Katharine Hansen - A Foot in the Door: Networking Your Way into the Hidden Job Market

Copyright 2000, 2008 by Katharine Hansen

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except brief excerpts for the purpose of review, without written permission of the publisher.

Ten Speed Press
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Berkeley, California 94707
www.tenspeed.com

Distributed in Australia by Simon and Schuster Australia, in Canada by Ten Speed Press Canada, in New Zealand by Southern Publishers Group, in South Africa by Real Books, and in the United Kingdom and Europe by Publishers Group UK.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hansen, Katharine.
A foot in the door : networking your way into the hidden job market / Katharine Hansen.Rev.
p. cm.
Summary: A guide to networking geared toward recent graduates and young career changersProvided by publisher.
ISBN: 978-1-58008-892-3
eBook ISBN: 978-0-307-81471-5
1. Job hunting. 2. Social networks. 3. Career development. I. Title.
HF5382.7.H354 2008
650.14dc22

2007051012

v3.1

This book is dedicated to Theodore Stewart Fries Jr., a very special young man whom I am proud to claim as a member of my personal network.

I would like to thank Dr. Rebecca Oliphant for suggesting informational interviews as an assignment for my class.

I thank the many members of the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) and members of NACEs Jobplace online discussion group as well as members of the Career Management Alliance for sharing their survey responses, stories, comments, and wisdom. Thanks also to Michael Kaplan and Jennifer Sumner.

As always, I thank my students at Stetson University who inspire my writing. I especially thank those who shared their informational interviewing experiences.

And thanks and love always, of course, to RSH.

For up-to-date information about networking, please visit www.quintcareers.com.

As I have considered what has changed about networking since the first edition of A Foot in the Door was published in 2000, my starkest realization is that networking has become even more important to getting a job than it was when I first wrote the book. Perhaps as a coping mechanism in the face of a constantly changing technological and global economy, the importance of building relationships has come to the fore in every area from marketing to politics. Job hunting is no different. In fact, while technology seems to make people yearn for face-to-face interactions, it is also the driving force behind the most significant trend in networking since the first edition of this bookonline networking, using various tech-based tools, venues, and online communities. This new interactive networking settinglargely characterized by the term Web 2.0is the subject of three additional chapters in this new edition. One chapter covers personal branding and building networking visibility; the second tells how you can enhance your networking by increasing your chances of being found in an Internet search; the third describes the world of online social/business communities and networking.

I did my first real networking in the early 1980s in the form of informational interviewing. I had learned about the concept from Richard Nelson Bolless What Color Is Your Parachute?, which was already a classic in the career field and has since gone on to even greater success and recognition. It was when, as a college instructor, I began to teach my business communication students about networking and assigned them to conduct informational interviews that I truly began to see the power of networking.

My initial inspiration for the first edition of A Foot in the Door sprang from my excitement when I observed my students putting in practice what I had taught them about networking. They were blown away by their success with networking and informational interviewing. They used these tools to affirm career choices, avoid inappropriate options, try on careers, gain valuable insider informationand, most important, make contacts. Most students attained a solid network of contacts and insider information that enabled them by graduation time to approach employers with a clear advantage over other job seekers. Having reinstated the assignment after a five-year hiatus from teaching, I found that in the new millennium I could still expect several students every semester to receive internship and job offers as a direct result of their networking and informational interviews. In short, networking can be a life-changing activity. It is my hope that this book will guide readers through this invaluable process.

My partner, Randall Hansen, and I have demonstrated our commitment to tools of job seeking through the books weve authored and especially through our website, Quintessential Careers, one of the oldest and most comprehensive career development sites on the Web (www.quintcareers.com). The first edition of A Foot in the Door was the impetus to significantly build the networking resources of Quint Careers. In turn, Quint Careers has become a bubbling cauldron of much of the new information Ive added to this updated edition.

This new edition is designed to give you lots of ideas about where and with whom to network. For the revision, I surveyed 240 individuals122 career professionals and 118 job seekersto learn about their networking experiences and ideasand they contributed generously and abundantly. A Foot in the Door guides you through the process and over the obstacles of networking. The informational interviewing section is arguably the most comprehensive resource available on how to conduct an informational interview. The book provides numerous networking tips you may not have thought of and testimonials from successful networkers. It touches on the special needs of underrepresented groups and the importance of follow-up in the networking process.

Please consider me a member of your personal network. People in your network should provide you with advice and support. I offer you both in A Foot in the Door. I wish you much success as you build your network.

Katharine Hansen, PhD

Networking is a lot like sales and marketing, and all three are about establishing and cultivating personal relationships. Maybe youre uncomfortable with the idea of marketing and selling yourself. But youre probably a lot more comfortable with the idea of making friends and talking to people. Thats what networking comes down to: talking to people, making friends, building relationshipsall with a little self-promotion and sales savvy thrown in. Before it was called networking, it was just being friendly and interested in people, observes Nelson Barnett, director of the Lyon College Career Development Center. When one of your contacts has some promising career information to impart, the first person he will want to tell is a friendyou, if youve successfully built the relationship.