Click to connect: Husband and wife incorporate online networking into job search
Click to connect: Husband and wife incorporate online networking into job search
LinkedIn. Facebook. MySpace. With unemployment numbers rising, how useful can online social networking be for job seekers?
One couple recently demonstrated that these resources, when used appropriately, can assist greatly in digging up job openings that may have otherwise been overlooked.
No matter how you do it, developing a network of contacts may be the most important part of the job search. “The word out there right now is that 80 percent of jobs are found through networking,” says Tony Abruzzi, assistant director for employer relations with UNCG’s Career Services Center. “Who you know will (help you) get your foot in the door.”
But in a job market increasingly flooded with qualified candidates, getting a foot in the door is more difficult than it’s been in years. When John Ahmuty, 38, was laid off last July, he wasn’t that surprised. As the department head of safety and validation with a local manufacturer for the pharmaceutical industry, he was aware that the company had been considering layoffs for a while.
His wife, Alison, had an established client base as a massage therapist in the Triad, making relocation inconvenient for the couple, so John kept his job search local. At the same time, he knew firsthand that manufacturing-related jobs were scarce no matter where a person was looking for work. Narrowing his search to the Triad would make things that much harder.
To unearth the few jobs in the area, John knew he needed to get his name out and decided that using online networking Web sites like Facebook.com and LinkedIn.com would help him connect with the most people in the least amount of time. LinkedIn, a business networking site with more than 30 million registered members, allowed John to connect with former colleagues, professors and co-workers. The site also helped him make contact with recruiters.
“Using LinkedIn, you can get a whole list of recruiters and fine-tune the list to your area of expertise,” he says. A recent survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management noted that recruiters are using social networking sites 23 percent more than they did in 2006.
While John focused on networking, sending out cover letters and interviewing, Alison helped out by researching companies that might be hiring, monitoring corporate Web sites for job postings and checking national job sites.
“At first, John had tons of calls from recruiters,” says Alison, 36. “But what’s frustrating with recruiters is that they are the middleman and can’t really do the actual hiring.”
To make real progress, John found that he needed to get past recruiters and somehow make a direct connection with hiring managers. He put together an e-mail distribution list of contacts by drawing from resources such as his children’s school directories, his personal e-mail address book, and LinkedIn and Facebook. He ended up with a list of over 100 people and decided to send a simple e-mail to explain his situation and ask for help circulating his résumé and finding leads.
“He waited a month before he sent out the mass e-mail,” Alison says. “You’re embarrassed at first, but now I wish we’d done it sooner.”
The Ahmutys got immediate and positive responses from several people in the network who received the e-mail.
“People really do want to help,” John says. “It’s just human nature.”
At a party, two parents from his daughter’s school who had received his e-mail informed him that they had connections to Lorillard Tobacco Co., and recommended that John look there. After monitoring the company’s Web site for a week or so, a job fitting his qualifications was posted. He applied to it, then focused his efforts on finding people with direct connections to the company who might help him get a foot in the door.
“John basically attached his résumé to almost every new correspondence with any new contacts just to get his name out there and recognized,” Alison says. “We never shied away from asking friends or acquaintances for a recommendation on John’s part.”
As a result of their efforts, John found four people who worked for or had links to Lorillard. All four eventually contacted the company’s hiring manager to recommend John for the job. In October, he started working at Lorillard as senior quality engineer supervisor.
While the Internet was a catalyst, persistence was the engine that drove the job search. “We had to be at it every day — a call, or a lead at least,” Alison says.
The importance of their persistence became clear after John received the offer from Lorillard and stopped his job search. Although his résumé remained posted on several job search Web sites, once the Ahmutys stopped their daily efforts to generate leads, their phone “pretty much went dead,” John says.
Looking back on the process, the Ahmutys say that social networking sites were useful, but only one part of the process. As one of 100 applicants for the Lorillard job, John believes the personal referrals from people he made contact with online and elsewhere “just might have made the difference” that got his foot firmly in the door and ultimately helped him land a job.
TriadCareers: The Ahmuty
John and Ali Ahmuty with daughters Skylar, 8 and Blakely, 4 in the family's home in Jamestown. John's job search was a team effort for the Ahmutys. John would do the footwork outside the home while Ali used the internet to research and network. Ali is a licensed massage therapist and John now works with Lorillard.
Nancy Sidelinger Special Sections Photographer
