• Inner circle, people you know very well.
• People you know but not well, such as neighbors and former-coworkers.
• People you do not know at all but would like to know.

The second and third levels  are where you really want to focus because this is where you will have your best shot at tapping into the hidden job market.

First, reconnect with your second level people.  Check what they’ve been up to and update them with your current situation.  You might find hidden current opportunities.  Also, this is a great chance to familiarize them with your newly developed brand.  This way they can properly introduce you to third level people.

To grow that third level, you need help from the first and second levels. It’s the people you know that will help you connect with the people you do not yet know.   Here are a few suggestions for people to network with at each level.
 
Inner Circle (people you know well):

• Partner or spouse
• Immediate family
• Extended family
• In-laws
• Close friends
• Close friends’ partners and spouses

 
Second level (people you know but not well):

• Neighbors
• Friends who you have not contacted for a while
• Former classmates
• Sorority sisters  / fraternity brothers
• Parents from your children’s schools, activities, sports teams
• Book, hobby, social, game, sport and religious groups

 
Third level (people you do not yet know)

• Industry leaders
• Authors and speakers
• Participants in internet groups
• Members of professional and industry organizations
• Fellow alumni

 
The easiest way to network with people you don’t know yet is to find a mutual connection – someone you both know- who can introduce you. LinkedIn makes it very easy to find mutual connections. This warm introduction is a powerful way to expand your network. But if you can’t find a mutual connection, reach out directly by commenting on an article they have written or responding to an internet discussion. Send an author or speaker a note. Send an email to someone you would like to know and simply introduce yourself and express a desire to connect

Growing your network should be a high priority. Set daily goals for reaching out. Customize each outreach to the person receiving it and thank everyone who helps you along the way.

Tell us: What are you doing to grow your network?

Start Close to Home

You probably already have at least a small network, even if you don’t realize it.  Begin with your inner circle: family and good friends.  Let them know you’re building a professional network and ask them to be a part of it. Add them to your professional network on LinkedIn. (If you don’t already have a LinkedIn account, you should start one. It’s a powerful job search tool and a great way to build and track your network.)

Adding relatives and social contacts to your professional network is a very normal practice in today’s interconnected world. Also don’t hesitate to have people join your network who are in completely different fields, appear to have no connections to your career goals, or have a very limited network themselves. Get started with people you are very comfortable with.

Each time you add someone to your professional network:

1. Ask for insights on their area of expertise and start learning about their professional world
2. Let them know about your job search by sharing your value proposition (what you can do) and your goal (what you are looking for)
3. Ask who else they recommend you network with
4. Thank them

Social Contacts

Now expand that circle by considering those you cross paths with in social pursuits, hobbies, sports, book clubs, neighborhood and school activities.   If you are on Facebook, consider every one of your friends a member of your network. Further the relationship by inviting them to join your network on LinkedIn. For more ideas on including social contacts in your professional network read: Recognizing Unique Networking Opportunities.

Past Professional Contacts

Think back to each job you have held and locate colleagues, former bosses, clients and others you crossed paths with, even if you’ve been out of the work world for awhile. LinkedIn makes it very easy to reconnect because you can search by company. Recent college grads should consider dorm mates, sorority and fraternity friends, professors, advisors and fellow students. Stay-at-home parents may reach out to other parents and their partners, along with school teachers and administrators.

Expanding the Circle

The most challenging, but critical part of building your network is to include people you do not even know yet. Some great contacts include: Industry and thought leaders in your field, recruiters, and people with expertise in your job type.   Easy ways to initiate contact with people like this include following them on Twitter, joining professional groups and making contact through LinkedIn. Learn how to reach out to new people on LinkedIn by reading Using LinkedIn Groups to Make Connections.

Goal Setting

Because building a network is so critical to job search success, set goals. Consider targets for adding new people at each level. It’s quicker and easier to add people from your inner circle but push yourself to expand at all levels because it’s the people you do not yet know that are most likely to uncover hidden jobs for you.

Now It’s Face Time!

