Yes, You do Have Connections

Last week I wrote a post entitled: Have Connections? Use Them! One of my readers wrote in “Yeah, well, that doesn’t apply to me; I don’t know anyone.” I told her it doesn’t matter whether she’s 22 and just out of college, or 32 and changing careers. She has connections. The same goes for you.

I’ll tell you who you know. You know every single alumnus from your university in your prospective industry. Well, you don’t actually know them personally, but you have a connection with them. By attending the same college they did, you have earned the right to contact any one of your fellow alumni. Email them. Inquire whether you can call them to ask few questions about the industry. Or, if you are really serious about entering the field they’re in, tell them you “happen to be in town” next Thursday and would love to spend half an hour with them.

You know who else you know? You know your psych lab partner’s brother who has a job that you covet. Well you don’t really know him, but theoretically you know him because you know his sister so you can legitimately ask her if she would give you his contact information.

Do you know anyone else? You know all your old colleagues at the internship you had last summer that couldn’t afford to hire you permanently. And in this case, you actually do know them. Why not call one of them and ask if you can visit? The more you network, the better chance you have of making that critical connection that will land you a job.

So, you don’t think you know anyone? A study on Facebook usage determined that users are only 3.74 degrees (people in a chain of friends) away from every other user on the site. That means you’re practically related to the CEO of your dream company. All you have to do is connect…