How can YOU help someone make an inside connection with a great company?
It’s often called “getting your foot in the door”.
What it means is that you want to work for a company so bad you can taste it. And, you know that if you just knew someone “on the inside” you could get a step up over the intense completion for job openings there.
While we at Key Corporate Services work daily with great companies offering great positions to candidates, we know a lot of our candidates first try landing that “plum” position on their own. If you know of someone struggling to make a connection on a new job, here’s how you might help:
1. People in your network can play a vital role in helping someone find a job.
Put up your antennae to become aware of friends, family, or colleagues who are changing careers. Ask directly if you can help them and who they’d like to meet.
2. Understand their target organization. What jobs, people, or industry are they focused on?
The more specific you are about which companies someone wants to work for and who they should meet, the better. Think about whom you know in your network that works in that company or industry. Perhaps you belong to a service club and a fellow colleague works there or recently retired from that company. The idea of “six degrees of separation” for reaching anyone on the planet is alive and well.
3. Call or email the contact to make an introduction.
It’s more impactful if you personally introduce the two parties rather than just supply a name. The rest is up to them.
Try actively searching for ways to help someone who is looking for a job. Do it for a month and see how many introductions you can make in the workplace and how you feel.
You never know; someday when you need an introduction for your career someone might repay your kind acts.
-from The Key Corporate Services Blog Team