As you grow your network, begin practicing in-person meetings. Start with having networking get-togethers with people with common connections. Get a feel for how those meetings work and how they can benefit your job search. Then expand to holding similar conversations with those you don’t know as well and people who are completely new to you.  Learn more about holding in-person meetings by reading Making Informational Interviews Work for You.

More on networking:

• Questions to ask when Networking
• The Art of the Cold Contact
• Turning Social Events into Networking Opportunities

As with all different types of follow-up, you have a couple of different goals you want to accomplish when following up on an informational interview:

1. Make sure to follow up right away.  Follow up with a thank you e-mail within 24 hours of your meeting.  Remind the person of your values and skills you bring to the table, but be sure not to make it a sales pitch.
2. Complete any follow up you offered to do. For example, if you mentioned a website of interest or a person you would introduce your contact to, complete those tasks quickly.
3. If your contact has offered to make a connection or introduction, ensure that this happens. Courteously remind your contact of the promised follow-up item and ask if any further information is needed to complete the task. For example you may say “You mentioned I should talk with your co-worker Nancy. Would you like to make the introduction, or can I have her email address and reach out to directly?” Make it as easy as possible for your contact to follow-through in a way that is convenient for him or her.
4. Establish a way to keep in touch. When you wrap up your meeting with your contact, you should ask if it’s ok to keep in touch with them.  You might also ask if they have a preferred method to keep in touch (ie. phone, e-mail).
5. Look for ways to  keep fresh in their mind.  Send useful articles from time to time.  Keep them updated on your progress periodically.  Add them to your holiday card list.  Add them to your LinkedIn network . The most powerful way to stay fresh in a contacts mind is to be adding value by sharing useful information, helping solve a problem or making a connection.
6. Find a way to give back.  The golden rule of networking is helping others.  Try and find a way to reciprocate.  You might not be able to do this right away, but keep in mind the people who gave their time to you, and at some point you will likely be able to give back.

Follow-up is very simple and very important.  When you are conducting informational meetings, make sure you finish strong with a good follow-up.  Doing so will assist you in making strong connections for your network.

Informational interviews are much like a regular interview, except you are there to learn and share, not to ask for a job.  Conduct yourself in a professional manner as if you were in a job interview.

1. Be a professional.  Arrive on time.  Be comfortable but not sloppy when speaking with the person you’re meeting with.  Make sure to thank them for meeting with you.  Offer to pick up the tab if you meet for coffee or lunch.
2. Take the lead.  As you get started, briefly restate why you are there, mention your goals and interests, and then start off with an open ended question to get the conversation flowing.  Listen carefully to the responses and take notes.  Don’t just run through your list of questions. Listen to the answers and respond to what you are hearing.
3. Look for ways to be helpful. One of the most powerful things that can happen in an informational interview is that you end up providing help of some sort to your contact. This happens when you listen, truly understand his or her problems and issues, and have some insights or connections that are useful in addressing them. Don’t force it and make it look like you are trying too hard. But if the opportunity comes up and you truly have value to add, go for it. For example, let’s say your contact says they struggle to find good sales people. If you are in marketing, don’t pitch yourself as a sales person! But perhaps you happen to know of a great sales person. Offer to make that connection and be sure to follow up. Or let’s say your contact says market expansion is a priority right now. If you have legitimate success in that area, you may say “I led a similar effort two years ago and here’s a technique that worked.” Share your expertise if it’s a direct tie to what you are hearing from your contact.
4. Watch the clock. Be respectful of the time.  Offer to end the interview when the scheduled amount of time has elapsed, unless your contact offers to go over time.
5. Seek feedback. If the conversation feels like it is going well, this may be a good time to ask if your contact would feel comfortable reviewing your resume to offer pointers.  Or you may ask the person for feedback on the job or field you are pursuing and whether you are on a path that makes sense based on his or her view of the industry. Never lead with these requests. Only make them if the conversation has gone well and the contact has indicated a willingness to help further.
6. Request contacts. If the conversation has been positive, you may ask your contact if he or she knows of other people you should talk with. This request is an important part of networking and one of the best ways to widen your network, ultimately leading to job leads. You may simply say “I’ve really appreciated your insights. Are there other people you think I might benefit from talking to? “
7. Share your value and your goals.  Unless asked, you will not normally lead with who you are and what you are looking for. But it’s desirable if this comes out in the interview. Particularly if the person is a brand new contact, you want him or her to leave with a sense of what you bring to the marketplace and where your skills could be valuable. That way your new contacts can keep their eyes out for you and alert you to potential opportunities.
8. Restate action items. Take notes on any follow up you or your contact agrees to and restate them at the end. If your contact indicated that there might be an opportunity available for you, inquire about the best way to follow up on this.  If they did not mention any opportunities, ask if you can keep in contact with them along with the best way to do this.
9. Thank them again.  Your interviewee took time out of the day to meet with you; be sure to show your gratitude.

