Finding a Summer Job

School's out and it's that time again-time to find a summer job! I see people cringe all the time just thinking about the job search. Their first instinct is to go to the classifieds, browse the Internet, or go wherever they see a help wanted sign.

While all these options can be effective, I encourage you to add power networking to that mix. Many jobs are not advertised. These jobs are filled through word of mouth or through friends. But even when jobs ARE advertised, it can really help to show up for an interview having been recommended by a mutual acquaintance.

That means your first task is to ask everyone you know if they need to hire someone or know of a job that needs to be filled. And by this I mean ask everyone, including your family, friends, distant relatives, teachers, professors, former employers, and anyone else. Church groups or any clubs you're in are especially great for this. You can even make it part of your everyday interactions with people; mention that you're looking for a job and ask if they know anyone that can help you even when you're riding a bus or waiting in a line and strike up a conversation with a stranger.

Job searching can be a lonely task. However, when you have a fifty, or a hundred, or even more people looking for you as well, pretty soon you may end up with so many job offers coming in, you may have turn away some of them.

Networking is also powerful because of the kind of leads you are generating. You're on the inside track for every single one of these jobs. If an employer has to pick between a stranger and a friend of a friend, the employer will unhesitatingly pick the friend of a friend.

You're thinking it's too good to be true. After all, what if the stranger seems more qualified on paper? You'd be surprised. More often than not, employers are absolutely terrified of hiring a bad employee. They'll settle for average or slightly above average any day as long as they can feel a bit more secure that they won't end up with a nightmare employee. By being hired through networking, there's automatically a level of trust built in that other candidates will find difficult to establish through an interview or resume.

In fact, you'll find that for some jobs, you won't even need to sit through an interview. That's the power of networking, working for you. Don't take the interview or your resume for granted, though! The more important the position, the more scrutiny you will invariably face, so while you're calling in your contacts, don't forget to work hard on polishing both you interview skills and resume. Stay tuned for our next articles, on those very same topics.

Copyright © by David Jiang

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