The Water Cooler
 
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Date Created:
May 1, 2008
Category:
Money & Work »
Professions & Workplace Issues
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TheWaterCooler Offline
TheWaterCooler
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AARP.org
The Water Cooler
At The Water Cooler you can seek and share advice about finding a job, jump-starting a new career or business, returning to work after retiring, achieving work/life balance, tackling age hang-ups, and more.

Tap into a community of experience! Join The Water Cooler and its associated community groups that feature winners of the AARP My Dream Job Contest: Career Changers, The Downsized, Entrepreneurs, Flexibility Seekers, New Workers, and the Retired and Restless.
  Post to Topic     Print   Successful Networking Tips and Resources
http://www.aarp.org/community/groups/displayTopic.bt?groupId=6532&topicId=4817532
TheWaterCooler said:
on October 14, 2009 12:24 PM ET
edited on October 14, 2009 12:26 PM ET

Networking is one of the most important things you can do to help your job search effort.  According to BH Careers International, 80 percent of all available jobs are not formally posted. Getting a job is often more accomplished through word of mouth.

 

This Monster.com article on networking offers some good tips on how to connect with people to bolster your employment success. Good networking resources include LinkedIn, an online network where professionals connect with each other, Secrets of the Job Hunt, and the Riley Guide.

 

To learn about other networking tips and resources, read Tips for Successful Networking.

 
4 posts by 4 users
TheWaterCooler
Post #5
TheWaterCooler said:
on November 2, 2009 10:07 AM ET
edited on November 2, 2009 10:09 AM ET

"Old-fashioned," person-to-person networking is a terrific way to explore job opportunities. While much emphasis today is placed on networking through "online" community spaces such as LinkedIn or Facebook, this doesn't suggest that one form is more important than the other. Together, these two styles of networking can compliment each other and strengthen your job search efforts. 

 

Our work team is developing a short video on networking. If you have considerations about networking that you would like the video to address, please share your ideas here. We'll do our best to include your questions and suggestions. Thank you!


gyllander2029
Post #4
gyllander2029 said:
on October 30, 2009 01:14 PM ET

Thanks Julie for the links.  I took a quick look at them and decided I will read them more closely to learn more about how I'm suppose to use LinkedIn for job searching, which I have been trying to figure out.    Cheers!


Julie
Post #3
Julie replied to gyllander2029's Post #2 :
on October 30, 2009 11:11 AM ET

Thanks for the reminder that person-to-person networking is essential. This is easy to forget with all the attention given to online networking these days. But I hope you will not give up on using social networks like LinkedIn.

Here are a couple of articles that might help if you're not getting what you need from LinkedIn:

How to Use LinkedIn in your Job Search www.booleanblackbelt.com/2009/07/how-to-use-linkedin-in-your-job-search/  This is a very detailed walk-through of the various job search functions in LinkedIn.

100 Smart Ways to Use LinkedIn www.linkedintelligence.com/smart-ways-to-use-linkedin/ This links to a whole slew of other articles.

I hope you will continue to post on the Water Cooler and to give feedback on what AARP has to offer to job seekers. Believe me, AARP is highly aware that it is a very discouraging job market out there. Please don't stop reading and exploring the career advice you find on the web and elsewhere.

Finally, here's a plug for one of my favorite job search sites, Secrets of the Job Hunt. I like this one because there are many contributors on all sorts of topics; it's not just from a single point of view, and it's updated daily. www.secretsofthejobhunt.com 

Best of luck with your job search, and keep networking!


gyllander2029
Post #2
gyllander2029 said:
on October 27, 2009 02:19 PM ET
edited on October 27, 2009 02:21 PM ET

I've been trying to network online through LinkedIn and other sites.  It's time-consuming and I'm noticing more people are posting their own "job wanted or I need a job" listing (like it use to be in the newspaper's want ads a few years back).   A person ends up connecting with people from other states with the same job search quest and concerns.  I read the article, "Tips for Successful Networking", but honestly, I'm beginning to think we are just being handed these tips and advice to give us unemployed something to do and calm our growing frustrations about our economy.  So, we build our list of colleagues, acquaintances and professional organizations to network with, we create our business cards (or resumes cards), and now we should develop our "elevator speech"....that's new! 

 

I know a lot of emphasis is being put on networking online but I think perhaps the old fashioned in-person networking where you live may need to make a stronger comeback.  That's my next course of direction...to network more in-person in my immediate area and less online.  Wish me luck!