I have only been on LinkedIn for a few months now and have little experience in the networking world. So I will say this posting will be mostly opinion but hopefully helpful.
About two weeks ago I received my first communication from a recruiter with several available positions in the GPS navigation industry. The initial description was fairly detailed I must say. Though I am enjoying my work as a Navigation Analyst at Honeywell right now I think it is always wise to build/maintain a good working relationship with quality individuals in any capacity. This could be an especially profitable relationship for both sides because she probably focuses on the Navigation or Aerospace & Defense industry. This could yield the following positive results for both sides:
1. She may be able to help me find employment in the industry in which I currently have the most strengths if the need were to arise in the future.
2. I believe engineers are still in fairly high demand. This allows both her and me to keep open the option of better opportunities now for me and my family (i.e. location, promotions, other interesting technologies, and of course possibly more money). And she can keep my name and information filed away in case she comes across positions she needs filled that she thinks will be of interest to me. This makes the search easy for her and possibly gets me a good job.
3. As a recruiter she will likely have many contacts which could be beneficial to me. And, again, she may be facilitator for another recruiter which always strengthens her relationships with other networking recruiters.
4. Since I am directly in the middle of the industry from which and for which she is trying to recruit, I can be a good "insider" for her. If I am in any way productive for her then the benefits are many. She gets her position filled with quality individuals to whom she has at least some connection. Additionally, the connection is someone who knows the industry backwards and forwards. This must be far superior to cold-emailing or cold-calling. Secondly, the person I know, who hopefully I am looking out for his/her best interests, will find a position which may better fit their talents and goals. Finally, I feel good about being part of making a good fit. The recruiter and my contact will likely look to return the favor when the time comes.
Because of all these things I decided to send her a kind note thanking her for presenting the opportunities. With it, I included my long-term goals (in case of any random fits) and my resume so she could get a good feel for my background. Additionally, I offered to keep my ears open for folks looking for work in the industry. Now she is a contact of mine on LinkedIn and I hope to build a strong professional relationship with her - for both of our sakes.
Good afternoon
Donald W. Hasson
http://www.linkedin.com/in/donaldhasson
http://www.ecademy.com/user/donaldhasson
http://donaldhasson.blogspot.com
1 comment:
An excellent discussion of the benefits of networking!
Quick story: I was once with a firm and was tasked with interviewing people for an open job. I had about 100 resumes.
Once I had my "reject" pile with most of the resumes on it, I called my recruiter contact and told her about them. I faxed them to her and within a week she had found a job for at least one of them.
I could have just thrown the rejects out...instead I helped both my recruiter contact and the person she found a job for.
Win-win.
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