How to get a good job through your contacts
By Dr Joseph Deji-Folutile
Personal contacts are, hands down, your best source of job leads. Seek them out, pursue them, and use them intelligently.
By ‘personal contacts’, I’m talking about anybody you know, or can get to, who can do any of the following:
– Offer you a job.
– Refer you to someone who can offer you a job.
– Refer you to somebody who can arrange an interview or read your resume.
– Tell you of a job opening. Give your name to somebody who can do any of the above.
– Give you the name of somebody who can give you the name of someone else who can do any of the above.
There is no limit.
Everybody—yes, everybody—has these kinds of contacts, which is to say that everybody knows somebody, or knows somebody who knows somebody, who might produce a job lead, or who might give useful information or provide an introduction to a person who can facilitate your job search.
Not everybody, though, utilizes his contacts to maximum advantage. I’ve worked with candidates who were reluctant to seek the help of even close relatives. Why? In most cases, it was nothing more than a matter of pride. As many candidates put it: “I want to get this job on my own”.
These are noble sentiments, but the fact is that many job candidates who get good jobs get outside help at some point along the way.
The only paid job I got after graduation in a multinational was through contacts strategy. This was the only place I worked before I resigned to do my own business.
How well are you using your contacts to get the job of your dreams? You can do this if you really put your mind into it. START NOW!
Maybe it’s a phone call from a business associate with a tip on an opening. Or a personal introduction to a would-be employer. Maybe it’s nothing more than a personal recommendation. But it’s something—and it’s frequently the something that can tilt the odds toward that particular candidate.
People are still getting good jobs today through their contacts.
WHY NOT YOU?
Dr Deji-Folutile is a Publisher & Editor-in-Chief of Farming Advice Digest as well as Host of Winning Edge Seminars
