What Are You Worth Socially and In Business

Written by guest contributor: Josh Shapiro, Founder of BeersandCareers.com

In today’s world, the sluggish economy is on the minds of most people. How are you going to put your kids through college? How much do you have saved for retirement? Instead of talking about raw numbers in a checking or savings account, I want to discuss how much you are worth – solely based off of your social and business network.

Millionaire Mike

Let’s take ‘Millionaire Mike,’ for instance. Mike just graduated from college and is looking for an entry-level job in a tough market. He signs onto online job boards in the hopes of landing that perfect first position that will eventually yield him millions of dollars down the road, yet he finds it frustrating that he’s not getting any responses – after all, he just graduated from one of the top schools in the country. He vents with his close friends about how he’s worried about getting something soon. He keeps plugging away online and figures that one of these days, an executive is going to call with his perfect $100,000 job (which probably won’t happen out of college – sorry, Mike). A few weeks turn into a few months, and he is forced to take a position that he doesn’t like.

What Mike doesn’t realize is that he needs to try other avenues. For starters, he needs to reach out to his family, his extended group of friends, and his old summer boss. Mike also must be open to network at social functions and meet others in his desired industry. Instead of being so one-sided, he needs to expand his comfort zone and crawl out from behind his laptop to meet people face-to-face. Unfortunately, Mike was so caught up job searching online that he forgot the power and authenticity of the human relationship.

Networking Nate

Now let’s move to the opposite side of the spectrum and meet ‘Networking Nate.’ He’s more of the introverted type, but met a lot of new contacts at a business event that his industry association puts on twice a year. Even though he’s not great with people, Nate soon realized the power of adding valuable contacts to his Rolodex and sometimes has the occasional coffee with his industry colleagues. Since that first year, he has gone to every biannual event the association puts on.

After five years at his current position, he decided it was time to take a look at moving to another company – after all, they downsized and now he does double the work for the same pay (which unfortunately happens all too often in today’s world). Since Nate attended a few events over the years, he reached out to a few of his new friends in the industry and, instead of going through the elongated process of searching online for jobs online, he made use of his existing network to get his foot in the door. He applied for a job was granted an interview with the HR manager at a new company the next week – all because of a word-of-mouth recommendation from someone who had already worked there.

Conclusion

It is within this simple mindset that some people can take advantage of their surroundings and put in their extra time on the ground. Instead of clicking through online job boards – which usually get a very low ratio of responses – ‘Networking Nate’ made the extra effort to network and found himself in a better position to find a new job.

There’s only so much you can learn on paper – similar to the limits of a recruiter looking at your resume (hence the reason they bring you in for an interview). Instead of solely applying online the first day you decide to find a job, use a steady mix of business networking in between the years of both positions. It will help you meet other people in your industry and the city you live in – which I guarantee will help leverage you further in life.

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