NETWORKING
Article: Guerilla Marketing for Job-Hunters
I recently received an email from a recruiter looking to connect with a
friend of mine in Detroit. The recruiter found my friend’s profile on
LinkedIn, a web-based networking tool. In order to reach my friend the recruiter did a little back-stepping and, since he was only “two degrees away”, connected with the people in the chain in order to make the contact. I was the person who was ‘one link’ away and was pleased to make the connection to my friend.
What does it mean to be “two degrees away”? This is in reference to the “small world phenomenon”, which is a theory that everyone in the world can be reached through a short chain of social acquaintances. After a 1967 small world experiment by psychologist Stanley Milgram found that two random US citizens were connected by an average of six acquaintances, the concept gave rise to the famous phrase “Six Degrees of Separation”.
The LinkedIn site listed me as two degrees in separation between the recruiter and my friend. Here’s how it works. Go to https://www.linkedin.com/. After registration, (it’s free so far), complete your professional profile. Next you download your address book to the LinkedIn site and invite those individuals who you think would be good professional networking contacts … either “to” you or “for” you.
HOW IT WORKS
LinkedIn has several functional uses, (still free), at this point. Say, for example, you are an employer looking for a Human Resources Manager. In this case I went to the Find People tab and in All Users typed in the title Human Resources to come up with an extremely large number of people who are in my network, (LinkedIn used to show the exact number, which could be in the thousands, however now only shows the top 500). I later narrowed this down to the 500 Chicago area users who matched the criteria by zeroing in on my zip code. Of these 500 users, 84 of them are only one degree away from me … meaning that I know them personally, and another 244 people are only two degrees away from me … meaning that I know someone who knows these people. And, I quickly discovered that 8 of the contacts who are listed as being four degrees away from me I also happen to know … however I didn’t happen to have them listed in my address book.
Going back to the site and using the Job Search feature and the same ‘Human Resources’ title, LinkedIn indicates that there are currently seven positions available for someone with this background. One of these postings is for a Sr. Compensation Analyst at Pepsi Americas that was posted by someone who is in HR at the firm (and who is two degrees away from me). Plus LinkedIn also reveals that there are currently 24 individuals, several of whom are only two degrees away, in my network who work for Pepsi in Chicago. Is there a possibility that I could connect with one of these people? You bet.
OK, let’s go further on the “job search” idea and look at targeting a potential employer. Let’s use Tellabs as an example. A quick search of Tellabs brings up over 500 users who are in my network and work for the firm. Narrowing this search down to the local area I arrive at 253 individuals … many of whom I happen to be only two degrees away from. Get the concept?
How big is my LinkedIn network? Well, with 454 direct connections I am literally connected with millions and millions of people. My network:
|
Your Connections |
|
|
Two degrees away |
63,200+ |
|
Three degrees away |
2,529,100+ |
|
Total
users you can contact through an Introduction |
2,592,800+ |
17,634 new people in your network since July 10
But wait … there’s more … LinkedIn has a small downloadable program (still free) called “Jobs Insider” that works in the background for you. It automatically appears when you are looking at jobs on Monster, CareerBuilder, HotJobs, Craigslist, Dice, Vault, and more. So, let’s pretend that there is an interesting position listed on Monster that is available at CNA. Opening the link to this position activates the Jobs Insider program which automatically opens up a side panel telling me how many people in my LinkedIn network work at CNA. In this case there happens to be 386 people in my network who work at CNA.
The next step is to make the connection to the selected individual. At this time LinkedIn allows up to five requested connections for free. After this there is an upgrade to a paid subscription. However, it is possible with a little bit of effort to make the connection yourself simply by going back through the people who you are connected with and putting together the links.
OUTLOOK TOOLBAR
Another cool feature of LinkedIn is the Outlook Toolbar (and/or contact upload from Outlook/Outlook Express). The LinkedIn Outlook Toolbar brings the power of the LinkedIn Network to your email. One of the great features of this Toolbar is the "Grab" feature. Want to quickly add someone to your address book? Just highlight the signature in their email and click on the "Grab" button - voila!!
