Work, success, and meaning at every stage of your career
Even if you’re an extrovert, the term “networking” can make you anxious. It may be hard for you to meet new people or reconnect with those you haven’t seen for a while. If you’re unemployed, your confidence may be low; you may hate the idea of being in the position of asking for help instead of being able to offer it.
One of the most important networking skills you can acquire is the ability to make people feel appreciated. It’s an art form that doesn’t come easily to some people, but, like most social skills, it can be learned.
We talk a lot about growing your network; it’s one of the most important things you can do to speed up your job search. But it can be hard to decide how to expand – who you should meet and get to know. I’ve heard jobseekers say: “All my friends are in the same industry; many have concerns about their own jobs. I’m not sure my network is going to help me, much as they’d like to.”
And they might be right.
When people connect with you online, what do they see? If you’re just keeping up the basics, they see where you’ve worked and what pages you link to and keep up with. Joiner says that people will also want to see who you are connected with, and more importantly, what they have to say about you.
When we talk about “good” communication skills, we often mean a single competency: persuasion. The art of persuasion, if you have it, means that you can articulate your thoughts clearly and win over opponents. You can write better copy or make a better sales pitch. You can become the top candidate for a job.
The key to a successful job search is to make sure you use all available channels to connect with opportunities. “If you focus on just one, like the newspaper, you’re really missing out. Only about four percent of available jobs show up there.” Joiner says that older candidates (we mean you, baby boomers) are having trouble adjusting to social media as serious career tools; many still consider them time wasters and frivolous activities.
Life and career coaching are multi-million dollar industries in the United States. For those who aren’t interested in paying someone else to get their lives in gear, this is a useful (free!) guide with tips about how you can serve as your own career coach.
There’s little doubt that when a person stands quietly, with relaxed posture, she seems more confident. Humans rely on hundreds of non-verbal signals when we’re communicating: smiles, involuntary grimaces and your eyes tell much more than what you say with words. We associate fidgeting with nervousness, and nervousness with unfavorable traits like dishonesty, guilt, or lack of self control.
