12 Steps to a New Career

What to Do When You Want to Make a Change Now!

Carl J. Wellenstein

• Publisher: Career Press
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781601639219
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Careers

Changing jobs in your 30's or at an executive or manager level requires you to think more strategically about your career. As your coach, author Carl Wellenstein guides you through the process of making job and career changes in a step-by-step fashion that is specific to your level and situation. You will learn what you need to do, when you need to do it, and why (from multiple perspectives—yours, recruiters, and employers). Real-life examples illustrate how.

Twelve chapters are arranged in five sections:

• Self-discovery—What you bring to the table that others want.
• Job and career options—Understanding the ones that will work for you.
• Marketing yourself effectively—Crafting your resume and navigating the job market.
• Communicating effectively—Techniques that build confidence and enthusiasm so you are more effective when networking, interviewing, and negotiating.
• Creating your strategic plan—Keeping yourself on track.

12 Steps to a New Career will help you make a life-changing leap from thinking of "changing jobs" to defining a career path that will lead to a job you'll love.

Section IV
Mastering the Different Ways You Communicate With Others

8 Networking

If you want others to help you, you must first get them
to want to help you.

Chapter Overview

If you were starting a business, how would you promote its features and benefits to potential customers? The challenge remains the same if you’re searching for a job. How will you promote your skills, experience, and achievements to your potential customer—the employer? This chapter will:

Introduce you to a simple three-phase approach that will improve your success at networking for employment.

Show you how to broaden your contacts well beyond those you already have.

Increase your effectiveness at getting your contacts to want to help you.

Improve your ability to ask the right questions to get the help you need.

The main sections in this chapter include:

Why you must network and be effective at it.

Build an effective network in three easy phases.

How to use questions to get your network to want to work for you.

Networking requires a personal commitment.

Suggestions on where to network.

Milestones.

Having a contact network alone won’t help you find a new job or career unless you can get your contacts to want to help you. The effectiveness of your network will be the defining difference between success and a long, drawn-out and potentially unsuccessful search.

Most people think networking for employment is the same as networking for business. They’re quite different, and, if you don’t understand the differences, your network won’t work for you. The guidelines in this chapter focus on networking for a job or for exploring a new career, not networking for business.

Networking for employment is a process that facilitates
connecting you from where you are to where you want to
go in the shortest amount of time possible.

Why You Must Network and Be Effective at It

Research indicates that people who used networking as part of a well-organized and planned job search were successful at finding their next job more than 85 percent of the time.

Other research indicates that, when employers need to recruit management talent, they turn to executive recruiters 64 percent of the time.

What these seemingly contradictory statistics mean is that employers are only able to find senior-level talent using their own sources about one-third of the time. When they’re not successful, they turn to recruiters two-thirds of the time. The five different ways companies try to find senior talent on their own are listed in Chapter 7 (page 148).

Some people might think contacting recruiters makes the most sense, because they handle two-thirds of all management recruitment. You know that wouldn’t be effective, because you’d have to find and then attract the attention of that one recruiter out of more than 20,000 who would be conducting the right search for you. Then, if you’re currently unemployed, you’d have to compete with other candidates who are currently working.

You’ll stand a much better chance that companies will consider you if you use your network of contacts to connect with the appropriate person in the company. Using this approach increases your potential success at finding your next job up to 85 percent.

A Shared Experience

I often hear about executives who want to change jobs while they’re still working and make the mistake of sending their resume to one or more recruiters, asking them to be discreet in helping them look for a new job.

Unfortunately, they don’t know how recruiters work and don’t realize that companies pay recruiters to find people.

As expected (and as you should now know), though the recruiters say they’ll “look” for opportunities for these executives, they’re also starting to look for their replacements. If they find a replacement first, they present that candidate to the company—which obviously says it doesn’t have an open position. The recruiter will then “discreetly” inform the company that he has knowledge that their employee is “on the market,” and that he has the perfect replacement.

The recruiter may not be successful in placing the “perfect replacement candidate” but, as expected, employees often lose their jobs when confronted with the evidence.

Knowing which approaches might work for you is only part of the process. You’ll also need to know how to build your network and use it effectively. Because networking will be key to your success at finding what you want, it’s crucial that you get it right.

If you’re making a job change: The contacts you meet and add to your network will help you gather information about your target companies and help you connect with the right people: those who are able to make decisions about employing you.

If you’re making a career change: The contacts you meet and add to your network will help you connect with people who understand whether your anticipated change is right for you. They can evaluate the reasonableness of your thinking and the likelihood of success in making such a change, and they can introduce you to others who may help you find out what you need to know.

Build an Effective Network in 3 Easy Phases

Networking for business is generally easy and straightforward. You meet someone; discuss the features, benefits, and price of a product or service; and then exchange business cards.

When I started my search firm and networked for business, I observed executives who were networking for jobs and noticed the ones who seemed most successful. I asked them how they approached networking and why. Although their explanations varied, they all seemed to share a common theme:

“If I want others to help me in my search, I’ve got to create a relationship with them that makes them want to help me.”

“Once I’ve created that relationship, I need to make sure they know what I want and why my skills and experience qualify me for it.”

Using this new insight, I created a graphic representation with an explanation of the three phases I observed so others could quickly grasp its concept and remember the process more easily.

I use the acronym IOU to represent the three phases: Initiate, Obtain, and Use. The acronym IOU helps you remember these phases.

First, let’s examine each phase so you’re clear about the purpose of each one and can see why you must follow them sequentially.

Phase 1: Initiate

The Initiate phase is when you’re introducing yourself to people with the intent to initiate relationships and develop rapport with them. This phase is similar...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction: How to Get the Most From Using This Book
• Section I: Finding Who You Are and What You Bring to the Table
• Section II: Identifying and Evaluating Your Employment Options
• Section III: Marketing Yourself Effectively: What, Why, and How
• Section IV: Mastering the Different Ways You Communicate With Others
• Section V: Keeping Yourself Focused and on Track
• Conclusion: Where to Turn for Additional Help
• Index
• About the Author