Informational interviews can seem tricky and even a little awkward at first.  However, with a little preparation, they can be very informative, rewarding, and a lot of fun!  Next, following up with your contact to maintain an ongoing relationship.

You may not be sure where to find these networking contacts, but these people may actually be closer to you than you think.  Perhaps you met somebody at an event and were interested in learning more about what they did.  The contact could be a friend of a friend.  It might even be somebody you know well, but want to have a formal conversation regarding his or her profession.  Informational interviews can be conducted with people you don’t know, but they are much more comfortable with people you have at least an acquaintance with.

When getting in touch with your contact, be very specific with your request so they’re clear you’re not asking for a job.  Some examples of what you might ask for include:

• I’d like to learn more about your job, how you trained for it and how you worked your way up to your current position.
• I’m interested in your industry and hope you can tell me about points of entry for the field.
• I’ve followed your work for some time and would appreciate your insights on the current state of the field and where future opportunities might be.
• You come highly recommended by a colleague of mine and I would appreciate the opportunity to learn more about your field and area of expertise.
• I enjoy our social relationship but am eager to learn more about your professional life.

If you are unsure how to make contact, here is a blog on the Art of Cold Contact.

Once you have the appointment set up, prepare thoroughly so you are confident for the meeting:

1. Research the company and individual.   Do your homework before meeting with your contact.  Read over the company website.  Do a Google search and read about anything that may be going on in the news.  Find a corporate blog and see what people are saying.  Find out about the person you’re interviewing via LinkedIn and Google.
2. Develop questions.  This is your chance to get first hand knowledge of a job you desire or field of interest; be sure to show up with good questions!  Ask open-ended questions to give the interviewee a chance to elaborate on answers.  A good rule of thumb is to have around 10 questions ready.
3. Dress professionally.  While an informational interview is casual, you should not dress as such.  The person you are interviewing could end up interviewing you for a job if things go well.  Put your best foot forward when making this first impression!

You’ve done your research, you’re dressed, and ready to go.  Next, how to successfully conduct the informational interview.

For the uninitiated, informational interviews are person-to-person networking involving meetings with people purely for the purpose of connecting and exchanging information. Often a job seeker will reach out to others in his or her field, job or profession to learn more about opportunities or determine how skills might be used. Anyone changing fields will certainly use informational interviews to learn more about breaking into the new area.

Here are some of the other goals of informational interviews:
1. Gain insight and expertise
2. Learn about the state of a particular industry or company
3. Learn more about a certain job title or how a skill set is being used
4. Gain understanding about what it takes to enter a field, company or job type
5. Become acquainted with key players in an industry or at a company
6. Develop an understanding of the issues and challenges facing an industry or company
7. Explore how your skill set might be valuable in solving some of these challenges
8. Discover ways you can help a new contact
9. Discover ways your new contact can help you
10. Share who you are and the value you have to offer
11. Get feedback on your job search, resume, the field or job you are targeting
12. Gain additional new contacts
13. Impress the person enough that they will keep an eye out for you in the future

You won’t achieve all of these goals in every informational interview but before requesting one, think through what you hope to get out of it. Notice that “Get a job” is not one of the choices! Getting a job is not an outcome of a typical informational interview. Yet having them is an important part of moving your job search forward and will ultimately lead to job opportunities.

