Doing the networking dance

July 28, 2015 2:45 PM

A few weeks ago i ran into an acquaintance and mentioned that I was looking for a new job. She said that she knew the CEO of a company that she thought I would be a good fit for, and gave me his and the company's name, along with permission to mention that I got his info from her. What do I do with this?

I have a lot of experience in different IT roles, at least some of which would seem to fit with what this guy's company does.

That said, there are no open jobs listed on the company's website. Instead of just emailing my resume, my thought is to invite the guy to meet for a cup of coffee just to get out there and network. Does this make sense? I have the feeling it would help if I could offer something in return for the guy's time, but am having trouble coming up with that.

What complicates this for me is that I'm an introvert, and a little shy when I first meet new people. This kind of networking is way out of my comfort zone, but is a skill that I'd like to develop.

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

Personal anecdote - a couple of years back I was in Stockholm in business and wondered into a local pub. Met a guy with loads of experience, chatted for a couple of hours and threw him a business card and told him to contact me if he was interested in some career development.

Long story short. He contacted me with his CV and within 4 weeks was working at our HQ in a role he never thought had the skills for. Fast forward a couple of years, I am extremely happy I recommended him.

Life is short. Networking isn't just about being able to chat for a coffee, it is more about being direct and showing what you can do. Never be afraid to say hi to someone. Nor worry that you might not get a reply.

More often than not, when someone is contacted they are willing to point people in the right direction. Look at it this way - you might get a "no" but you will get much more from taking a small step outside of your comfort zone.

Others will jump in and point out the obvious - most hires are not on the company website or relate to how difficult it is. Try one email or phone call to someone you don't know and explain who and what you can do. It is liberating!
posted by Funmonkey1 at 3:10 PM on July 28, 2015 [4 favorites]

I'm not sure about the cup of coffee invitation, to be honest. Not unless you are sure that your contact is actually a good friend with the CEO. If she isn't then asking for his time to meet could be perceived as pushy. (I would perceive it as pushy, anyhow. I'm not at C-level and time is still my biggest treasure.)

I would probably send an email like "Dear Jim, Please excuse me for writing you out of the blue, but I recently was talking to Alice Jones about my job search and gave me the advice to speak to you. When I did some more reading in your work on xxx, then I understood how she made the connection.

I am blah blah blah (*brief* introduction of yourself which highlights your best guess about what Alice thought was a good fit).

I would love to talk more about what your company is doing, since it seems really exciting. I enclose my cv and would be interested in talking about positions you may have available. I can be reached via email or phone at xxx.

Thanks for your time!

Sincerely,

Jane Doe
posted by frumiousb at 3:18 PM on July 28, 2015 [14 favorites]

Both Funmonkey1 and frumiousb have good suggestions. I'm going to suggest something that may not be that much help in the current situation, but can put you in a better position to take advantage of similar offers of connections in the future.

When someone offers such a connection recommendation, respond in your best "I really appreciate that" voice and ask: Could you give me a sense of what it is about this connection that I should pay the most attention to?

If your connector friend says: "Well, my CEO buddy is working on project XYZ and the experience you just mentioned sounds like it might be a fit", you have something to work with when you reach out to CEO buddy.

If your connector friend says: "Well, I can't say for sure but it just sounds like there may be some kind of fit there", you're in a different situation and will have to be more creative to find the nut of connection to use when contacting CEO buddy.

If you ask the probe question out of genuine appreciation, you should rarely get a bad response and may even get exactly what you need to make a terrific connection.
posted by John Borrowman at 3:55 PM on July 28, 2015 [7 favorites]

I wouldn't do the coffee ask, not unless you have reason to believe this is an uncommonly un-busy CEO; or if the company is at a very early stage.

I would email the resume and a warm note. Before you do that, research the company thoroughly (including any recent news, noteworthy hires, product releases, etc) and make your note reflect your sincere interest in what they're doing.

(In my company, if you were to email our CEO asking for a meeting, he would answer nicely because he is nice, but then he would just forward the note to the recruiting group, who would think you were pretty clueless.)
posted by fingersandtoes at 7:17 PM on July 28, 2015

It's too late now but ordinarily the thing to do is to ask the mutual contact to send an email connecting the both of you. That works much better than "such and such said we should speak".

Ordinarily I wouldn't send a resume unprompted either. Also better not to guess why your mutual contact thought you were a fit. That's in a sense what the first conversation is for.
posted by JPD at 3:35 AM on July 29, 2015