And here’s more … Alumni and professional organizations use LinkedIn for Groups, which is are members-only areas on LinkedIn that facilitate networking among their members much like a Yahoo group.
LINKEDIN ANSWERS
And still more ... LinkedIn Answers is a new feature of the site. The feature allows users to ask questions from professionals who are subscribers to the network. Here's an example of one recent question and answer:
"Why are so many US companies fixated on psychometric testing of candidates?"
Four answers were posted - this one was rated the best one – by Liz Ryan
All kinds of
pre-employment aptitude, psychological and skills testing are gaining
popularity because they don't take any brainpower, leadership, or judgment
to administer, and since HR has been down-skilled to the point where
entry-level folks are doing so much of the screening, companies will employ
all the crutches they possibly can....
Just today a very smart engineering manager said to me "Why is it that so
many companies ask interview questions they already know the answer to?
They'd rather spend their interview time trying to 'catch' a candidate in a
wrong answer than use the interview to learn something about the candidate's
quality of thinking and to open up a wider conversation.
Fear rules the workplace in way too many companies and the heavy use of
in/out testing is just one sign of that. Confident, out-of-the-box people
are aversive to HR folks and hiring managers whose security comes from
maintaining the status quo.
The most capable people I know subscribe to the philosophy that any company
that deploys mechanical tests when it could engage intellectually with
candidate is a company not working for. The interview process sends the
surest message of an organization's culture. Candidates who delude
themselves by saying "I'm sure that even though the interview process is
insulting and asinine, the job will still be okay" learn a hard lesson.
HOW ARE RECRUITERS USING LINKEDIN?
Well, besides the searching and connecting methods mentioned above, recruiters are now able to gather so much more information on candidates. One recent candidate I was working with listed his passion for coaching little league softball on his LinkedIn profile. This wasn't listed on his resume so when I asked him, "How much of a time commitment do you make to the little league coaching?", he was caught totally off guard.
Google searches!! More and more recruiters are turning to Google to search for information on candidates and when LinkedIn users opt to make the pages accessible to the public their profile pages turn up high in Google search results .”
Reference checks!! All a recruiter needs to do is run through the information on companies where a candidate has worked and overlap the information with former colleagues. In the days before the Internet, the most a recruiter could find out from previous employers, (outside of the 'safe' references provided by the candidate) were the dates a candidate had worked there.
HOW CAN A CANDIDATE USE LINKEDIN?
Many employers and recruiters are now posting jobs exclusively on LinkedIn. (Remember the seven Human Resources positions mentioned above?) Candidates can also use LinkedIn to research employers - want to know where the person interviewing you worked in previous employment? Interested in knowing more about their network and who you might both connected to? This is valuable information!!
Now with searchable databases of millions of resumes and profiles such as those on LinkedIn as well as other sites and search engines so much more information is available.
Networking is about meeting people you don’t know through the people that you do know. LinkedIn is a cool way of introducing yourself to someone you don’t know.
Here's a recent CNN/Money article on LinkedIn.
OTHER LINKS:
Best Practices for a LinkedIn Job Search.
HOW TO INCREASE YOUR PAYBACK FROM USING LINKEDIN:
The Unofficial LinkedIn User's Guide for Executives and Professionals.
LINK TO SHIFTING GEARS:
Interested in creating a LinkedIn connection with other readers of "Shifting Gears"? Send an invitation to connect to: cpaths@gmail.com. Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/shiftinggears.
FROM LINK TO WINK:
Wink is a fairly new tool that many recruiters are currently using to find information on candidates.
Wink, http://wink.com/, free people search lets you find people at social networks like MySpace, Bebo, LinkedIn & Friendster, and other online communities. It includes - name search plus location, school, work, interests, and more.
Here’s another interesting web-based tool. ZOOMinfo (formerly Eliyon Networking), http://www.zoominfo.com/ , is a free service that provides a searchable database of information about former employees of companies.
ZOOMinfo is a unique summarization search engine that finds, understands and extracts the latest online information about people and companies and instantly delivers it to you in concise and useful summaries. This site scans corporate websites, news articles, SEC filings and other online sources for information about people and the companies for which they work or used to work. The information is then combined automatically into an easily searchable database.
