How to build connections to secure a job?
In this lesson, you will learn networking by commenting on others’ work and posts and specifically,
- giving a compliment
- making a request and
- showing appreciation.
Part 1: Compliment another professional’s work. You want to compliment other professionals’ work and even professionals that you don’t know. Complimenting others work is a way for you to get to know them and as we said, you want to make those comments general.
Here were some of the comments we looked at:
amazing, awesome, impressive, great or nice
Formula: Adjective + Noun like amazing work, awesome result, impressive skills, great job or nice post.
Part 2: You also discovered that you can compliment by showing interest. You can do that by asking wh questions about their work. Here are some of the questions that you can ask:
How did you do that?
How long did it take?
What kind of _____ did you use? (ex: What kind of software did you use? What kind of spreadsheet did you use?)
Part 3: You also learned how to ask other professionals to comment on your work by writing a polite request like these:
Can you...? Could you...? or Would you...?
Could you look at___________? (ex: Could you look at my work and let me know what you think?)
End with a thank you: I would greatly appreciate your help or I would greatly appreciate your feedback.
We looked at commenting on others’ work and posts and specifically we looked at giving a compliment, making a request, and showing appreciation. There are many ways to connect with other professionals. Here are a few helpful resources:
1. You can look at other e-portfolios. As we looked in the resources for lesson 1, there are many websites that you can use for e-portfolios. You can find other professionals on those sites and look at their work and posts. For example, many professionals go to others’ sites and network with them like Behance. https://www.behance.net/
2. You can also look at others’ work. On LinkedIn, you want to network with your friends, colleagues and former classmates. To find other professionals in your own field on LinkedIn, it’s a great idea to join a group and you can also learn from top professionals in the field by going to this link https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/discover. You can also network on Instagram and YouTube. On Twitter, you can do several things to connect with other professionals:
· follow people and organizations in your field.
· create a list of those people and organizations so that you can see what they post easily. This link shows you step by step process on how to add a list. http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/use-twitter-lists-business/
· join a group that talks on Twitter at specific times in your field. These groups are called Twitter chats. Here is a list of those twitter chats and their schedules: http://tweetreports.com/twitter-chat-schedule/
3. You can network in a lot of other ways and here are some:
· One way is to do a call for action. Asking others to take action can help connect you. A freelance artist could write: Oil painting for a friend. #flowers #atlanta @myfriend Want to see more? Check out my website.
· Another way is to ask questions. A video gamer could write a wh question on his YouTube channel: What are your favorite video games?
· A third way is to ask others first to comment on your work. I would love for you to comment on my work or I would love for you to look at my site and give me some advice.
Connect to Get a Job:
In this lesson, we looked at how you can network to look for a job. To network for a job, you can do the following:
- Tell them you are interested
- Use wh questions to continue to network with them
- Add hashtags and location to your posts on social media
Step 1: Tell them your goal, which is that you are looking for a job. You can use the first sentence of the summary as in “I’m an IT manager with 10 years of experience, and I’m looking for a job” or any of these expressions:
I’m seeking employment.
I’m looking for a new job opportunity.
I’m exploring new career opportunities.
Practice 1: Please write your sentence: I’m an ___________with ____ years of experience and I’m ___________________________________________.
Job recruiters or fellow professionals might say:
I found a job that you might be interested in.
Check out this job posting with perhaps a link.
Step 2: You can continue the conversation by asking wh questions like
Who do I need to contact?
Where is it located?
When do I need to apply by?
When do I need to turn in my application?
How do I get in touch with them?
What is the link for this job?
Obviously, you want to end with a thank you: Thanks for the information. I really appreciate it.
Practice 2: Think about what questions you would ask.
Step 3: You also want to share this information on social media.
You can post it on LinkedIn in groups or on the first sentence of your summary. Please note that LinkedIn and YouTube do not require @ or #.
To post it on other social media like Instagram and Twitter, you want to use @ for employer and #for the location that you want to find a job and # for the subject.
Here is an example:
I’m an executive chef and looking for a job in the industry. #Baltimore #chef #lookingforajob
Did I use @? I didn’t because we don’t know who can help us. If we know who can help us, we can use @.
For which words did I use hashtags?
I used one for location and two for subject. For the subject, I would use your job and looking for a job. Do not use more than 3 hashtags.
Practice: Let’s pretend you are looking for a job. How would you write it? Take the sentence that you created in step 1 and use it here. Then add @ if you know who you would like to work for and appropriate words with #.
I’m a or an job title with ____ years of experience and I’m ___________________________________________.
Please note: If you are using Twitter, you can only use 140 characters or letters so you might need to use 1 hashtag. You might want to use abbreviations like & for “and.” You might also use an abbreviation for your job title.
Your sentence might look like this:
I’m an electrical engineer with 5 years of experience & I’m looking for a job. #EE #Shanghai