Many people have confidence in their experience and skills, but find it very hard to promote or market themselves in the right areas, especially if it’s a new field they want to move into. Some recruitment agencies may fulfil this PR function for us, where it’s appropriate, but it’s worth considering whether there are people we already know through our formal and informal networks we could recruit to our ‘campaign’ as well.
Imagine that you are trying to create ripples of influence from where you are now to the person who will eventually give you the job or offer you the training post you want. You need as many intermediaries as you can muster to help push those ripples across the pond.
• Steve has a geography degree and several years experience in the tourist industry, where he specialises in organising holidays for young people. He is thinking of shifting to a career in educational psychology, since he’s loved working with children and teenagers, and believes he has some skills in helping them learn and develop. He has accumulated a lot of theoretical information about educational psychology from the net, and he knows he needs to find some voluntary work or a related post in the field to start with, but doesn’t know how to take the first step.
• But he does know Mark, from uni, whose girlfriend is a social worker in a team where there is a psychologist; Dacia, from his Spanish class, who works for an adoption and fostering charity; Anna, his mother’s friend, who is a head-teacher in a nearby secondary school, and Charlie, finance manager, DJ and Steve’s best buddy from his current job, who has more friends than anyone else he knows. Recommendations, sign-posting, or introductions from any or all of these people would be extremely valuable.
Most people like to help if they can, if they are approached with openness and respect. Is it OK to ask? Of course – if, in return for the support you receive, you’re willing to give back in some way. A two-way exchange can be enriching for both parties. Your part of the bargain is to be and be capable of everything you’ve said you are – the whole process is based on trust and integrity – and also to be willing to support the person helping you if they ask. But they may not. So another way of giving back is to help someone else who approaches you with a similar request, passing on the willingness to be helpful. Supporting and promoting each other builds feelings of belonging, sharing and mattering, great antidotes to the feeling of isolation career-shifting can so often create. And we can’t go wrong if we’re generally erring on the side of offering and giving rather more informal support than we receive.
So how to recognise the people who can help you?
The author of ‘The Tipping Point’, Malcolm Gladwell, identified three kinds of individuals who enable social phenomena to spread and gather momentum; that ‘social phenomenon’ could be the knowledge that you are valuable, enthusiastic and available.
Group 1 are the Connectors, those whose natural tendency is to make friends and acquaintances wherever they go, through the sheer pleasure they get from relating. They are in constant communication with others from diverse walks of life, and invariably know ‘someone who knows someone’, if you ask.
Group 2 are the Mavens, who learn and bank information at every opportunity, and who like nothing better than absorbing and sharing what they know – facts, figures, finances, processes, the lot. They can advise you about what you might need to do to progress your ambitions, but equally, they will store what they know about you and your skills – they have great memories. When they next meet someone they feel would benefit from knowing about you, they’ll be keen to share that information too.
Group 3 are the Salesmen, charismatic individuals with powerful interpersonal skills, who have a natural influence with others through their adept and persuasive use of non-verbal language and presence. The best ‘Salesmen’ have genuine authority and are trusted, because they value relationship too highly to mis-use their abilities (President Obama is probably a great example). If they recommend you, people will listen; some of that aura of integrity will rub off on you, so carry it well.
Think about your friends and associates in relation to these 3 ‘types’. Don’t discount someone because they don’t function in the precise field you’re interested in, it’s their skills you’re interested in right now. Who do you know who would be willing to tell their networks about you? Share their knowledge with you, or help you find out how to learn? Use their influence to inspire or recommend you? Can you enlist these people to support you? And most importantly, what could you offer them in exchange?
In your friendship and professional networks, you may have the great good fortune to meet individuals who are all three of the ‘types’ described above– a natural combination of communicator, maven and salesman (or saleswoman). If you know someone like this, in or connected to a field you are interested to move into, they are gold-dust. Let them know how much you would appreciate support from them, and ask what you can do in return.
• Karen was a PA who woke up one morning with a burning desire to work in a flowershop. Although she thought it was a mad idea, she really wanted to go for it. Because she thought people would think she was crazy, she only mentioned it to one person, Ruby, a neighbour who lived downstairs. Karen had helped set up Ruby’s computer and internet connection when Ruby first moved into her flat. Unbeknownst to Karen, Ruby told a friend of hers about Karen’s dream; this friend turned out to have a sister who went to school with a woman who – you guessed it –worked in a rather beautiful and well-known designer flowershop in central London, which was currently looking for front-of-house staff…..
So if it’s not precisely ‘what you know’ but ‘who you know’ that will lead to the most success with career-shifting, how can you get the most out of your social and professional networks? Simple. Contact people by phone and in person. Ask. And be willing to give more than you get.
By Hiren