Why You Should Spend Your Energy On Networking And How To Do It Right

When you start exploring the job market, and set yourself up for your first or your next step, there are many ways you can differentiate yourself and get ahead to find the right job before anyone else knows about it.

Firstly, please realise that finding a job takes effort and hard work. If you are checking the job portals and have your CV resting at recruitment agencies, you are only doing the minimum amount of effort. There are many benefits to networking and getting personally acquainted in your industry, and for job seekers this is quite crucially the most successful way to find a job (an estimated 80% of jobs are found through networking). Communicating your personality is important, and finding a common with people from your industry provides you with a much greater advantage to securing your next opportunity.

Having a solid network is something you can work on from an early stage, and the efforts you put in there will have beneficial results. In this regard, I advice career seekers to spend their time contacting people who are one, two, maybe even five steps ahead of them. Getting advice from industry professionals is an easy way to find out what steps you have to take to get to the next stage of your career, and what efforts you need to make to get where they are. They have the ability to mentor you if the opportunity arises, and might connect you to a company or professional contact that can help you with your next step.

Many clients have taken on this advice, and are reaping the benefits at this stage. I’ve had a client who was able to shadow someone she contacted for advice, getting some invaluable amount of insight and skills from the process. Another client used Linkedin to follow new companies, and secured his next job through pro-active engagements with his new built network.

Creating these opportunities is another step, and networking is not just something you just do. Join discussion groups, engage online and use social media to your advantage in getting in touch with professionals. I’ve seen many people building their professional network via Twitter or Linkedin, just by interacting and engaging in subjects related to their industry. When contacting strangers, try not to use a ‘needy’ approach (don’t ask for a job) and keep the advice you’d like short and simple. People like to be flattered, and some might be eager to teach you some valuable tricks and tips to get ahead. Once you’ve established a relationship, show particular interest in their work and at a later stage perhaps suggest something you can do for them.

Create your own network

If you have trouble finding a network, perhaps it’s time to start waiting on networks to be made available for you and start your own. It’s much easier than you think. There is a great benefit in the support you can get from others and starting a group can apply to any industry. If you are currently working, find out who are involved in your industry and perhaps set up weekly or monthly lunch/breakfast/coffee meetings with others to get connected. You can perhaps suggest a subject to discuss, or share articles to read and broaden your know-how of the industry your work in. Alternatively, these can turn into brain storming sessions to come up with new solutions to common problems relating to your industry.

Realise that most people like the benefit of meeting new people, so creating and organizing that space opens many doors to attract others. If you are studying, and have certain ambitions, get together with those who have similar interests or passions and see if, together, you can set up something new. Many entrepreneurs start off that way, and find a common interest through informal meetings and discussions to come up with their next idea.

Are your friends also graduating and looking for their next job? Set a meeting each week to get together and discuss your job search efforts, your CV’s, practice interviews and get yourself ready for the job market! Finding common goals and supporting each other might motivate you and provide new ideas on how to get ahead in your career trajectory.

Want to share your knowledge online? Start a discussion group on Linkedin or Facebook and invite those with similar interests. Finding people who can participate is quite easy these days, and together you can broaden your knowledge by exchanging ideas and articles relating to your industry.

So, what are you waiting for? Get ahead and start networking!

Need more personal advice? Ask a question! Standing Out is a career coaching service to help job seekers and graduates in Cape Town communicate themselves to the job market. Connect with owner Mark on Linkedin. Visit the website, follow Standing Out onTwitter and like us on Facebook for more information.

Pitching Yourself: How to leave an impression and be remembered

Have you ever been at a birthday party and randomly stumbled upon someone who could possible come in handy for a next career move, a partnership in a new start-up or a future employer? I have. And when I got introduced to the guy as ‘you guys should chat, he is also in communications!’, all I could mutter was how great the sun was that day and what a lovely chicken drumstick I just had.

As I expressed in a previous post that connecting with people and organisations through a common will be your best chance of increasing your chances on the job market, and that people hire you for your personality and not just your skills, networking should be a major focus when looking for career opportunities. You’ll notice that many of the professional contacts you make come from interactions outside of the workplace, and common ground is found in casual situations.

This is why I feel it is important that you prepare yourself for these situations, and are able to pitch yourself at any moment. It does not matter if you are a recent graduate looking for a junior job or an experienced entrepreneur setting up your twelfth business venture, new people will most of the time have a short attention span. Finding a common on informal grounds will have lots of value, yet it will help if you have a clear understanding on how to communicate your professional self and leave a lasting impression.

A good pitch can come in handy anywhere, whether it’s on paper (in a cover letter), in an interview (they will ask you to describe yourself) or in a casual situation. In order for you to prepare for you pitch, try and describe a few things about your professional persona

1. Who you are

2. What you can contribute

3. What you want

Once you are able to clarify these three areas, try and write one or two pages about yourself. You can try and structure and map the skills you have and have acquired, what interests and experiences you have, what your goals are (see previous posts), what you find important for your professional success (post here). Think about making this about the other person too. What can you contribute to them?

