You have probably heard before that companies do not advertise most of their job openings externally. Many positions are filled internally or by recommendation without considering outside candidates at all. Both of these things boil down to who you know—luckily you know more people than you think. My last few posts have been about using the people you know in your network to help you land a job. What about the people you don’t know? You can use them too! It just requires a little more confidence.
Challenged by my supervisor, I experimented with the unnerving task of reaching out to secondary and tertiary LinkedIn connections who worked at major consulting companies, but who I did not know. My mission was (a) to learn about unadvertised job vacancies and (b) to learn more about the companies’ culture. What I discovered is that people are surprisingly helpful.
Networking in general is as much about connecting others as it is about personal advancement. This is my best guess for why folks were so willing to advise me (about 1 in 4 were welcoming). In spite of this, lots of job seekers are shy about contacting second degree connections they do not know. Don’t be! That’s what they are there for!
Finding contact information may require a bit of research though—most individuals do not list their phone numbers on their profile, and emails tend to get easily overlooked. Instead, call the company’s main switchboard and ask confidently (you have every right to call, after all) to speak with your second degree connection. If anyone asks what it is regarding, be honest. Mention your mutual LinkedIn connection, but do not insinuate a close relationship with your mutual connection if it does not exist.
Be mindful, when calling, to ask if they can spare a few minutes to speak with you and offer insight on potentially working with the company. It’s just polite—they may be busy after all. At this point, you may or may not get a welcoming response. It depends on the person. If they are not interested in helping, graciously thank them and move on. If they are, start digging for information!
When asking questions, focus on information you wouldn’t be able to find out on your own. Don’t lose sight of the goal though: to link with someone who can help you learn about the company’s unadvertised employment vacancies. Depending on who you are speaking to, you may be redirected to another associate. If this is the case, be sure to ask if you can reference the conversation when speaking to others (this does NOT mean you got a referral though; it just means you had a conversation).
Always close by mentioning that you are going to send them an invitation on Linkedin and that they are free to disregard it if they so chose. Note, this is not a question—just do it! As you told them, they can disregard if they chose. But since LinkedIn is less personal than some of the other social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter, it’s not likely they will ignore your request. This means you now have a whole new batch of secondary connections in your network. Cool right?
by Abena, Wall Street Services Reporter