LIKE A GOOGLE ON PEOPLE
ZOOMinfo is rather like a Google search on people. The people summaries include work history, education and other information, all compiled from pages from multiple sources across the Web. By using the advance search feature and typing my own name, I pulled up a current bio that’s listed on my website. Plus it also referenced several recent speaking engagements that I did.
Using the earlier example of Tellabs, the company search of ZOOMinfo provided me with information comparable to One Source, (which is a fee based in-depth provider of company information), in that it lists the key Executives and Officers of the company, provides company description and relevant reference information and even links to job leads at the corporation. And here’s more … ZOOMinfo also provides the same details on key Executives as I described above. Clicking on links for the Tellabs Executives provided me with details on their employment history as well as relevant speaking engagements, etc. Plus, in some cases, it also provided me with a photo of the individual.
The information on ZOOMinfo is fairly up-to-date, and since the basic search service is free it’s a great starting point for searching for connections.
TIME TO TALK TO STRANGERS
So, I’ve compiled a list of contacts through LinkedIn and/or ZOOMinfo? How do I approach a total stranger and what do I say? I need to remember:
· When an introduction is made through someone I know the approach is softened and the separation shortened.
· Everyone I know was a total stranger at some point.
· Initial contact via email eases my approach. I can suggest a phone call follow-up once a comfort level has been established.
· In the case of LinkedIn, people should expect to be approached … that’s the whole purpose of the site.
What I’m looking for is “information”, so I should structure my approach with this in mind advising the individual how I came upon their contact information and what I’m seeking to achieve in making contact with him/her.
Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, wrote a great article for The New Yorker magazine
entitled: The Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg. His intro: She's a grandmother, she lives in a big
house in Chicago, and you've never heard of her. Does she run the world? Malcolm tells the
fascinating story of Lois Weisberg while also exploring the worlds of Stanley Milgram and Kevin
Bacon. Here is a link to the article: http://www.gladwell.com/1999/1999_01_11_a_weisberg.htm
SOME FUN STUFF!
The following are a couple of “different” online networking sites that may not assist in career development but are fun to check out:
THE SMALL WORLD PROJECT
The Small World Project, http://smallworld.columbia.edu/, is an online experiment with the idea that any two people in the world can be connected via “six degrees of separation”. The objective is to get a message to a “target person”, somewhere in the world, by forwarding the message to a friend of yours – someone who is “closer” to the target than you are.
SIX DEGREES OF KEVIN BACON
How about the game "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon"? In case you haven’t heard of it, the object is to connect any screen actor with Kevin Bacon with as few degrees of separation as possible using mutual co-stars. For example, Elvis Presley was in “Live a Little, Love a Little “, (1968), with John Wheeler, who was in Apollo 13 with Kevin Bacon … 2 degrees. Have some fun playing the Kevin Bacon game online: http://www.cs.virginia.edu/oracle/
The object of the game is to start with any actor who has been in a movie and connect them to Kevin Bacon in the smallest number of links possible. Two people are linked if they've been in a movie together. For example, you might wonder how Eric Clapton can be connected to Kevin Bacon? Well, Eric Clapton was in “Two Rooms” (1991), with Phil Collins, and Phil Collins was in “Balto” (1995) with Kevin Bacon
Then count how many links were necessary and assign the actor or actress a Bacon number. Bacon numbers higher than 4 are very rare. In the example above, Eric Clapton has a Bacon number of 2.
Believe it or not, it’s hard to arrive at a Kevin Bacon number of 6.
ANYONE CAN CONNECT!
What about the rest of us … those of us who aren’t screen actors? Here's another game in which anyone, anywhere can be connected to Kevin Bacon:
http://www.brunching.com/toys/bacondegrees.html
I decided to search for my friend in Detroit using this link and found out he was only “Two Degrees from Kevin Bacon” as well as the recruiter trying to find him through LinkedIn.
EVERYBODY CUT FOOTLOOSE!!