J.T. and Dale talk jobs: Networking works even when firms aren’t hiring

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Dear J.T. & Dale: Back in July of this year, my position was eliminated (along with that of my boss and a dozen others). The company provided a job-counseling service. While the résumé preparation was helpful, I don’t understand the rationale behind networking to secure interviews. Why would hiring managers take time to see me because one of their people said, “I know someone who knows someone who knows someone”? I only got my last job because an employment service contacted me. – Cameron

DALE: Why would a hiring manager meet with you? Let’s start with an even tougher question: Why would a manager who is not currently hiring meet with you? Some reasons:

1. Kindness.

2. Curiosity – to learn what employees at related companies (like your former employer) are working on, what their salaries are, etc.

3. The future – good managers are always looking to add people to their list of employee prospects, just in case something opens up.

4. The alternative future – in this economy, all managers know they may be looking for work sometime soon, and they want to build their own networks.

5. Help – even though they may not have the perfect full-time job for you, they may have a project you could help them with on a consulting basis.

Notice a couple of things about this list. First, only the first one involved meeting you for your sake; the rest were driven by a personal or company motive. Second, the list did not include the current need to hire someone, the most compelling reason of all.

J.T.: As for those who are hiring, managers know that finding the right employee is not easy, even when there are plenty of available employees – perhaps I should say especially when there are many, many applicants available. Managers don’t want to look at hundreds of résumés and guess about what’s not in them, like the person’s personality, aptitude and knowledge. That’s why hiring managers are glad to use referrals, even when they are friends of friends. Trust the networking process – it really does work. Plus, it’s far more interesting and rewarding to converse with people in your industry than to send out thousands of résumés while sitting at your computer all day!

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