Tips: Keeping your network from going stale
If you’ve been on the job hunt, you know that the process often takes more time than you’d like. Sometimes it feels like it might drag on forever!
For this newsletter, I wanted to share some tips for staying on top of the job search by keeping your network from going stale. The key here is making sure you have a plan to stay in touch with your network by finding ways to keep people thinking about you. To put it in organizer terms, you want people to continue thinking about your campaign. In this case, the campaign is about helping you land your dream job.
I've said many times in previous newsletters that the job search is all about networking, networking, network. Even if you’ve been hunting for a while, it's still wicked important to meet with five-to-eight people a week to keep getting your story out there and expanding the universe of people who know and like you.
But in addition to having meetings with new people and adding to your list of contacts, it's just as important that you keep in touch with everyone you've met with. Here are my tips:
Set aside time at the end of each month to email your top contacts with an update. Finding a job is a lot like an organizing campaign: You need to track your new contacts and keep in contact with your old. I’ve done two major job searches in my life, and used this tactic both times. It was a little tricky to figure out what to email them about as the job search dragged on, but I kept the emails light and upbeat. I would talk about a job I was interviewing for that I was excited about, or about people I’d recently met with that impressed me. I'm also a big fan of celebrating unimportant holidays. I like wishing people a Happy Groundhog Day or a Happy First Snow Day of the season!
Once or twice a year, schedule a “catch-up” (think coffee date, either virtual or in-person). I suggest doing this even if you don't have a specific agenda. The idea is to just spend time together and remind them about all the things they like about you so they can be helpful in the future. In an ideal world, you’d have a list of 20-ish people you check in with every month and five-ish people you try to grab coffee with once a year.
Spend time on LinkedIn sharing out content or commenting on the posts of people you want to impress. Posting your own content is a way you can stay top of mind for your network.
Let me know if you have other ideas for things you can do to keep people thinking about you!
Here are the top three jobs we’re featuring this week:
Marketing Director at Only One; $100,000-$125,000; New York City.
Communications Director at NARAL; $100,000-$125,000; Remote.
Chief People Officer at UTEC; $90,000-$130,000; Boston-area.
Now, onto housekeeping!
NRG Consulting is offering coaching programs to folks on the job hunt, whether you’re an entry- or senior-level candidate. Check out the programs we’re offering on our website, and get in touch with us.
If you find this newsletter helpful, forward it to your friends and help us build our network! Also, if you have feedback or an idea for a future newsletter topic, shoot me a note.
Finally, I'm in the process of getting all the NRG jobs online, but the best way to make sure you know what roles we are hiring for is to follow me on LinkedIn and to sign-up for our talent network.