Posted under Career Management on March 27th, 2007
Quite often when I meet people who are in career transition, they are not in the situation by choice. Some were downsized and never saw the warning signs. Others knew the inevitable, but choose to wait until they were ushered out the door before thinking about their future search.
When they begin an active search, many job seekers report that they do not have a viable network of contacts because they didn’t have the time to stay connected to colleagues, vendors, strategic partners, or anyone else that they formed a trusting working relationship with. Some confess that they never saw the need to develop these relationships past the day-to-day business functions because they assumed that their jobs were theirs for as long as they wanted them and there was no need to rely on contacts for future opportunities. Under these circumstances, reconnecting with people can feel embarrassing, phony, or just plain desperate.These feelings lead to less networking which limits the amount of information the job seeker can gather and the quality of the decision makers they can source.
Whether you are in active search mode or not, you should always be managing your career. As Jason Alba points out on the Jibber Jobber blog, there’s a big difference between someone who is looking for a job and someone who is managing their career. Here are a few differences I’d like to add to Jason’s excellent post.
- Job seekers are reactive and career managers are proactive. Job seekers often rely on the open job market such as job boards and recruiters as their main method of search and mistakenly believe that by reacting to postings on what’s available they will source a new position. Career managers know that by proactively building relationships with potential decision makers, they will build a robust network of contacts that they can rely on should they need information in the future.
- Job seekers believe they have limited control over their search while career managers understand that they control their career destiny. Job seekers tend to send their resumes out into cyberspace with a “wait and see” approach. Career managers aggressively source decision makers to influence the efficiency and quality of their search.
- Job seekers take and career managers give. Job seekers often expect quality leads from recruiters and job boards even though they are competing against many qualified candidates and they are vying for interviews with hiring managers when there is no relationship. Career managers realize that when you network you focus on giving more than you get which in turn builds relationship, good will, and reciprocity.
- Job seekers are impatient and career managers are patient. Job seekers are looking for the quick fix…the job posting that matches their skills perfectly or the recruiter that will call them back immediately. Career managers build a methodical search strategy and solid relationships over time so their contacts are available and willing to give them advice and support when they need it.
By building and nurturing professional and personal relationships on a regular basis, you are more likely to have a strong support system to rely on should you need to reach out to others to secure information on companies, industries, and decision makers. Shed your job seeker persona and replace it with a career manager mentality and see the significant gains you can make with a slight attitude adjustment.
Posted by Barbara Safani
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