When it comes to job searching, professional networking is a critical component of success. Ideally, you make initial connections with people through LinkedIn (maybe even after meeting them in person or at an online group event). While this is a great start, there is value in building relationships beyond that initial connection. A 1:1 meeting can significantly strengthen a networking relationship​ and help you learn how you and your new connection can help one another succeed.

So what exactly is a networking meeting? Back in the day, I remember hearing people talk about doing "informational interviews." In short, if you were interested in having a particular job or working with a specific company, you would contact an organization or individual and ask if they would meet you for an informational interview. In this 1:1 meeting, which could take place via phone or in person, you might learn about the company, what they are looking for, skills to acquire, and more. It also allowed you to start to build a relationship with a company--or a possible advocate in the person doling out said information. 

Fast forward to now. Today, a networking meeting is typically between you and another person deciding to spend a half hour-ish together. This meeting, sometimes called a coffee chat, could happen virtually via Zoom or in person, often over coffee.

If you're job searching, the typical focus will be on how to progress in your job search. Someone may agree to a networking meeting because you have things in common (like a field of work, background, professional goals), because they are generally committed to helping people when they are job searching, or because you have a mutual acquaintance to ask that person to meet with you to help you out.

Whenever you have an opportunity to meet one-on-one with someone, remember that you are taking part in a type of informal interview. Whenever I meet with someone in career transition, my goal is to help them figure out their next steps, offer advice (if they ask and are interested), and give them ideas on further steps they might take, including who they should speak with next 

While I go in with this idea, the amount of help I'll provide also depends on how this networking meeting goes. Ideally, we have a good, productive conversation, and I think to myself, "I totally want to help this person more."

If the meeting goes well, I'll refer them to specific resources that might benefit them (like a networking group they might want to join, a company to check out, someone to follow on LinkedIn) and even put in a good word for them to have a networking meeting with someone else who might get them closer to their goals.

In addition, if it goes REALLY well, this is a person who I'll refer to others for openings, pass on job opportunities, and maybe even hire someday. If the meeting doesn't go well, I'll share a few resources, but I may not be willing to help them as actively moving forward. 

Remember, any interaction you have with people will impact their desire to help you in the future.

Here are a few best practices for networking meetings:

• Thank the person for meeting with you and for their input.
• Let the person know your goals for the networking meeting.
• Let the other person talk. Remember, you're there to learn from them. Be sure to listen to what they have to say!
• Ask them for the advice they wish they had received.
• Ask them for their recommendations on the next steps you should take.
• Ask them what you can do for them. Remember, they typically meet with you because someone they value asked them or they genuinely want to help. Be sure to return the favor!
• Be ready to help that person in the future--whether it's liking one of their LinkedIn posts, sharing a post they made, or helping them promote a job opening they have. Be a good LinkedIn/professional networking neighbor. 
• Send them a quick thank you message afterward and reiterate any next steps you talked about.
• Follow up with anyone who they introduce you to. Even if you end up not doing a lot with that connection, be sure to be professional about it all. 

When people talk about how they "networked" into a new job, typically, that means they leveraged their initial connections to help make inroads with new contacts, who helped them get closer to a new position.

​The holy grail of networking meetings is when the person you meet with agrees to introduce you to someone else they know who could help you. That process repeats until you're talking to a hiring manager or influencer who can help you get an interview for a job. Having good networking meetings is a critical step in that process.

By Brenda L. Peterson, The Layoff Lady

Connecting with someone on LinkedIn is a great way to start a formalized relationship with someone in your professional network. While that is a great start, deepening those relationships is a helpful next step to get more value out of LinkedIn. Let's look at a few ways to do just that. 

Interacting with  posts on LinkedIn is a great way to continue to build relationships with your connections and demonstrate your professional value. Not only is this a great way to build your credibility with many connections at the same time, it also gives you an opportunity to showcase your knowledge without having to choose the initial content for the post. You can also use your comments to interact with others and even use this as a starting point to invite other commenters to connect. 

If someone posts something of value to your connections, you may want to comment on the post itself and then consider reposting it with your comments. When you repost content, first, you'll see anything you typed, then LinkedIn will include the entire original post. This helps the original post get additional views and also enables you to share useful content with your network.

​When I repost content, I usually include "Thanks [original poster] for sharing this information!" To include the original poster's name, include the @, then type the first part of their name, and choose their name from the options provided. (This is often called an "at mention." This will tag them in the post so they can interact with your new post, which will help boost the number of people who see the post. 

Sharing content on LinkedIn is a great way to engage with your connections, add value to your professional relationships, and promote who you are and what you know. Unfortunately, very few people ever post anything at all--which is a huge missed opportunity to differentiate yourself from others in your field. 