Practice your pitch, make sure it is natural and fluent. Try and find common ground with those you speak with and add them. For instance if you align certain values and goals with the person you are addressing, or if your professional interests lie in the trajectory of the company you are referring to. Trust me, practicing this in advance will help, and it will be hard to catch you off guard as you’ll be able to describe your professional self anywhere. You’ll come across more confident and anyone will appreciate someone who is open in communicating their understanding of their own trajectory. That will be a great way to stand out.

Standing Out is a career coaching service to help job seekers and graduates in Cape Town communicate themselves to the job market. Connect with owner Mark on Linkedin. Visit the website, follow Standing Out on Twitter and like us on Facebook for more information.

Defining Success: What Are You Working Towards?

It’s Monday morning and I open my twitter feed. The vast array of complaints come through, as those who are upset by the beginning of the new work week await yet another weekend break, which to them (judging from their tweets) will not happen in another century or two. It saddens me to see the unhappiness some experience in their jobs, yet I understand that the current job market does not provide a lenient head space for us to just go around and play.

This does not mean there is absolutely no opportunity for change. I speak to many clients, whether they are an experienced accountant or an aspiring musician, who often struggle with motivation and lack of direction. Getting up and feeling particularly heavy for work is a call to action, Warning signs fortunately come early, and regardless of where you are in your career life it is adamant that you keep track of your own satisfaction levels in your job. Not anyone notices them immediately. I’ve met friends who have been so caught up in getting professional recognition as well as growing their financial status, they woke up one day and realised they hate their life. This call to action does not in any way refer to resigning, but rather serves as a calling to act on defining where your own motivation comes from.

This is an important key question you need to figure out: What are you working towards?

Why is this so important? Understanding yourself and what makes you happy in your career will define which choices you make in the development of your professional life, and whether you can define what you actually want from an employer in order to work towards achieving the things that you find contribute the most to your personal happiness. Many of us think that a higher salary will bring more satisfaction, and as much as I recognize the sense of security that comes with financial stability, there are many other factors that motivate us to feel happy in our professional and personal space.

Recently I attended a business event that hosted many speakers. One particular speaker addressed the concept of success and provided the audience with the ‘most inspiring people today’. The outcome? All of the examples of inspiration given were CEO’s of global technological companies, such as Google and Amazon. This led me to question whether we are in fact solely inspired by those who at a young age created influential businesses in the field of technology. I’m not disputing their admirable drive and successful entrepreneurship, nor am I unimpressed by their ability to influence development by providing new technological solutions to solve global issues. However, I believe the main reason why we do what we choose to do on a daily basis is different for anyone, and figuring out our personal drive could perhaps lead us to find inspiration with those we resonate most with.

What then is it that exactly defines success? I might sound like a broken record, but through the work that I do I meet some people who have a career, salary and position that is commonly perceived as highly successful, but can be just as lost and miserable as someone who is unemployed and looking for their first job. Surprisingly, many of the people I have spoken to in the last few months don’t actually know what motivates them or what they work towards.

Aside from what I wrote in my previous blog post about the importance of setting clear goals to allow yourself to always progress regardless of whether you stand still, it is important for you to find out what it is that motivates you most. This is not something you always know but is important to reflect on, as it possibly defines your personal career trajectory in the long term.

There are some of us that aspire power, others that prefer financial security above anything else. Maybe you are driven by the excitement of adventurous challenges. Freedom or creative independence can be important too, when some might get most satisfaction from helping other people. Self-reliance or flexibility can be key driving forces for your career. I meet many of you who are driven by variety and being part of dynamic social environments. These are all factors that can define our feelings of being successful, and should be considered when looking at your personal trajectory.

Most of the starters will (understandably) work for ‘survival’ only, as financial stability and getting valuable work experience are the beginning stages. However, do keep in mind that these are the great times to explore, learn and realise what it is that you find important too. Don’t be worried if you don’t know exactly what it is, as priorities might change when you get older. You might notice that your sense of self-reliance grows over time, or that family life perhaps creates a bigger urge for flexibility.

Try and find out what is it that makes you feel most successful in your career, and what you feel most comfortable in. This doesn’t have to be black and white, but can be a combination of things that you aspire, like wanting to grow towards a financially stable situation whilst being able to help other people on a daily basis. Or working more independently and being provided with more challenges and variety. Perhaps you just want to have the ability to work flexibly and create things. These are all factors that can help you align your personal goals and you can use when you are looking for a new job opportunity. Alternatively, you can use these personal motivations to communicate to your employer if the opportunity comes up, or when you negotiate a new contract.

