Talk to Orville About Job Networking

If you have read Orville's book, Highly Effective Networking: Meet the Right People and Get a Great Job and have questions that are not answered in the book, please check the FAQs below to see if your question has been answered there.

If your question isn’t in the FAQ list, please read the legal notice below and then click here to talk to Orville or copy and paste this address into an email: jobsearchquestions@highlyeffectivejobsearch.com. If the topic is of general interest, he’ll post your question and his response below in the FAQs. Orville can’t promise to respond to all e-mails, but he’ll do the best he can.

Frequently Asked Questions
about Networking

Questions:

Is there any special advice for senior executives networking for a C-level job?

I want to expand my Professional Objective to a wider range of job titles. How can I use networking to help me figure out what new job titles are the best ones to go after?

I’m a foreign student in an advanced degree program in the United States. I’d like to find a job here, but my networking contacts are all in my home country and many of them don’t speak English. What do I do?

 

Orville’s Responses to Questions:

Is there any special advice for senior executives networking for a C-level job?

Most aspects of job search networking are the same at all levels. In writing Highly Effective Networking, I always tried to note things that are different for executives and things that are different for recent graduates looking for a first job. So I think you will do well with that book. Top

I want to expand my Professional Objective to a wider range of job titles. How can I use networking to help me figure out what new job titles are the best ones to go after?

Start with Personal Contacts, those who know you well and whose judgment you trust, whether they understand your work or not. Get their agreement to have a serious career discussion with you. This kind of discussion will take some time, so be sure to arrange a comfortable place to have it.

Explain your Project Plan. Explain in detail what kind of work you do and what kind of work you're interested in doing. Get their reaction to your Target List and to individual organizations on it. Ask if they know of other organizations that might be possible. Get introductions to people who may know more.

Also, get their reactions to your Professional Objective. Then ask if they can think of any other kind of work that you might do, similar to what you have in mind or not. These are people who know you well, so they may have some interesting ideas. They will likely also have some ideas that are inappropriate or even silly.

Listen to all their ideas openly and without judgment. Don't shut them down. As you talk to a number of people, listen for themes. Are several people suggesting similar ideas? If so, this direction may be worth additional consideration.

Have similar discussions with selected Professional Contacts who are more or less at your own level. Again, do this only with those that you have some reason to trust. Do not do this generally, with a lot of people. Focus on a select small group.

This is a classic way of using networking to expand your Professional Objective. When you notice an idea that may be possible, get introductions to people who know the field well and discuss the possibility of your working in it. What you are doing here is exploring possibilities that are somehow attractive, whether you initially regard them as practical and realistic or not. Let experienced people tell you how realistic the ideas are and the best paths to attain them.

I have seen people move into entirely new fields of endeavor this way, into work they love, without having qualifications that are immediately obvious. It happens because those in the field are often able to recognize talent and ability, and see transferable skills. And because in the end, people hire people, not resumes or skill sets. Top

I’m a foreign student in an advanced degree program in the United States. I’d like to find a job here, but my networking contacts are all in my home country and many of them don’t speak English. What do I do?

Networks are global these days. People can and do stay in touch around the world by email and phone.

Do as everyone needs to do. Start by mapping all of your networks. Be sure to include all of your networks in your home country, whether those people speak English or not, and whether they have been to the US or not. One thing you are looking for here is connections to people currently in the US who have done exactly what you want to do - gotten a job in the US. You want to get introductions to those people from their friends and relatives in your home country. Get in touch with these new contacts no matter where they live in the US. Network with them, using your Target List.

Of course, you shouldn't neglect the networks you have in the US. You are certainly a member of multiple networks at the educational institution where you are studying.

In short, you will network in the same way anyone else does. It's true that you may need to work a little harder, at least at the outset. But the principles are exactly the same. Read the Networking book. Map your networks and get started. Top