Another question that comes up is the frequency of posting. I recommend posting on LinkedIn no more than once a day and posting one to four times per week. Use your favorite search engine for recommendations on the best times and days of the week to post to get the most views on your posts.
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As for content, you don't have to write a lengthy, original manifesto to post on LinkedIn and make an impact. ​Personally, most of the content I share on LinkedIn includes some version of the following:
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• Context: A sentence or two framing the information I share and presenting its value.
• A Resource: A link to an article, post, or eye-catching graphic.
• Keywords: 2-4 hashtags to make my post more findable.

Once you make a post, be sure to like any comments other people make on your post and even reply to each comment. The more likes and comments you receive on your post, the more people will see it. This will continue to build your professional brand and add value to the networking relationships you are fostering through LinkedIn. 

By Brenda L. Peterson, The Layoff Lady

When you think about your career, you may think in terms of your current job title, what the company needs from you, and how your job might change based on organizational needs. This employer-focused mindset prioritizes the success of the business above all else. Often, the career planning offered by your employer is a part of their overall succession planning and focused on making sure their workforce has the skills to address anticipated future company needs. 

It's important to remember that the needs of a given business will change over time, as will company leaders, the market, the economy, and more. If that employer's needs no longer align with the skills you have and the salary they pay you for those skills, the company may make the business decision to "go in another direction." The end result may be them finding someone else to do the work they need done regardless of the skill set they encouraged you to develop.

In much of life, having the right mindset makes all the difference. I choose to be a Realistic Optimist. That means I acknowledge the challenges inherent in situations and also realize that I have the power to make choices that will help me achieve a positive result--in this case, a career that is meaningful and fulfilling for me. 

Let's look at a few of the realities of work and your career:

• According to the US Bureau of Labor, the average person will have 12 different jobs during their career--and many of those will not be with the same company.
• You don't always get to pick when you leave a job. Sometimes, the company decides for you. 
• The job you originally accepted will change over time. It may change into something you love, or it may turn into something that does not interest you.
• ​The ability to learn and adapt to changes is a highly valued skill.
• Some skills that are in demand now did not even exist ten years ago.

Let's also look at what that means for you: 
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• Focusing only on a company and what they want you to do does not make long-term sense for you. Instead, you are better off figuring out what you want and need and finding a role where you have alignment between what you want and what they need. 
• You get to decide what matters to you, what you want to do more and less of, and find a role that is the best fit for what you want. 
• If you're in a job and it doesn't feel like a good fit anymore, you get to decide to do something else.
• If the company decides your job will end, you have an amazing opportunity to reevaluate what you want and find something else that is a better fit for you. 

Given these realities, thinking of your work future only in terms of who is currently signing your paychecks is not the wisest course of action. ​Instead, it's time to shift how you think about your work life. You can not afford to prioritize an employer's needs over what you want and need from your career. It's time to give yourself a promotion! 

Leveraging your Realistic Optimist mindset, you are now no longer just an employee doing what your current employer wants and needs you to do. Now, it’s time for you to think of yourself first and foremost as the Chief Executive Officer of your own company and the business of you. This makes you the CEO of You. 

​As the CEO of You, you are looking for employment that is a good business arrangement for you. Just like the executive team at a company needs to make tough decisions for the organization’s greater good, you need to make decisions that are in the best interests of you and your household. Adopting this mindset will change your life. 

As the CEO of You, it’s time to think about what success looks like for your business. What are your assets? What are your marketable skills? Which company or companies should be your business partners? When is it time for you to end a business relationship that is not working? When is it time for you to pursue a new opportunity better aligned with your life?
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Whereas you as an employee may feel like you do not have any options, you can't afford to think about your livelihood just in terms of what your biggest client (your current employer) needs. Instead, you need to make decisions for the good of your business as the CEO of You. One of those is determining how to protect one of your greatest assets–your ability to earn a living by leveraging your knowledge, skills, and expertise. You also want to stay mindful of all the aspects of the employment decisions you make and how they impact your overall wellbeing--including your career, physical, financial, social, and community wellbeing. 

As the CEO of You, think about your long-term goals. Just like the company's CEO does not make decisions based on what other companies think they should do, you need to do the same. Regardless of other people’s opinions, make the right decision for you and your household. Align your next steps with your overall goals. Think in terms of preferences and priorities.

​Remember, too, that you’re not just the CEO of your career but the CEO of all aspects of you. If you're in career transition and searching for a new role, this means not taking “any old job” unless you decide that is the right move for you. If you're employed by an organization that wants you to learn a new skill set, you get to decide if that interests you and how you will invest your time, talents, and money to build those skills. You get to decide what is a valuable opportunity for you and decide your next steps as you work toward aligning what your employer needs and what you want to do.

This also means that your business decisions may change over time as the environment changes. You can also change your mind about the right job for you if your current role has enough value for you to stay, when it is time for you to do something else, how you want to change direction, and more.

