By Jeff Altman, Big Game Hunter
Who caught your attention?
I am LinkedIn member 7653.
Every day, I log into LinkedIn and do some work, several times a day. I’m a (former) headhunter and coach. I once worked for a client looking for people to fill job openings. I studied people and opportunities. I suspect many of you are doing the same thing.
I rarely ask for connections; I use tools and personally make the effort to find people to talk to. Even without making the effort to connect, as of today I have over 28,000 first-level connections, despite the fact that I will not accept connection requests from recruiters or from profiles that look to me like spammers or scammers.
What shocks me is how many people in my network are never heard from again after receiving a connection request!
So no matter where you are in the employment world, whether you’re a corporate or agency recruiter or a talent recruiter, it’s no wonder you’re trying to recruit people or find jobs in different situations and it feels like you’re always starting from scratch.
What you do with your network is think of it as an umbrella that you carry around with you. The weather is expected to be sunny with temperatures in the mid-90s. You have an umbrella!
But let me offer a different metaphor.
You put $1,000 in a safe and do nothing with it for two years.
Will it be worth less to you in two years (yes)?
Has its purchasing power declined (yes)?
Is money worth less (yes)?
The value of the network decays much faster than the money in the safe, so that it only becomes valuable unexpectedly when you need it.
“But nurturing your network takes time,” you complain, and I mean to paraphrase.
Yes, indeed.
You want money in your safe when you need the internet, don’t you?
So it’s important to do something to stay connected with people instead of using silly messages like “thank you for your post” which seems to be the new fad from the messages I received after submitting my article.
Create and act on real, regular, quality opportunities. These few minutes will be very valuable to you when the next recession hits.
© The Big Game Hunter, Inc. Asheville, NC 2015, 2023, 2024
Do what recruiters do
About Big Game Hunter Jeff Altman
People hire “Big Game Hunter” Jeff Altman to provide no-nonsense job coaching and career advice around the world because he excels at job hunting And get ahead in your career more easily.
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Recruiters know something you don’t: They’re not watching all those screening videos
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