It went like this: I was out of school for the semester, back home in Boise. And jobless. Oh, sure, I looked. There was nothing to be found. I mean, a new Chili’s opened up there, and they got over 2,000 job applications. And some of these people are the kinds with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. Ph.D.’s, even. Yeah, like I’m gonna get a job.
I applied at lots of places. I searched online. I pounded the pavement going from establishment to establishment. I finally found one that seemed promising, and paid well, too. At a bank. I even got an interview, and that went really well. Until… she found out I was leaving in two months.
BAM. You know how you can read people’s body language? In about 2.4 nanoseconds she went from leaning forward, smiling, arms open, to leaning back, arms crossed, legs crossed, and not-so-smiling. I lost it right there. She even told me that was the only reason I didn’t get it—and that if I was going to be in town long-term, to come on by again. Another interviewer for a different job (EMT this time) rejected me for the same reason.
What’s a person supposed to do in a situation like this? No jobs available, and the ones that are won’t take you because you’re not there long enough. Network. Yup, that’s right.
We’ve all heard about networking, and we know it has to do with knowing people that help you get jobs. Except that it’s not nepotism, which is generally viewed as a not-so-good-and-morally-correct thing. Even though it is basically the same thing. Just not with relatives.
But that’s how I finally got my amazing job as a physical therapy aide at APT. I had a friend working there (who, by the way, got the job there because his dad was a doctor that referred a lot of patients to that office—see how your connections can work for you??) who knew of my plight and happened to also know that his office was looking to hire someone. The job was not advertised anywhere though, and they had no actual job applications, so really, the only way to hear about it was through networking.
Two days later I dropped off a résumé, two days after that I had an interview and was hired, and two days after that I had my first day of training.
BAM. Just like that. Networking = magic. Which is why I’ve decided to devote a whole blog to helping you learn how to network better. Because while some people have that natural “people person” quality that gets them everywhere, some people (read: me) don’t. And it’s something those some people need to learn in order to succeed in life. Because apparently, just being smart and qualified isn’t enough. I have to get people to like me, too.
Make friends. Get job. Go. 