The Most Important Question to Ask Yourself When Networking - “What’s in it for them?”

Advocates don’t need to be strangers. In fact, the closer in relationship you are with a potential advocate, the better. Remember, an advocate is someone who is in a position to help you get a job, and is willing to vouch for you (like the teacher who liked you in school, or friends who picked you to be on their team).

This statement is one of the more controversial ones I’ll write in these articles.

If you know someone who can easily put you in a role you want (or even a role you don’t want), especially for your entry-level job, DON’T hesitate to take it. In fact, take it as soon as you hear about it. This person who’s helping you could be a family member, a family friend, a business acquaintance of your Dad’s, a cousin, an old colleague or friend, etc. It doesn't matter. Take the job and don’t feel bad about it. 

I’m not suggesting that merit doesn’t count. If you have a good GPA, are hardworking, friendly, interested in improving your people skills, committed and ready to crush it on this job . . . all of that will come out with your work. Since getting a job involves a lot of subjectivity, even if you have all those good qualities, no one will have a chance to see them through the typical interview process. All they will see is how you present yourself (in person and in your resume).

As I mentioned in a previous articles, some people understand the value of presentation, and prioritize practicing presenting themselves to boost their career. But how you present yourself does not equal to how you will perform on the job. So, take the job if it comes to you easily, understanding that there is an element of luck in the process anyway! Don’t feel guilty, make the best of it. 

Who is the Person you are Connecting with?

Knowing more about the person you want to connect with matters. If it is someone you know well, great! I’m not concerned with how you reach out to them. If this is someone you know of or is a complete stranger you found online or through your university, I advise the following steps.

1.     Ask yourself: what do you know about them, and what can you find out? 

Check out their LinkedIn profile to find out where they studied, what they studied, where they worked and what roles they’ve had. Google them. Read any interesting content you find, maybe something that highlights an achievement of theirs or a hobby they have. This matters because a key part of building rapport with your potential advocate is to get them to talk about themselves. One of my favorite ways to do that is by asking them how their career progressed to land them in the company and role they are in now. If you did your homework, the steps that got them to this company/role will be known to you via their LinkedIn profiles, which allows you to prep some nice questions to probe some more as they tell you their story. I love this question not just because it gets others to talk about themselves, but because I am GENUINELY interested in their story, especially the one about how they developed to get to where they are now. It helps me visualize my own path, and potential next steps I could take. Cultivating an authentic interest in others’ career path and origin stories is an important part of adopting a growth mindset.

2.    Ask yourself: How can this person help you? 

This is to gauge what a good outcome might be from connecting with them. Asking yourself this question also helps you prioritize how important this person is in your networking search.

For example, is he in a role similar to the one you want, or is he a hiring manager for the role you want? Is she in the same department you wish to work with, or in a different but related department?

If he is in a similar role as the one you want, a good outcome might be that they like you and refer you to a similar role in their company. If she is the hiring manager, a good outcome is that she refers you and gets you started in the interview process ASAP. If he is in a different department, a good outcome is that he refers you to the department you want OR connects you (introduces you) to someone who works in another department of interest. In all cases, you will learn more about the person, potential roles, and the company in general. 

3.    Finally, ask yourself: How often does this person get contacted by people networking for a job? 

If someone is in a position that’s very important in a company (VP, Director, or more), they probably get contacted a lot. If someone is in an entry-level position or is a recent grad, they are less likely to be contacted often. Obviously, you want to connect with people who can quickly help you (someone with more influence, like a hiring manager). But since those people are contacted more frequently, you must factor that in. You can take a chance and contact them directly. You might get lucky, and it’s good to experiment with this. Another approach is to talk to a few other people in the company first, to see if you can find a person who would introduce you to that hiring manager. That is a 10X more powerful approach, which will more likely connect you to your target person. More on tactics to establish connection with people later. For now, go through the questions above for each person (stranger) that you are thinking about connecting with. This will help gear up your networking approach. 

What’s in it for Them?

This question is so important for all aspects of your personal and professional career. This is about selling yourself and your ideas. It’s about give and take. You will be asking your potential advocate to somewhat stick their neck out for you, so it’s important to give them a good reason to do so. Give, then take, when possible. 