At the end of the day, remember your role as the CEO of you and make a decision that aligns with your overall career and life goals. If that means quitting a job that makes you miserable regardless of the short-term financial consequences, you can do that. If you want to leave a job that your friends say should be your dream job, you get to make the right decision for you. If you decide to take your career in a whole new direction that others might think is too risky, you get to weigh your options and go in the direction of your choice. 

As the CEO of You, you are the driver of your career and your life. Act accordingly. 

By Brenda L. Peterson, The Layoff Lady

Whether you're actively job searching or just trying to build your professional network, sharing content on social media is a great way to demonstrate your value. By identifying topics that people with your professional focus care about and sharing related content, you will help people associate your name with those areas of expertise. 

While regularly sharing content is valuable, it can also be time-consuming. Here are three tools I regularly use to organize and streamline this process.  

On LinkedIn, you will share some content that you directly create. This might include a post about an event you attended, your career news, or your observations on a given topic. When it comes to LinkedIn, most of my content includes articles on critical topics of interest, with some introductory commentary framing the value I see in the article. 

This means I need to locate and collect those articles to post them as needed.  

One way I locate helpful content on each topic is to set up a Google Alert for keywords or phrases relevant to my professional skill set. Each Google Alert sends you an email with new online content regularly. Here are a few examples of what Google Alerts you may want to set up:
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• As a project manager, you may set up alerts for keywords like these:
  agile, change management, project management, scope creep, Gantt Chart.
• As a salesperson, you may set up alerts for keywords like these:
  social selling, prospecting, lead generation, territory management.
• As a learning & development specialist, you may set up alerts for keywords like these: instructional design, e-learning, facilitation, training needs analysis.

After you identify the keywords for topics that people in your industry talk about, create alerts to keep a steady stream of content coming to you. 

Flipboard serves two essential purposes. First, you can follow exciting topics and see content other users share. Second, you can use Flipboard to create magazines on a given subject area and bookmark content that interests you for later use. 

Here are a few ways you might find content to save in a Flipboard magazine: 
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• As a project manager, while scanning a newsletter from the Project Management Institute, you read an article entitled "Top Five Causes of Scope Creep." You save the article in your Project Management magazine for later reference. 
• As a salesperson, one of your team members mentions an article they found on Hubspot about sales prospecting techniques you should use according to data. You Google the phrase and save the article you find to your Prospecting magazine to review later.
• As a learning & development specialist, while reading through blog articles from your favorite talent development blogger, you run across a great article  about the importance of choosing the right graphics for an e-learning course to minimize learner cognitive load. You add it to your Instructional Design Best Practices magazine to share on LinkedIn or with collegues at a later time.

Gathering possible information to post when you run across it, organizing it, and making it easy to access will save you a lot of time figuring out what to post.

While the other two tools are about finding and organizing possible content to post, now let's look at a tool to schedule those posts.

There are several tools available to help you manage social media posts. Currently, I use Buffer. This online platform has a free version that will enable you to manage posting on up to three social media platforms. When my goal is building my professional network and job searching, I focus on LinkedIn. 

Buffer enables you to create, schedule, and update posts as needed. When searching for a new role, I may post as often as daily. When focusing on building or maintaining my network, I may post once or twice a week. The Learn More section includes recommendations on how often and at what times you may want to share content for the greatest impact.

Creating  A Post

When I create a post to share an article, I often include the following details:

• A short statement framing up the article I'm sharing.
• A link to the article.
• One to five hashtags to drive viewership.
• Optional: a call to action.

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Here are a few examples:

• As a project manager, you might post the following:
  
  I'm a project manager who leads enterprise-wide software implementations and focuses on keeping my projects on time and within budget. Part of that is staying clear on what is "in scope" and "out of scope" for projects.
  
  Check out this article on the "Top Five Causes of Scope Creep" for a reminder on root causes and how to manage them. Number three is the one I battle constantly: http://www.scopecreeparticleurl.com
  
  #projectmanagement #scopecreep
• As a salesperson, you might post the following:
  
  As a high-performing salesperson, I'm always learning new ways to find new potential clients. This article from HubSpot outlines data-driven sales prospecting techniques you should add to your overall prospecting strategy: http://www.salesprospectingarticle.com
  
  What is your go-to strategy for prospecting?
  
  #sales #prospecting #pipelinebuilding #sellallthethings ​
  
• As a learning & development specialist, you might post the following:
  
  If you've ever taken online compliance training, I'm sure you've seen courses where the content is not aligned with the graphics. Why in the moment, those "group of people in suits with their thumbs up" pictures may just seem oddly placed. In reality, those unrelated pictures make learning harder. This is due to the additional cognitive load required for the learner to grasp the information. 
  
  To learn more about cognitive load and how to manage it well, check out this article: http://www.cognitiveloadarticle.com 
  
  ​#learninganddevelopment #instructionaldesign #elearning #cognitiveload​