My Networking Plan How To Reach My Dream Job

To establish and effective networking plan, a few steps must be followed. Below are a few steps I have developed to achieve this:

– Making a list of people in my network: these people include friends, family, co-workers, colleagues, acquaintances and neighbors. I will also reach out to people I know from former jobs, my high school, college, church and refer to social media. Also, I will consider people that I have met through my close connections such as my sister’s co-worker, my parents’ friends, my brother’s business partners. By connecting to these people, I am opening several channels of reaching my dream job. Each member of this network might know about an available job or a connection to someone aware of a job.

– Reach out to my network: once I have made my networking list, I will start contacting the people in my network and let them know that I am looking for a job. I will be specific about the kind of job and position and ask them if they have any information or link that is relevant to my career. I will also look into social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and job agencies online for advertisements on jobs relating to my field.

– Contacting my references: my references will include people who are aware of my capabilities, personality and record. These people will form major hubs of my networking process. My references will comprise of my boss from previous jobs and colleagues. I will contact each of them to network about the feasibility of them agreeing to be my referee. I will also explain my goals and ask for their help, give them updates on the progress of my job search and pre-inform them of calls from employers.

– Concentrate on building relationships: I intend on building relationships by being authentic and expressing my true intents and goals to those in my networking list. I will also be looking towards establishing professional relationships with individuals who are already in my field of interest by joining work related groups such as toastmasters international and meetup.

– Evaluate the quality of my network: to evaluate my network strategy, I will have to ask myself questions such as:

Does my network challenge me as much as it supports me?
Does my network represent my future goals as much as my past?
Do I trust my network to criticize me when necessary?

I will assign points to these questions which will help me determine if I need updates in my area. I will also think about the strength, weaknesses and opportunities of my network and analyze them individually.

– Take advantage of strong and weak ties: according to an article I read, it was stated that “strong ties occupy that inner circle and weak ties are less establishes. Adding people to networks is time consuming, especially strong ties. But adding new weak tie members gives your network vitality and even more cognitive flexibility”.

– Maintain my network: this is the final step of my networking process. Maintaining my network is as important as creating it. to ensure that this is done, I will schedule time with my key contacts, prioritize the rest of my contacts, and take notes on the people in my network.

If these steps and process are followed religiously, I believe I will be able to achieve my goal of getting the job I desire through the help of my networking scheme.