5 Links for Job Search Networking with Friends, Family and Colleagues - CareerAlley

5 Links for Job Search Networking with Friends, Family and Colleagues - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. Networking is not only about who you know (friends, family and colleagues), its also about who knows who you know (if that makes any sense). It sometimes comes down to six degrees of separation (aka its a small world) which means you need to leverage your network in a different way. In the old days, there was no easy way to tell who knew who, but today there are a number of websites that can tell you who is linked to who. Of course there is more to networking, and you should also take a quick look at some of my other networking posts: Job Search Marketing Toolkit Networking Whos Your Daddy? Leverage Your Job Search Network Job Leads and Links from Friends Did You Network Today? When it comes to social networks that will help you with your job search, theresome sources that are not as well known. Following aresome additional links and advice on leveraging your small world to real leads. Is Six Degrees of Separation the Key to the Hidden Job Market? This article, from prlog.org, reviews the hidden job market and discusses strategic social networking as well as leveraging the well know social networks. The article also implies that todays networks are larger than they were in the past as social networks allow easy expansion. The fact is, not as many people as you would think leverage the hidden job market (which, by most statistics Ive seen published is north of 50%). Successful Job Search Networking How to Use Job Search Networking to Find a Job A great article from About.com, covering both formal and informal networking. Certainly worth a look also take a look at the other resources on the site. LinkedIn Cant write about Social Networks (and networking in general) without mentioning LinkedIn. The mother of all social business networks, LinkedIn provides exactly the tools you need for leveraging your network. As you start to build your network, you can see how many degrees of separation there are between you and people you know (and people who know people you know). This helps you spot potential network leads that you can use when you have a specific company you would like to work for (or, for which you already have an interview setup). You can add your resume, recommendations from people you know, search for jobs, join groups and more. There is even a special section for Job Seekers that provides a number of great tips on leveraging LinkedIn for your networking and job search. Other Tips for Networking in Your Job Search: Existing Network: Good news, you already have a network (unless youve been living as a recluse on some remote island). What? you may ask. Every friend, relative, former coworker, current coworker, college or high school acquaintance is a part of your existing network. And did I mention neighbors, your mailman and the checkout person at the supermarket. All of these individuals are part of your existing network, now you just need to formalize your list. Extended Network: Once youve created your list network list, its time to build your extended network. This consists of: People who work or worked at companies where you worked andpeople who work or worked at companies where you would like to work 20 Social Networking Sites for Business Professionals Way too many to list in this post, this article was provided by Sitepoint.com and lists 20 Social Networks for business professionals (who knew there were so many). The article provides screen shots and links to each of the 20 (including two of the sites covered above). We are always eager to hear from our readers. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or suggestions regarding CareerAlley content. Good luck in your search,Joey Google+