How to work a professional network?

March 2, 2016 3:08 AM

I’ve been a freelancer for over a decade. It’s had its good points, but I’m feeling burned out and ready for something new. I would like to find a full-time salaried position, but I’m feeling a little lost about how to go about it. Can you offer guidance?

I’m looking for a job that builds on what I’ve been doing in my freelance business and is the same field, and ideally my new job would be a little beyond my abilities so I’d have the opportunity to grow my skills and knowledge.

Working as a self-employed professional, I’m in the habit of hustling for gigs, but now that I want full-time employment, I’m not sure how to go about this different type of hustle. I’ve sent my resume out to maybe a half dozen companies in response to positions posted online, but nothing much has come of these efforts so far.

Many career advisers recommend developing and working a professional network. The books, blog posts, and articles about the job hunt I’ve read so far offer generic advice like “Fill out your profile on LinkedIn so recruiters will find you,” or “Ask for informational interviews and learn about the companies in your area,” and so on. This type of advice seems fine but rather undeveloped and aimless.

What are some specific steps I can take that will lead me from where I am now to uncovering opportunities and job offers?

Some things I currently have in my favor:

• I’m used to cold and warm calling, and I’m not intimidated to reach out to people.
• My business has a name, a logo, and a simple but nice looking website with a portfolio, client list, occasionally updated blog, testimonials, etc.
• I send out bi-monthly email campaigns to a list of 450 subscribers (open rate 33%)
• I have 350 LinkedIn contacts, and through these contacts, I can find the names of many local people in my field that I don’t yet know and, in some cases, set up introductions.
• I’m on the board of a professional organization in my field, attend monthly events, and am developing relationships there.
• One of the things that falls into my purview as board member of this organization is the job listings on the website, which ostensibly posts jobs of interest to people in our field. The section of the organization’s website has been moribund since before I took over the board position. I’m thinking of shutting it down (with the OK of the rest of the board) because I don’t really have the time to solicit jobs for it, and not that many organizations send in unsolicited postings. However, I could be motivated to put energy into the job board if it could concurrently assist with my job hunt.
• Since I work alone from a home office, I push myself to sometimes get out and meet people in my profession for coffee or lunch and have some contacts in regular rotation.

One challenge I have is I don’t want to indiscriminately broadcast to everyone that I’m looking for a salaried job. It could alienate my current and potential clients, and for now I need to keep the contract work coming in to pay my bills.

So please offer your insights. Books and website recommendations, such as legitimately useful blogs or active job forums, are welcome too. The most helpful responses will be those that offer me concrete steps to pursue and help me develop a systematic plan. For example, first try x, and see if that will lead to y, which could lead to z.

I feel inclined to keep this post anonymous, but if you’d like to contact me, please use [e-mail].

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (5 answers total)

Don't know what industry you're in, but I'm in Creative. I hit up recruiters, and tell them I'm specifically that I'm currently freelance, but am interesting in "temp to perm."

If it works out, boom, you got yourself a FT job.

Might be different if your industry doesn't really have recruiters.
posted by functionequalsform at 5:08 AM on March 2, 2016

You don't want to indiscriminately broadcast, but "working your network" absolutely does include reaching out to a selected subset of your contacts - probably past clients & colleagues rather than current clients - and saying "hey, do you know anyone who I could work with full-time? I'm thinking of dialing back my contract work." (You don't have to drop your clients all at once, and it's very common - at least in the tech & content-writing fields I'm in touch with - for folks working freelance to go mostly full-time but also keep some contract work around, for extra money, to keep those muscles fresh, or just to wrap up work they had committed to before they took the job.
posted by Tomorrowful at 5:59 AM on March 2, 2016

I really think the key here is that the management of your professional association's job site falls under your purview; it mitigates your concern about current and potential clients' reactions to your interest in finding a full-time permanent position. The job listings responsibility gives you license to reach out everywhere, including those clients who may well be candidates for the position of Anon's future employer. Moreover, it will give you even more insight into what employers seek and how that jibes with your expectations and needs vis-a-vis salary, flexibility, etc. Yes it's time-consuming but so is job-hunting.
posted by carmicha at 7:41 AM on March 2, 2016

One concern relative to my suggestion above: your board may have concern about a real or perceived conflict of interest.
posted by carmicha at 7:41 AM on March 2, 2016

