Using Your Personal Network to Find a Job

To find your next position, you have several tools at your disposal: responding to job offers, spontaneous applications, attending job fair, etc.

Have you also thought about your own surroundings? Calling on your relationships is an effective job search strategy, if you properly mobilise your network.

How to effectively mobilise your network to get recruited?

The feeling of having little network is just an impression. Every meeting is a potential professional opportunity and having a good network is not reserved for the elite.

The first step in creating your network is to list all of your contacts:

• Friends
• Former colleagues
• People with whom you have been in school or in training (pupils and trainers)
• Local relationships (traders, neighbours, etc.)
• Partners in leisure activities
• Social media contacts, etc.

Once this list has been established, expand it by identifying the people to contact and the events or groups to attend to make new and interesting meetings for your project. For this, it is necessary to identify your needs beforehand: to be put in touch, to obtain information on a company, to identify partners, to find a job, etc. By being clear about your goals, you will be clear in your request to those around you.

Activate your list

Once your network has been identified and developed, activate it! To do this, make yourself visible, distribute your CV and talk to as many people as possible about your project. Be personable and honest, be genuinely interested in the path of your contacts while being clear and concise about your request.

Nourish your list

Giving before receiving is key to enhancing your contacts. Listening and putting your contacts in touch are the main rules for developing your network. It is then necessary to regularly nourish the relationship, physically or virtually; take an interest in the lives of others, while subtly recalling your skills and qualifications.

As part of your job search, identify contacts who can provide you with information on the recruitment process and the company, contacts who can recommend you directly or even those who can advise you on the best strategy to adopt.