Career Networking Do’s and Don’ts

Here are the keys to successful networking for your job-search. Follow these simple rules and you should achieve success in this important strategic tool of job-hunting.

• Do realize why networking is so important. Only 5 to 25 percent of jobs are advertised, so you can find out about all the unadvertised openings only through talking to as many people as possible and telling them you are looking for a job.
• Do read our article, Networking Your Way to a New Job.
• Do think creatively about where to find network contacts. You can find people to add to your network almost anywhere.
• Don’t go anywhere without copies of your resume and business cards or networking cards. You can keep your resume in your car or briefcase, but be sure you can access it easily if you meet someone who could pass your resume along to a hiring manager.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Most people are flattered to be asked for assistance and advice with your job search. It makes them feel important.
• Do join a professional organization related to your field. In a survey conducted for A Foot in the Door: Networking Your Way Into the Hidden Job Market, professional organizations were cited as the top venue for networking. See our General Professional Organizations and Associations.
• Do volunteer. Volunteer work was cited in the survey as the No. 2 way to make network contacts.
• Do find a mentor. A mentor — that one person who can guide you, help you, take you under his or her wing and nurture your career quest — can be the most valuable kind of network contact.
• Do come up with a system for organizing your network contacts, whether a spreadsheet on your computer, a file box of index cards, a three-ring binder, or whatever works for you.
• Do consider conducting informational interviews, the ultimate networking technique. See our Informational Interviewing Tutorial
• Don’t forget to thank everyone in your network who has been helpful to you, preferably with a nice thank-you note. It’s just common courtesy to show your appreciation for peoples’ time and assistance, and your contacts will remember your good manners.
• Do keep networking even after you’ve found a job. You never know when you might need your network contacts again.

Questions about some of the terminology used in this article? Get more information (definitions and links) on key college, career, and job-search terms by going to our Job-Seeker’s Glossary of Job-Hunting Terms.

Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., creative director and associate publisher of Quintessential Careers, is an educator, author, and blogger who provides content for Quintessential Careers, edits QuintZine, an electronic newsletter for jobseekers, and blogs about storytelling in the job search at A Storied Career. Katharine, who earned her PhD in organizational behavior from Union Institute & University, Cincinnati, OH, is author of Dynamic Cover Letters for New Graduates and A Foot in the Door: Networking Your Way into the Hidden Job Market (both published by Ten Speed Press), as well as Top Notch Executive Resumes (Career Press); and with Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D., Dynamic Cover Letters, Write Your Way to a Higher GPA (Ten Speed), and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Study Skills (Alpha). Visit her personal Website or reach her by e-mail at kathy(at)quintcareers.com.