I've also been a freelancer for many years and am looking to change gears and get into a regular salaried position (with burnout and other stuff), so I've actually started down this path. I'm still contacted by people for jobs, both old contacts and new contacts, so I am assuming that this will apply. My recommendations will be light on the "how to get someone to respond" since it sounds like you are at the advanced level of reaching out to people and maintaining a network. Some of this might be through my lens as to what has applied to my field (and the direction that I plan to go), but change it to what your field/your desired direction and timeline, etc. I will try to be as specific as possible per your request, but feel free to memail me if anything needs to be spelled out more:

• LinkedIn Profile: This applies if your industry uses it via recruiters, headhunters, and people higher up in the company looking for people. My assumption is that as a long-time freelancer you have this down, but just in case you don't... Spell out details about skills and projects that are likely to be in demand for your field (take a look at job ads if applicable, and the goal is put in key words that people search for). Also, join groups relevant to your industry because you will come up higher in that person's search results if someone looks for skill X.
• Search engines for jobs, Indeed.com, etc: There might be more relevant to your field, but I love Indeed because it culls things from other lists, you can search for several terms, and it remembers it (and can email you if you so desire). The reason I suggest this as a strategy for you is that it *might* help you find a related industry/job that can potentially use your skills. But I keep copies in PDF form of jobs that look interesting, industries, names that come up because you can put that on your "target" list. You might want to add the word "remote" and "telecommute" because you can be available to work in places distant from your location and you know the company is open to it.
• Using LinkedIn to find info for your field: Linked in is more than putting yourself out there. You can search your desired industries, get lists, etc. The big thing that I found helpful at one time was to join groups related to my industry. Then lurk. Some are nothing but spams and ads (useless), but some do have professionals exchanging ideas and info. I've actually seen people ask "Does anyone have a list of companies in area X in industry X" and people then share it via email - this can payoff for you. You can also do searches by industry and locations (generate a list of companies to target), also check out where your contacts are going to and coming from (more companies).
• Contacts: Freelancers and companies that you like. It sounds like you can't send a blast to look for jobs to your contacts, but do you have other freelancers/contacts you can talk to? I have a handful of people that I toss work to (or try to toss work to), and I would gladly share "here is a company looking for employees" info and they are likely to have their hands in many companies. Also, do you have a company that you really like (you see their work and you know they aren't a train wreck)? I would approach a handful of these ..the payoff is potentially great.
• Journals. If you have them... My industry has a journal, and one of them features companies (ie, best digital companies in X, best companies of the year in X). I read through the companies featured and ask: Does it look interesting? Can you offer them something and vice versa? But you can pull from the companies featured to expand your target list -they often appear to have interesting work and are usually growing.
• Info interviews: Questions applicable to you. This has been a payoff for me (assuming you know how to do this but just in case, skip down to the info interview part so I don't have to retype this), but questions for you to consider asking are: 1) What job titles are relevant to you? (helps because you can plug this into Linkedin or Indeed.com and get even more companies), 2) Questions that you have for deal makers and breakers for your field -assuming you don't want any job, but find out info to exclude/include companies/fields - for example, salary range? Make your own list here. 3) Can they give recommendations as to how to get in right now (for you specifically, it might be worth your time for someone to review your CV/resume - what should be added? Or are their skills worth acquiring to put on there - a class, a project, etc.). 4) Do they have suggestions for other places to look for your type of desired job (in my field, besides communication agencies, hospitals, universities, nonprofits), but they can help point you to other places to look.
• New companies: Get lists of companies with contact info. Google (try X companies, plus email, plus list), look through journals, LinkedIn (to and from, searches), library. (if you are in NYC the business library has a published list of companies).
• Metafilter: you could ask a later anony question with more info as to your location, industry, and try to brainstorm. Its hit or miss, but sometimes, one or two answers might be worth it.

Now approaching your companies. I just send targeted, few sentence email (I am X looking for Y, few bullet points describing the stuff you have done) plus contact info, and they follow up. Now the difference here is that... target your companies and monitor your results. So if you find that 3/10 companies in field X reply, but none in field Y replay, then either drop field Y or talk to more people to tweak it. This approach has worked better than responding to ads because people have a need right now and there is not competition if you appear right then. Since you are a phone person, calling might be better because you can probably hear in their voice if it is a yes/no, disinterest, etc.

Headhunters/recruiters - this is last on the list because in my experience most of them are not as helpful (and/or you can get into more companies than them.) I would ask your contacts in the industry for recommendations because some can be horrible, but ...my assumption will be they will find you via linkedin, etc.

Just in case you do writing/editing/project management/graphic design and are open to medical communication agencies, memail me - I will share 1) a pdf list with companies by location and contact info and 2) a journal specialized to the field (where you can search for "best of X" or whatever).

Good luck.
posted by Wolfster at 10:51 AM on March 2, 2016 [2 favorites]