Up next, using your goals for an informational interview to craft a request for one, and how to prepare once you’ve got one lined up.

• Forcing competencies in one area to match only vaguely related needs in another denigrates your true area of expertise
• A scattershot approach wastes your energy on applying for jobs you are not truly qualified for and are not likely to get
• Portraying yourself as an expert in a wide variety of areas can confuse your network. They want to help you, but may be unclear about your true qualifications and your job search goals
• You may come across as false, desperate, or as someone who has not clearly defined their brand and objectives
• A hiring manager may perceive you as having shallow experience in lots of areas, but lacking deep experience in any area
• Your depth in one area may be lost if you paint yourself as a versatile generalist
• You may find yourself pursuing or even taking a job that isn’t really right for you

For a more focused approach, begin by being very clear about your past successes and areas where you can truly claim competency or expertise. Create a concrete list including quantifiable achievements. As you consider various opportunities, look for a very clear connection from your past to the current opportunity. This more selective approach will bring many benefits.

• Your energy will be spent on jobs you have a much greater chance of getting
• You will present yourself with greater confidence because the connection between your past and a company or hiring manager’s current needs is very clear
• Your network will have be able to support you because they know what you are looking for
• It will be much easier for you and for your network to recognize good opportunities
• You are much more likely to end up in a job that is truly a fit

It’s certainly good to stretch and to consider jobs that go beyond what you’ve done in the past, or take your skills in a new direction. Do not feel you should be unreasonably narrow in your job search.

• Pursue “stretch” positions that take existing skills and use them in new ways
• Make very clear how your past experience relates directly to the new position. For example, a recent college graduate had experience managing a school team. He related past experience managing inventory, maintaining equipment and setting schedules to the job description for an office manager. He was successful because he “connected the dots” and made the transition feel natural.
• Network with others who have similar backgrounds and have moved in new directions and find out how they made the connection. For example, a job seeker with a background in direct sales sought out contacts with a similar background who had transitioned into customer service. He learned how abilities like understanding and meeting a customer’s needs, customizing products and services and timely follow up were useful in both fields.
• Demonstrate versatility and flexibility by sharing stories of how you’ve used your skills in a variety of settings and created success. In the example above, a sales person applying for a customer service job might share specific stories of times he jumped in to exceed a customer’s expectations and keep a customer satisfied even after a sale.

While presenting yourself as flexible and multifaceted, beware of casting too wide a net or portraying yourself as a jack-of-all-trades who will do anything for a paycheck. Letting your true expertise show is a faster path to success.

First it helps to understand the key players:

• Internal Recruiter: Works for a specific company helping fill current job openings and grooming a pool of potential talent for future job openings. Internal recruiters are usually paid a salary by the company they work for.
• External Recruiter: Helps fill openings at many companies. Often associated with a specialty (such as IT or medical) and an agency.  External recruiters are often paid based on the number of placements they make. Their constant goal is to match people with jobs and get hires made. It impacts their bottom line.
• “Headhunter”: A nickname for an external recruiter who focuses on executive talent or highly skilled positions. In a stronger job market, some headhunters focused on “passive candidates” meaning people who were already employed but might be convinced to switch to a new job and company. These days headhunters and recruiters develop a pool of talent, some employed, some unemployed, and seek to match those in their pool with job openings and companies they work with.

Job seekers should proactively reach out to all of these key players. Any one of them may have an opening for which you are a match, or may hear of something that is right for you. All of them tend to have a lot of connections, especially in the industry or company they support.

