Creating Your Own Opportunities – Building a Network

“Although the employment market has contracted significantly, there is still a plethora of graduate employmentopportunities out there for those who are willing to be proactive and lateral in their thinking.” (Rameet Chowdhary, Director Red Giraffe Recruitment and Search)

Imagine this: Five years from now you are employed as a Marketing Manager with a reputable marketing agency. You have been invited to attend a client luncheon to be held at a 5-star establishment. As you have recently submitted a tender to this international organisation to manage all creative marketing works nationally, it is the perfect opportunity to cement your relationship and favourably influence the outcome of the tender proposal.

You arrive at the luncheon and to your surprise, you notice three familiar faces, two of them your peers from your previous employer. They know you well as you all worked together. You spend the next hour discussing the good times you all shared. Little do you know that both individuals form part of the evaluation panel responsible for assessing all preferred supplier tenders.

The relationships you build today, this very day, may impact the success and the outcomes you will be experiencing three, five and ten years from now. Networking encourages those you have built relationships with to consider you ahead of others they may be considering for the same opportunity. On a daily basis we all have the potential to meet new individuals.

As you commence your newfound career and gain valuable experience you will inevitably establish new relationships and widen your circle of contacts. Through industry functions, client luncheons and internal company events you will build new connections. A network of established contacts can be a powerful tool when enhancing your own skills set or climbing further up the corporate ladder. One can connect with others through experiences, an exchange of knowledge and the environment in which they are employed.

While many jobs are advertised in newspapers or websites or via the usual recruitment agency, many are not. Most of our clients will outsource their positions to Red Giraffe only at the point where all internal applicants have already been considered. In a large proportion of cases, corporate entities will commence their strategic recruitment process by way of advertising positions on the internal intranet and encouraging existing employees to refer contacts, with highly geared incentives for those who do. In fact, a number of our clients use internal referral incentives as the first step in attracting new candidates in the hope that they may not have to resort to paying an external recruitment agency thousands of dollars for a candidate search.

Hence the value of building a network can be the difference between progressing to offer stage and not being considered at all. The good news is that this presents an untapped employment market for those that wish to invest the time and effort.

The best way to do this is to build you own network. Furthermore, times are changing. Websites such as Facebook, Linkedin and MySpace are another great way to stay in touch with professional and social contacts. Part of best practice recruitment involves having a presence on such website. In some ways they make the process so much easier and more direct. The process entails registering a profile and through a click of a button you can maintain relations with nominated individuals with relative ease.
Start today and register your profiles!