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Picture this: you’re a hiring manager going through a list of applicants and you’ve narrowed it down to two. Both are comparable on paper with similar skills and experience. Either one could do the job just fine. How do you choose which one to hire?
The answer is the interview, but do you know why? Because that’s when you get to know someone as a person.
So how do you prepare to ace the interview, so to speak?
I’m applying this week at a local nonprofit in Phoenix and the first thing I did after reviewing the job posting was look through my contacts to see if I had any connections there. I needed some information.
I checked the nonprofit’s company profile on LinkedIn. They had employees listed, but none of them were connected to me.
I went through everyone I’ve met at my nonprofit classes over the past 8 months.
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I ran through my recent social media activity in my head, trying to remember if I’ve had any conversations related to this nonprofit or their field.
I asked a few personal friends.
Lo and behold, my husband had a friend whose mother had worked there for many years! It kind of makes me wish I had asked me husband first.
The connection is a bit of a stretch, but what you’re looking for isn’t necessarily a recommendation or a bump to the top of the resume pile (though that would be a dream come true!). Your most valuable resource at this point is… insight.
You want to know what the company is about – the work environment, what their values are, and what kind of candidates they usually hire. When it comes down to it, a personality match is what’s going to set you apart from all the other applicants who look just like you on paper. As the saying goes, companies hire people, not resumes.
You also want to find out if the company is a good fit for you. Is the company laid-back, but you work better in a fast-paced, high energy environment? Do they support career growth, or does everyone usually stay in the same place? Knowing the answers to these kinds of question will ultimately help you get the job you want at the place you want.
So do any of you have any stories about how networking helped you in a job application or business deal? What might be some of the downsides to putting energy into networking? Please share in the comments!
