Networking: In which you get others to do what you could do for yourself

Note: The following post was written while on the plane to San Francisco. It appears here (mostly) unedited and unadultered.

Time and again in the job search, I’ve found that the most effective method of either getting an interview or just a meeting with a prospect, it’s by letting other people do the work for me.

In the job search it’s called networking. In the management world it’s called delegating. In other aspects of life it’s called laziness.

But it’s nothing of the last one.

Ever used Google© Search before? How about the Yellow Pages©? Remember the movie Pay It Forward? These are all variations on the same idea.

Establish a team for yourself. Position yourself as the captain or leader of the team.

Talk to as many people as you can, because the more people you recruit to your camp, the more people you have—literally—working for you.

Each person to which you give your résumé to shop around, each person that you casually hand a business card, each person that you meet over a cup of coffee. These are all people playing on your team.

The good thing is that your amount of inputted efforts doesn’t grow exponentially

In effect, you’re multiplying (maybe even exponentially) your reach, your influence and your possibilities.

In general, you’ll find (at least I’ve found) that there is one benefit of the current down economy: People in whatever industry in which you’re interested—insurance and real estate, personally—is much more generous with their time.

A few weeks ago I met with a partner at a niche insurance brokerage house in Atlanta for a few hours. He is the father of a good friend of mine, and he was tremendously generous with his time helping us in our group capstone project.

I was pissed off after a terrible career fair in the neighborhood as they say, and stopped by one afternoon to his office. He passed me off to a young analyst during his conference call, but afterward welcomed me in and spoke with me
for nearly two hours about my job prospects, the industry and my dreams.

It was incredibly refreshing and invigorating to know that, while many places still aren’t hiring, the people in the jobs realize that college grads need connections now more than ever.

Another thing going for us (Gen Yers and recent college grads, specifically) is that the last vestiges of the Baby Boomers—the ones hiring us (or not) nowadays—entered the workforce in much the same economic time.

Simply put, they understand how we feel.

They realize they won’t be around indefinitely to run their companies.

And they know that our generation has the potential to successfully take the reins in just a few short years.

Besides, we’re the ones who’ll be supporting them in their collective retirement anyway.

So to all you still looking for jobs—myself included—make the calls, send the résumés, buy the coffees, do whatever it takes.

If the hiring managers can’t be generous with their hirings, they probably have available time.

Take advantage of it. Recruit the recruiters. Talk to friends. Talk to family.

Get others to do what you could do yourself…but more effectively and more efficiently.

Just don’t be lazy.