Author: Lavie Margolin, Career Coach
Networking strategy, just like when driving the car to grandma’s house, can take the wrong turn on the expressway and we can end up in the wrong place. It is often emphasized when looking for a job to find someone to advocate on your behalf to the hiring manager. It can be helpful as you are no longer an unknown commodity when someone vouches for you and you are likely to stand out above the pack.
Make sure the person helping connect you to the employer has a good relationship with the hiring manager and does not just know the person. Just because they know or have worked with the person, it does not necessarily mean they are on the best of terms. If the person helping you has given off a bad professional impression to those around them in the past, it may reflect badly on you. Jim recently shared a great example that emphasized this fact: “Someone that used to work for me that was so bad I was trying to fire them, walked out and gave me a terrible review in her exit interview, then emailed me a few months later with the following: “Hi, hope all is well, wanted to send my friend’s resume for your open position.”
In this situation, the applicant would have been better served finding someone else to advocate on their behalf to Jim or applying for the position online themselves.
About the Author: Lavie Margolin is a New York-based Career Coach and the author of Lion Cub Job Search: Practical Job Search Assistance for Practical Job Seekers. To learn more, go to Lavie’s website, Lion Cub Job Search:www.Lioncubjobsearch.com