This is the reason why I brought up the example of the ‘most inspiring people today’. I meet people in my daily life that inspire me more to do what I do than the CEO of Amazon. The individuals I admire are those who have defined their personal success factors and align their professional life to reach a balance of personal and professional happiness. I challenge you to find those around you that provide similar inspiration and do things that you strive towards, even if they are in a completely different field. Perhaps that way you can find out a little bit more about yourself and, in your own way, become successful.

Standing Out is a career coaching service to help job seekers and graduates in Cape Town communicate themselves to the job market. Connect with owner Mark on Linkedin. Visit the website, follow Standing Out on Twitter and like us on Facebook for more information.

How to set your career goals for 2015 and achieve personal success

With 2014 coming to a close, and most people going into holiday hibernation and recharging themselves poolside or on a beach, it is a great time to reflect on 2014’s achievements and look forward to what next year has to offer for your personal career.

Whether you are a young professional on your first job, a recent graduate dipping your toes into the job market, an entrepreneur working on your new start-up or an experienced manager who just received a promotion, setting clear personal career goals keeps you focused and prepared to divide your time for what you are working towards.

PROGRESS

Keep this word in mind. Many times I’ve spoken to clients who suffer from a lack of movement, are stuck in either their jobs or unemployment, don’t know what to do next or are waiting for others to provide them with their next steps or successes. Once you realize that personal progress actually helps you feeling accomplished regardless of your situation, the world will open up for you. And the best thing is, you are in complete control of your own progress. Trust me.

Let’s start by accepting a few things that might hold you back.

It is perfectly OK not to know exactly what you want and are great at
No one knows exactly what they like or are good at. Finding your element is part of our generation, but is an ongoing, organic process that in no means is a given for everyone. If you are doing exactly what you are passionate about and have absolute fulfillment, lucky you. You’re a rare breed. Don’t let feelings of confusion put you down. Use that energy as curiosity to try and explore many different things. Go out there, listen, and learn. You’ll find things you’re good at, and things you’ll like. And you might fail a few times. That’s perfectly fine too.

You can always make a drastic career change
Just because you have a certain specific industry know-how, or degree that is focused on either a broad or special field, it does not mean you can change to a completely new and different profession. If you want to make a career change towards something you are not completely experienced in, remember that your skills have the ability to complement any other field as well. Analyze which skills you’ve learned throughout your life, and which ones you might need to develop and work on. Work towards filling in those gaps. Get advice from people who are in the industry you desire, learn. Read about other industries and professions. Start collecting books and information about things that interest you! Did Richard Branson, after running a successful health and fitness empire, know everything about the airline industry? Of course not! So he went out and learned all he could before starting his airline. Don’t think it’s too late to change, and work towards broadening your knowledge in things you are interested in. You are never ever stuck!

So how do you keep that feeling of constant progress? Even when you have an unsatisfying job or are unemployed? Setting clear, specific short and long term goals.

Once you analyze which skills you want to develop next year, turn these into achievable short term goals! Want to become better and financial management? Start reading, connecting, learning about it. Make it specific! ‘By June 2015, I want to have competent know-how of both personal and professional financial management.’ Then start narrowing it down. How do you get there? ‘Every month, I want to read at least 2 books on financial management and spend time connecting with those in finance (at least 2 people per week) to provide me with industry know-how’ or ‘I want to do an online course in financial management from February, and study for 4 hours a week’.

Want to learn a new language? Practice an instrument? Exercise more? (‘by June, I want to be able to run a half marathon’, ‘I need to run at least 30 minutes a day’), learn how to cook? (‘I want to be able to cook two new recipes each week’), grow your network (‘I need to connect and engage with 5 new industry professionals each month’). Want to have your own business in the future? Start learning how to write a business plan, read books, connect with young entrepreneurs, go to entrepreneur events.

If you goal is to ‘be successful’, or ‘become rich’, you lack the specific targets to actually push yourself to act on it. Becoming rich and successful are results, not specific goals.

What is the purpose of these specific career goals? Personal progress

Once you start writing down specific goals for yourself, you can never stand still. Stick them on your bathroom mirror, your fridge, everywhere! You are your greatest motivator. Become your own manager and set yourself new targets to move forward. If you work on these goals, you will notice that regardless of your situation, whether it is unemployment, being unhappy in your current job, not knowing what it is you exactly want in life, you are moving forward. You might notice that these achievements start to contribute to your personal happiness and career accomplishments.

So, what are you waiting for! What are you going to achieve in 2015? Start making a plan and positively move forward to explore your awesomeness!

Standing Out is a career coaching service to help job seekers and graduates in Cape Town communicate themselves to the job market. Connect with owner Mark on Linkedin. Visit the website, follow Standing Out on Twitter and like us on Facebook for more information.