Now what?

[resonant]

OK, networking experts, question time.

A former co-worker of mine has given me the name of her contact at an employer in New City, "if you are inclined to reach out to her with your talents." The contact is not a hiring manager; she's director of PR. The work I seek is very much not in PR, which the ex-co-worker knows because she's been talking to me about whether I would enjoy doing the same job SHE does.

-- so what am I supposed to do with this info?

Comments

networking is always good

[via_ostiense]

Email the contact to say hello, explain that former co-worker gave her name to you, and could you take her to coffee sometime to talk about the work and culture at X Company? If you're interested in working at the company but in a different division, it's still good to chat with someone on the inside just to get a sense of things and more importantly, to know someone there. Although this person works in PR, she can pass your resume on to the hiring manager and say, "Hey, I met resonant, she's interested in ___, can you follow up with her?" and your resume will get a longer look than if you submit it yourself without the referral from a current employee.

Re: networking is always good

[princessofgeeks]

yes, this.

Re: networking is always good

[lightgetsin]

+1. For further advice on how to conduct the coffee or whatever other contact follows, google "informational interview," since that's what you're doing. There's not a huge amount of etiquette to it, but there are ways to make it more graceful and compelling. The important parts are to (1) learn if the company actually is a good fit for you, and (2) at the end of the coffee date, if it feels appropriate, present your resume or ask her to put you in contact with the hiring people.

And if all of that is too much extroversion (trust me, I understand) an alternative is to ask the mutual friend to conduct an email introduction for you. Say something like, "hey, thank you for giving me your friend's name. Do you feel comfortable emailing her to introduce me? I'd like to approach her about [learning about her company [picking her brain regarding other jobs in the area] [whatever]."

I have done this for people, and have had it done for me. It's useful because if your friend does it, she's putting her stamp of approval on you more concretely than you just dropping her name. It is a genuine favor she's doing you, more so than merely offering up a name, because there's more of her reputation at stake in personally referring you. So she might say no -- I have -- but if you feel comfortable asking, it's definitley worth it.

Re: networking is always good

[resonant]

if all of that is too much extroversion

Yes, that's precisely the problem!

Re: networking is always good

[resonant]

So helpful -- thanks!

[princessofgeeks]

IMHO, you send this person a short email, letting her know your connection with the mutual friend in the first sentence.

Then you let her know that you are looking for a certain kind of job in NY and if she has any leads for you, you would really appreciate it.

Then you conclude with a sentence that ties together something she might relate to about your mutual friend, and sign off.

Good luck!

She is not the person who will hire you herself, but someone in her situation knows a lot of people and will know about a lot of job leads.

It's all about getting the word out.

and I agree with what via_o said about developing a contact inside the company -- someone who can put your resume at the top of the heap and give it a personal touch. On the strength of your mutual friend. Good advice there.

[fanofall]

This yes!

[queue]

+1. The jobs we have don't delimit the contacts we can muster. The contact might have great things to share. No harm in checking, eh?

[resonant]

I'm neither extroverted nor spontaneous by nature, and it's so helpful to have a script!

[princessofgeeks]

scripts for networking are so necessary. it doesn't come naturally to me either. good luck!

[florahart]

I read this post and was like, what does this have to do with computers?

...my kid is a computer science major, whose area of concentration for his AA was networking. I was puzzled for longer than I'm happy about before I was like OH. DIFFERENT NETWORKING.

[resonant]

Somehow I think that if I had some expertise in that other kind of networking, I might be finding it easier to find work ...