When you’re looking for a job, the first networking contacts you usually make are your friends. That’s natural, but it can be frustrating too, because sometimes those friends don’t respond in a timely manner. Sometimes, they don’t respond at all.
I recently received this question from a reader:
“It seems I had a lot of friends while working and had no problem connecting with colleagues and business acquaintances. Now that I am job searching, my so-called friends will not return my calls. What can I do differently to reach them?“
Networking in its broadest description can be summed up as relationship building. In Harvey Mackay’s book, “Swimming with Sharks”, he notes good networking is about calling friends when they are successful as well as when they are down. In fact, it makes a relationship stronger when you reach out to your friends and acquaintances when they are down. Job searching can be a lonely place at times, and it often is accompanied by a sense of being disconnected from daily business activity and a work-day routine.
Job seekers tend to be very aware of who calls them and who ignores them at this difficult time in their lives. You probably remember when someone reached out to you during a difficult time in your life. It probably was a positive spot in an otherwise troubling time.
Right now, your main focus should be on reconnecting with your networking leads by being proactive. Unfortunately, you can’t control whether a colleague will call you back.
You are networking, so you can gather information. If you’re in pursuit of a hot job lead, and you don’t hear back from your network contact in a reasonable length of time, try a different route to find out what you need to know.
Start by expanding your list of networking contacts. Don’t put all of your efforts into pursing one person who is slow to respond.
It’s a good idea to touch base with your networking contacts periodically, whether things are looking up or down in your world.
