Marketing Profs

Some 80% of available jobs are never advertised, and over half of all employees obtain their jobs through networking, according to BH Careers International. As a result, the most important component of a successful job search is your network, consisting of friends, family, neighbors, acquaintances, teachers, and coworkers.

Having these connections gives you valuable resources and information about specific job openings that are not publicly posted anywhere else. In general, relationships open up a world of opportunities, enjoyment, and efforts that can have a major impact on a person, company, or community.

There are many ways to gather a network, but the most common are these:

• Professional associations that have already built out a reputation, brand name, and a network of professionals that share common interests.
  
  
• Researching successful people in your related field and contacting them, asking for them to mentor you.
  
  
• Connecting with family, friends, and teachers to develop your networks through their networks.
  
  
• Active involvement in colleges, universities, sports teams, or hobbies.
  
  
• Joining social networks, which expand your networking to a global scale.

As an example of how powerful a strong network is, I will use the example of a job search after I graduated college. I applied to over 100 companies, had 40 or so interviews, but was primarily focused on EMC Corporation as my entry-level position in marketing. Through multiple interviews for positions in various marketing functions within EMC, I went through a series of 14 interviews. These interviews were behavioral tests and sometimes quite challenging.

At the time, my resume was ideal, with eight internships, all in marketing disciplines, working for companies such as LoJack, Reebok, and Lycos. The process of finally getting selected for a position at EMC took eight months, and the primary reason I finally claimed a spot was because of my unwillingness to give up.