Cultivate your network. Land your next role.
My inbox is overflowing with people I’ve known for decades and people I’ve never met saying things like “I’m having trouble getting my foot in the door; I'm applying to multiple jobs a week and not hearing back.”
My hot take? Your focus shouldn’t be on applying for jobs. Instead, focus on cultivating and expanding your network.
This is top of mind for me, too. In two of the new searches we launched, the client wants to hire someone from their space. We advertised the roles far and wide, but they prefer candidates who come from partner organizations – folks they know will succeed because they’ve witnessed it.
As someone on the search, your job is to tell your network about your successes and build trust. How do you do that?
1. Make a list of your people.
There are two categories of people you want on your list.
First, think through the folks in your life who have seen you in action and know what you’re capable of. Maybe it’s a previous supervisor, a coalition partner, colleague, or someone you have managed. These are the people who will already go to bat for you.
The next tier of people on your list are your contacts who are “loose but connected”. These are the people who you've only chatted with or were in a meeting with once, but you know they are connected in the space where you want to land your next role.
Make a system to stay organized so you can keep track of contact information and when you’ve reached out to people. If it helps, we’ve created a tracker for you, which can be found in the NRG Networking Toolkit. (You gain access to the toolkit when you join the NRG Talent Network.) Use this as a starting point and make a system that works for you.
2. Stay in touch with your people, not just when you need them.
Think about how you can regularly connect with your contacts beyond asking them for help. Reach out to them to share updates, ask how they’re doing, share an article or a job description they might be interested in, or pick their brain about something they love talking about. Be helpful and supportive of their endeavors – maybe this means following them via google news and giving them praise, or hyping up someone’s LinkedIn post.
Here are some additional tips on how you can connect with people.
3. Say thank you!
When you do land your dream job, take the time to thank people. Tell them how they helped and why you’re excited about the role. It’s rewarding for people to know that the 20 minutes they spent talking with you, or the networking intro they made, really did help your search. In the future, you’re that much more likely to stay connected and help each other out again.
4. Be intentional about how often you reach out.
Your people can best support you when they know how you’re doing and what you’re up to, so make reaching out part of your routine! Building relationships is like flossing: it works best when you do it regularly. (Not just the night before you go to the dentist!) Here are some ideas for when to reach out:
90 days into your job, send another thank you note and an update about how it’s going.
Set a reminder to reach out annually, or ideally, quarterly to your people.
NRG’s Career Coach, Kristin Saybe, and I love getting updates. I know I've spoken to a bunch of people over the last couple of years, months, weeks, days. How's the job search going? Drop us a line. Let us know what's happening.
Hope everyone is hanging in there!
Managing Director @ Confidential Organization; Remote, $140K-$180K
Illinois Co-State Director for Campaigns @ Energy Foundation; Remote in IL; $140k (contract)
Special Assistant to the President @ Freedom Together Foundation; NYC; $170K-$215K
Program Coordinator @ Freedom Together Foundation; NYC; $125K-$140K
Organizing & Network Manager @ Massachusetts Union of Public Housing Tenants; Boston; $75K
Executive Manager to the CEO @ TransLash; NYC; $100K-$115K
Executive Director @ Engage Miami; Miami; $120K-$140K
Policy Analyst @ Americans for Responsible Innovation; DC; $80K-$100K
Executive Director @ Planetary Health Alliance & Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health; Baltimore; $135K-$185K
Operations Director @ Asian American Advocacy Fund; Atlanta; $99.7K-$105K
Organizing Manager @ Asian American Advocacy Fund; Atlanta; $71.5K-$85K.
That’s not all! We’re hiring for additional jobs and you can see all of our openings on the NRG website.
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Follow NRG on LinkedIn to stay up-to-date on all of the roles we are hiring for. If you aren’t currently a member of the NRG Talent Network, consider joining. The questions take 3 minutes to complete and it lets us know that you are thinking about your next role.
Let’s move,
Naomi
P.S. If you’d like a partner to help you with your job search strategy, sign up right now for 15 minutes with Kristin to learn how NRG’s coaching programs can help you. If you find this newsletter helpful, forward it to your friends and help us build our network! If you received this from a friend, sign up here to receive future “Get Hired'' newsletters.