With job hunting, it is unfortunately very hard to give and then take. You don’t have much to offer at this early point of your career. If you recognize something that you can bring to the table, regardless of how small, you should take that opportunity to give back. 

But how will you know what to give? AND how will you spot that opportunity? 

You have to understand the situation of your potential advocate to answer that. Ask yourself “What’s in it for them?” Why should they respond to your LinkedIn note when you reach out? Why should they take the time to chat with you? Why should they connect you with someone else in their network? OR refer you to a role in their company? 

I encourage you to think about these questions yourself, and to do so frequently. Here are my insights based on many years of actively thinking about this problem (how do you get someone to want something?). 

For the recruiter or the HR employee, they are constantly searching the market for talent. Their jobs and livelihood depend on a continuous flow of new employees. Even in companies that aren’t growing very fast, on average each company loses 5-10% of their employees every year. So, companies need a continuous flow of new hires, and they lean on their HR/Talent teams and external recruiters to lead that effort. When you reach out to them, remember that they are benefiting as their success with getting good talent into the company depends on finding candidates like you. 

For Hiring managers, it’s a similar story. They want someone strong on their team. They know the minimum qualifications for someone to pass their HR/Talent teams requirements, and they have a decent sense of who may succeed at the company. So, when you contact a manager, they likely will look you up (probably your LinkedIn profile) to see if there is any potential for you to be on their team. It’s also likely they don’t do that, or even respond. That is ok. What matters is that you have a sense of why they might want to talk to you, so you are on the same wavelength as them if you manage to start a conversation.

One other thing to note on hiring managers is that although they have a good sense of who might succeed on their team, they always have to manage the risk of bringing in someone who doesn’t succeed. One way all hiring managers do that is by checking other managers’ or employees' opinions on a candidate. So, imagine if you worked your way to getting introduced to a hiring manager. The unsaid but obvious interpretation of a person introducing you is that they are in a way endorsing you to them, which makes you stand out as someone who has others within the company that vouch for you. Remember that when planning to contact hiring managers. 

With non-manager, non-recruiter employees in a role you want, who can introduce you to others, or who can tell you more about the company, they are generally just excited that someone is contacting them. Think about it. Your contacting them is a sort of validation they have achieved some status or some accomplishment by attaining a role that others want. For many, it’s also a great opportunity to give back. Some of us genuinely want to help others and responding to someone who wants to learn more about our company or role is such an easy way to do that. 

All of the above is a positive perspective of “What’s in it for them”. There are many reasons for strangers to not respond to you. The main one is laziness. They think, “Why bother?” This is a stranger and it won’t do me any good to respond, I’m just wasting my time. This is reality and many people are like that. Don’t let that discourage you and don’t give those people more time than they deserve. As I mentioned, when you first get started, you might get 2 to 3 people to respond out of every 10 people you reach out to. That’s assuming you reach out the right way. Once you improve your approach and can better prioritize who you reach out to, you can get to a 4 to 5 out of 10 response scenario. So, even when you get good, you still have a 50% chance of success. Knowing that should help you feel less discouraged when people don’t respond. But as I mentioned above, there are plenty of “What’s in it for them” reasons to successfully engage with potential advocates. Remember those and keep asking yourself that question. 

My Challenge to You

1. Pick one of your target companies and research 3 open roles that interest you.
2. Recognize that if you have not networked with anyone in this company, the roles you selected will likely close before your resume actually gets in front of a hiring manager or recruiter (use these open roles as a guide to what you might be interested in. Don’t sweat it if the roles close, more will likely open up soon). 
3. Using LinkedIn and leaning on your Alumni database, find 3 hiring managers, 3 employees in entry level roles, and 3 recruiters … all in roles related to the ones you are pursuing (e.g., you want an analyst role, find people with “Analyst” in their title, or in depts that are mostly made up of analysts like Marketing/ Data Science/ Customer Insights/Sales or Logistics Ops/etc.)
4. Follow all of them on LinkedIn, look at their recent activity, and then follow the tips in this article to learn more about them.
5. Send them personalized connection requests, followed up by requests for informational interviews (tips on how in previous articles).

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Good luck with your job hunt!