Closing Your Job Search with Your Network
People who land new jobs usually jump right into assimilation and adjustment. That’s understandable. However, that laser focus often precludes a critical part of closing a search -- thanking and informing your network.
How you handle these two parts of the job search will impact your life down the road more than it might seem. Whether that impact is positive, negative, or neutral is up to you.
Effective Endings
I bet many of you would agree that a job search is a project, and the seeker is the project manager. Most projects have a beginning, middle, and end. As project manager, your task includes effectively ending the project. In this blog, I’ll focus on appreciation. Next time, I’ll write about informing your network in general.
Say “Thank You”
During a job search, most if not all job seekers receive help. If you’ve recently (or at some time in the past) been hired did you ever:
- Learn important information about a company from a current or former employee?
- Get an informational interview with a hiring manager?
- Find free help at your local library?
- Have someone offer to do you a favor during your search (i.e. take care of your kids, keep your household running, loan you money, pick up your dry cleaning, take you to a movie, feed you, or give you emotional support)?
- Receive a recommendation on LinkedIn or in some other venue?
- Experience someone taking time to talk to you about your search goals?
- Obtain a lead for a job?
- Find a champion inside a company who took your resume to the hiring manager--or at least spoke highly of you?
Have you officially thanked everyone for their contributions to your project? Or one step further -- have you offered to reciprocate somehow?
Amnesia
I sometimes wonder if landing a job creates amnesia -- the former unemployed self is now employed, and all that came before is forgotten. Perhaps the enormous relief of having a paycheck again puts the primary focus on repaying debt. Or maybe the overwhelming task of starting something new takes up most available brain space. Some people have told me they feel embarrassed and truly don't know how to repay the favors. So, out of fear, they say or do nothing.
Saying thank you is not a luxury -- it’s positive for the recipient and proactive for your future.
Giving thanks is a great thing to do for others. And for you, a time may come again where you need to turn to the very group who helped you in the first place. If you surveyed your network today, what do you think your reputation would be? If you needed work again, would they pick up the phone to help? Write you a recommendation? Send you job leads? Loan or give you money? If you don’t know, take a look at how you ended your last search--there might be some clues there. If you think you neglected appreciation—or thanked some but not others—it’s never too late to say “thank you.”
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