Category Archives: Networking

Top 5 Most Common Networking Mistakes

January 03, 2012   Resume Solutions   No comments

Most job seekers know that networking is the key to accessing the hidden job market, but few people do it properly. Here are some tips from Inc.

Still trying to tap your network for favors before you’ve offered anything yourself? Big mistake.

Everyone tries to network, but few people do it well, often making the same basic mistakes.

Here’s what not to do when you’re trying to expand or leverage your network:

1. Try to take before you give. The goal of networking is to connect with people who can help you make a sale, get a referral, establish a contact, etc. When we network, we wantsomething.

But at first, never ask for what you want. In fact you may never ask for what you want. Forget about what you can get and focus on what you can provide. Giving is the only way to establish a real connection and relationship. Focus solely on what you can get out of the connection and you will never make meaningful, mutually beneficial connections.

Read More

How your gender affects your networking skills

November 20, 2011   Resume Solutions   No comments

Interesting article that explores the different ways men and women network and the strategies that both genders could use to make right impression – both offline and online – and get the connection.

“Men tended to be very transactional in their networking and women tend to be a bit more relational,” he told me. “Women said it’s better to focus on the relationship. But when it came to the question whether it’s better to focus on business and build the relationship later, men really felt is was better to focus on the business first.” Women show more interest in their person they’re speaking to than in closing a deal, and this approach works: more women than men said that networking had helped their business. More

Read More

Effective Networking To Accelerate Your Job Search Success

October 22, 2011   Surranna Sandy   No comments

More often than not, people lose touch with former business colleagues. They cite multiple reasons including lack of accurate contact information and lack of time. After a certain amount of time passes, people often report feeling awkward making a call to a former colleague. Losing contact with former co-workers can be detrimental to your career health. Since 70-80% of people source new opportunities through trusted friends and colleagues, it’s imperative that your career management strategy incorporates ways to stay in touch with people you have worked with in the past.

Read More

Canada's Top 40 Under 40 Award Recipients

February 15, 2011   Surcorp Career Solutions

The annual top 40 under 40 winners list has been announced. These are individuals from various industry backgrounds from business leaders, HR executives, to community activists.

This is the 11th year of the Top 40 Under 40, an annual awards event organized by executive search firm The Caldwell Partners International.

The honorees are drawn annually from an initial list of 1,200 to 1,400 nominations from across Canada.

From this year’s shortlist of 100, a panel of 29 business and community leaders selected the top 40 based on five criteria: vision and leadership; innovation and achievement; impact; growth/development strategy; and community involvement. See the full list here

Read More

Will tough economic times kill work-life balance?

February 08, 2011   Surranna Sandy   No comments

Cue the National Post:

Our economic recession has created many workplace pressures, including long-term job security. Given the difficult economic times, many people are feeling the pressure to work harder than ever. In this climate, it may seem frivolous to talk about work-life balance. Yet, whatever the climate, don’t employers and executives have to demonstrate fairness? The greatest application of fairness is the allocation of time in our lives and what to do with that time. And we hear more and more people saying they are under pressure from employers, themselves and their families to keep up, often at the cost of life balance.

Read more:

Read More

Social Networking and the Job Search

August 24, 2010   Surranna Sandy   No comments

In the second annual Social Recruitment Survey, results indicate that employers are recruiting several ways: employee referrals, professional online networks, extensively on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter; and the traditional sources, including search firms and job boards. The survey clearly shows a preference-based on the quality of candidates and cost-effectiveness-for employee referrals and professional social networks, to recruit candidates.

Some highlights of the report:

  • · 76% plan to invest more in employee referrals and 72% plan to invest more in recruiting through social networks
  • · 80% of companies use or are planning to use social networking to find and attract candidates this year
  • · 77% of respondents said they use social networks to reach passive candidates who are not actively seeking employment.
  • · 24% of candidates disclose their social networking presence when applying for a job.

Use of Social Networks:

  • · LinkedIn use grew from 80 percent in 2008 to 95 percent of respondents in 2009 and Facebook use grew from 36 percent in 2008 to 59 percent in 2009
  • · Twitter, ranked third with 42 percent of recruiters using the tool to source candidates
  • · 66% of respondents reported that they had successfully hired a candidate who was identified or introduced through an online social network.

“Companies are in a very different economic situation now than when our first Social Recruitment survey was conducted last year. Now, not only are recruiters engaged in social networks, they are investing in social recruitment in place of more costly and inefficient methods,” said Dan Finnigan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Jobvite.

Full results of the 2009 Jobvite Social Recruitment Survey are available at: http://bit.ly/dCrSaf

Read More

Following Up on Netwoking Leads

May 10, 2010   Surranna Sandy   No comments
Job seekers often struggle with the notion of following up with networking contacts. Many are concerned that they will be perceived as a nuisance if they follow up with a contact too aggressively.

The key to a successful follow up campaign is to be persistent without the other party knowing it. If you call a networking contact and leave a message, your follow up strategy should be to call every day at different times without leaving additional messages.

You might call and leave a message on Monday, then follow up at 10am on Tuesday morning, noon on Wednesday, 3pm on Thursday, and 4:30 on Friday.

If you get the contact’s voicemail, don’t leave additional messages.

 If you vary the timing of the calls you increase the likelihood of
getting the contact in person. If you get a secretary or other type of gatekeeper, be polite and try to develop a rapport with that person. If they ask if you would like to leave a message a good response is “No, that’s alright…when would be the best time to reach this person?

This strategy allows you to maintain control over the interaction. If after several attempts you are still unable to connect with your networking

contact, consider discussing the situation with the original person who gave you the contact.

Perhaps the contact is swamped with a time-sensitive project or out

 out of town on vacation and you need to delay your follow up strategy until they return.

While you won’t be able to build a relationship with every potential contact, you can improve your chances of connecting with people in a timely fashion by following these suggestions.

A final note:

Just like direct mail in business, it takes perseverance in follow up to get that call back. It is documented to take up to nine (9) calls to receive a response. So, don’t give up too quickly!
Read More

  •  

    May 2012
    M T W T F S S
    « Apr    
     123456
    78910111213
    14151617181920
    21222324252627
    28293031  
  • 59°
    15°
    °F | °C
    Clear
    Humidity: 82%
    Sat
    Clear
    55 | 79
    12 | 26
    Sun
    Clear
    57 | 79
    13 | 26
    Mon
    Clear
    63 | 73
    17 | 22
    Tue
    Chance of Storm
    52 | 70
    11 | 21