate, miserable, failed second interview by the company I was initially so enthusiastic about!

Still have to give a good deal of thinking to all this...