Think the only way to get a job is to send your resume to positions posted online? Not even close.
Instead of sending your resume into the black abyss of the Internet, youâre far more likely to get a job by spending your energies creating and cultivating a network.
Take Justin Krieger.
Unlike most other millennials, he didnât bother sitting in a coffee shop emailing out dozens of âDear Hiring Managerâ cover letters. Rather, he used coffee shops to facilitate a much more direct and targeted approach to job hunting.
Over six months, he drank coffee with some 110 people in his industry, eventually landing his dream job as a product and investment management analyst.
âI got a job through networking. I knew one person who connected me with someone else, who connected me with someone else,â he says. âI love it. I couldnât be happier where Iâm at.â
But to get there, like most millennials, he took a few detours.
âTo be very honest I didn't know what I wanted to do when I graduated undergrad. I had a degree in sociology. And with a degree in sociology I said, âI can get a Masters in Sociology or go to law school.â So I decided to go to law school,â he says. âAnd I did that and I really hated law.â
But, taking that path had at least one good outcome: It led him to his passion for finance.
âThe reason I got into finance is because I got an OSAP grant and I didnât really, necessarily, really need the money, so I decided to invest my OSAP. But I didnât really know anything about investments, so I just learned as much as I possibly could and I just invested it,â he says. âI really just liked about everything about it and learning about it.â
But itâs a big leap from taking an interest in something to getting paid to do it. Krieger wasnât sure where to start, so he started asking around, and meeting with some of his friendsâ parents who were in the industry.
âEventually I met one person at an investment firm and he basically told me exactly what to do,â he says. âAnd what he told me to do, was to speak to one person and at the end of the conversation, not specifically ask for a job, but ask them if you can connect with them on LinkedIn. And from there, go through their LinkedIn account and pick one to three people. And with those one to three people, hopefully that person that youâre connecting with will be able to connect you with someone else and so on and so forth.â
Krieger followed his advice. It didnât matter that at the end of the meetings no one offered him a job, because they all at least offered him a few tidbits of advice and information, along with, most importantly, the opportunity to grow his network.
âItâs the law of large numbers,â he says. "The more people you meet, the more hopeful youâll meet someone who knows someone.
Krieger would first research the person along with the company. Then he would send them an email explaining who he was, and what he was interested in, which was less about specifically getting a job, but more about learning what people do.
âIâm interested in learning more about the individual people,â he says. âWhat interests me is them â how they got to where they are; everyone has a different story.â
Each coffee date would range from 15 minutes to an hour, and Krieger would just try to listen. Because he had no formal background in the industry, it was especially important to him that he soak up as much information as possible.
âPeople donât really want to hear about other people,â he says. âA lot of people want to talk about themselves, and itâs good for someone like me who is learning and wants to know what they did. Basically, youâre creating your own community of people.â
Justinâs networking tips:
- Applying online is a waste of time: âIt doesnât really work to go on the websites and apply for jobs endlessly. Because itâs such a tight job market, thereâs always someone who has way more experience, way more credentials than you, that itâs hard to get a job that way and itâs way more stressful.â
- Use LinkedIn as a first source: âI find it to be more advantageous to go on LinkedIn, find someone, and learn about other people. And through that process youâll learn so much more about yourself.â
- Donât get discouraged: âI had a couple people tell me that I wasnât going to amount to anything in finance because I have a law degree. I had a couple people tell me that because I didnât study finance in undergrad that I would never get into to the small-knit community that it is. At the end of it, youâre looking for a job and everyone is going to get discouraged because thatâs what itâs about. Learn from the discouragement and learn from the challenge.â
- Always offer to pay: âI always offer. I think I paid for maybe one coffee.â
- Always attach a specific cover letter and resume to an introduction email: âIf someone does have a job they might throw it into the mix, but if they donât, then they know a little bit about youâ and might hold on to it for a future opportunity, he says.
- âNosâ are no big deal: I got tons of âNos.â Most people say âNo.â Thatâs okay though. âŚ. Even if someone says âNo,â youâre kind of reading between the lines and you might be able to see some information there.â