As a former recruiter myself, here are some pointers for making the most of the relationship:

• Show respect for the recruiter’s time.  Recruiters are juggling many open positions, hiring managers and job seekers. Keep all communication focused and concise.
• Make it easy for recruiters to reach you by featuring email and phone number on all materials.  Some recruiters prefer to call. Be responsive to their calls and return messages quickly.
• Look for ways to help recruiters.  If approached about a job that is not right for you, suggest someone for whom it might be a match.
• Treat every encounter with a recruiter like a job interview.  When a recruiter recommends you for a position, his or her reputation is on the line so recruiters are constantly measuring you.
• Don’t expect a recruiter to act as your career counselor or job search coach.  Some recruiters may offer helpful advice, but do not lead by asking for it.
• Take all input from recruiters seriously, especially if they are trying to match you to a specific job.  They know the organization and hiring manager, so any advice the give is likely to be important.
• Never vent with a recruiter about the frustrations of your job search.  Remain positive and professional at all times.
• If a recruiter does not follow up with you, contact the recruiter.  Send a concise email or leave a professional voice mail message requesting an update.

Your relationship with recruiters or “headhunters” is like any other networking relationship. It should be a two-way, mutually beneficial connection. Treat recruiters respectfully, pay it forward where you can, be sure they know your value so they can connect you when they hear of a job that might be right.

Next week, more important things to know about recruiters including how to find them, and how they are paid.

Getting Started

• When joining a new group, listen and get to know the dynamics first
• Introduce yourself. In some groups new people introduce themselves when they join. In others, it’s common to introduce yourself the first time you post.
• Read recent discussions. Don’t make your first impression by asking a question that’s just  been addressed.
• Don’t make it all about you. A hard-sell pitch will not serve you well. Get to know the group and let them get to know you before sharing your pitch.
• Look for ways to help others. Respond to their questions and share your expertise.
• Include a signature line in your posts that includes contact information, such as your LinkedIn profile URL. Give people a way to reach you outside the public forum.

Keeping it Professional

Always remember that anything you post  in an online group can be read by recruiters and hiring managers.

• Be professional and courteous at all times
• Don’t vent including gripes about past employers or frustrations with your job search
• Disagree nicely. Never attack another person when sharing a different viewpoint
• No matter how comfortable you get with an online group, remember it is still a public forum and how you present yourself could impact your ability to get hired

Making New Friends

It’s appropriate to use online groups as a way of connecting with people you would like to meet.

• When you approach someone directly, begin with a professional introduction
• Ask a question or seek input
• Do not begin by asking a new connection to point you in the direction of a job lead
• Get to know the other person and build a relationship before asking for help
• Do not introduce yourself by asking the other person to join your LinkedIn network. While there are open networkers who will add anyone to their professional network, many others feel they need a stronger connection before adding someone to their professional network.

Take advantage of the great opportunities offered by online groups. They are a powerful way to connect, build your network and uncover job opportunities.

Read more:

• Using LinkedIn Groups to Make Connections
• The Art of the Cold Contact

If the question comes up, be ready to tie your response to the job for which you’re interviewing.  Keep a couple of people in mind so you have options based on how the interview is going.  Be sure to select professional influences, not your parents, partner or pastor. You want to use this easy question as an opportunity to continue to bring out your match to the job.

• Choosing a hero might be well suited when you wish to discuss how someone inspired you to overcome adversity or a difficult problem in a previous job.  Stress a quality you saw in your hero that directly relates to a quality needed for the desired position. Share a success story in which you used that quality to create value or solve a problem for an employer.
• Using a mentor as an example might be good if you are applying for a job in your current industry.  Perhaps your mentor helped you get your foot in the door and discover your passion for what you do.  Tie that passion to current opportunity and demonstrate how it will make you more effective.
• If a manager inspired you, focus on his or her management style and interpersonal skills.  If his or her leadership inspired you a certain way, tell a short story and show how it relates to the job.

Remember to keep the stories short, and have fun with it.  This can be a great opportunity to showcase some personal qualities and how they will help you excel at the position you are applying for.

More interview questions:

“How do You Deal with Conflict?”

“Where Do You See Yourself in Five Years”

“What Do You Know About Us?”

“What’s Your Biggest Weakness?”