Networking While Unemployed
One consideration in developing your career strategy is networking. Effective networking creates a balance of information and perspective. Networking provides you information, resources and support needed to develop your career strategy during unemployment.
Why Network When Unemployed
Networking provides four advantages while unemployed while you are advancing your career strategy. These four advantages help provide greater success and faster results than individual efforts.
- Networking helps to increase knowledge and experience in your chosen field
- Networking generates support and reinforcement from others
- Networking assists in career changes avoiding missteps or miscalculations
- Networking helps keep skills and experience visible to others.
Plan Goals First
Planning your career strategy requires knowing answers. Before you plan how to network, understand your information needs. You will need to know who, how, and why you are networking. Here is a short list of questions to answer:
How To Network
While knowing that networking can help your career strategy, knowing how to network is equally important. Networking done properly gains full effectiveness.
- Ask for information only, never ask for a job
- Keep in contact with your network.
- Always respect confidentiality.
- Offer to return favors and help given by your network.
- Ask the right questions
- Become active within associations you are part of.
- Attend meetings and conferences.
- Be assertive not passive with networking.
- Make use of effective presentation skills - maintain your image.
- Maintain an image of being knowledgeable and skillful
- Network in person, by phone, and by email
- Write letters asking for information
Personal and Professional Contacts
While networking to advance your career strategy it is necessary to use both personal and professional contacts to achieve the greatest success. The short list of people to consider:
- Neighbors
- Social contacts
- Friends and Relatives
- Shopkeepers
- College friends
- Doctors, Dentist, Vet
- Old co-workers
- Ex-bosses
- Previous clients or customers
- Association members
- Previous suppliers
- Military or Veterans Offices
- Trade Journals or Magazines
Support Network
While building career networks create a support system for yourself also. Maintaining a support network provides personal contacts helping you redefine, change and adjust through unemployment while advancing your career strategy. A support network includes:
- People to rely on in a crisis
- People who you can talk to when worried
- People who provide mental stimulation
- People who you can socialize and have fun with
- People who value you
- People who you are close to
- People who provide constructive feedback
- People who can challenge you to do better
Effective networking can create positive growth while unemployed at greater speed and success than any individual effort.
