Every week, NETSHARE hosts Ask the Coach, a phone-in coaching session with leading career management experts. Here is an excerpt from a recent session with career coach Don Orlando.
Don recently returned from the 9th annual Career Management Alliance conference where he learned a lot about the latest hiring trends. One statistic he shared with the Ask the Coach callers dramatized how much longer it takes now to find a job. Before the recession, the average executive search lasted 26.4 weeks. Now the same search can take 10 months.
What has changed is that employers in all areas are less sure of themselves. They are unsure of the economy and the future, and therefore less willing to invest in new team members. That’s why they are taking so much longer to make a decision. As a job seeker, it’s even more important now that you remain more active. Don’t pin your hopes on a single opportunity but work as many as you can.
In this new climate, your professional network is more important than ever. Don reminded everyone about the “folklore of networking” – the misconception that networking is a mutually mortifying experience where you approach someone you know, hat in hand, and ask for a job. Networking is an exchange of value – you offer something you have to offer in exchange for something valuable to the other party.
Networking is more than posting comments to social networking sites or updates on Twitter. True networking migrates connections from online conversations to face-to-face interaction. That’s why NETSHARE started sponsoring Area Meetings for executives. To help professionals build their networks in a meaningful way. Don points out that contacts with referrals are 54 times more likely to get hired.
Twitter is another phenomenon that was discussed at length at the Career Management Alliance event. Twitter is proving a valuable resource to keep pace with what people are saying about your target companies. It’s also a great place to make new connections, and to demonstrate your subject matter expertise. NETSHARE will be sponsoring an Experts Connection teleseminar on how to use Twitter for job search in June so check back to learn more, or contact Sabrina at NETSHARE (Sabrina@netshare.com) to learn more.
