You have to help people help you by being clear about what you want or are looking for.

Thanks for all you do Jason.

Marcie

Exactly – you have to fill a need for them not just toss a resume at them or look desperate.

Its all about marketing yourself. You really do have to sell yourself – overdo it – tell the interviewer point blank – I can do this job better than anyone else – here’s why and how. Then when you are done and you are finishing up – stand up shake their hand and pause – Fred, I can do this job and I will make you proud.

Mark

Thus I’ve read this post from the perspective of being a person lending a hand to those in transition. I’ve had the following frequent experience after meeting some one that is in transition at a networking event. There is a free flowing bi-directional flurry of email for the first few weeks, then I get no replies and communications go silent. For those in transition I set a Jibber Jobber action item to follow up at least once a month so I don’t forget to follow-up with them. After 2 or 3 months of no replies I wonder what happened. Did they get a job and forget to update their LinkedIn profile?

I’ve wondered if it was me. Did I inflict any pain or was I to pushy? For the few that I did eventually reconnect with it did appear they didn’t know how to ask for help or it seemed they thought I couldn’t help them. The later may be due to the misconception that networking can provide instant results. However the former of course is the theme of this post.

This post had me pondering how can a giver help those in transition that say, “things are fine”. Now when I hear or read that I know it is an opportunity to ask for more details. Since stating “things are fine” doesn’t give me any information to know how I can help. On the other hand, some times I have asked the direction question of “How can I help you?” and I don’t get an answer. I suspect that may partly be due to people not doing a targeted job search and instead are throwing their resume into the black hole by just looking for any job listing that they think their resume might be a match for. If the job searcher doesn’t have a targeted plan it certainly makes it difficult to help to help them.

It may some times be difficult to ask and answer questions when some one is in transition. But I have found that asking questions of your networking contacts to be the most succesful aspect toward building relationships! Of course follow-up and providing value are the next steps but if questions aren’t asked you may never leave the starting gate toward building a valuable trusted relationship.