Tales of Job Searches Past

A lengthy series of short reminiscences of totally random ways my network has led to unexpected opportunities over the past 20 years.

The TL;DR: You never know who the people you know may know, or what doors they may be able to unlock for you.

1: My boyfriend’s mother was in a gardening club with a senior executive at a company I loved. I put the woman’s name on my application and mentioned her vaguely in my interview. It turned out that a) I knew her married name and she worked under her maiden name, so the name I put down was worthless, and b) I spelled it wrong. I got the job regardless, and for the rest of my years with the company, that exec and I had lunch in the schmancy executive dining room a few times per year.

2: I knew that my mother’s college friend’s sister, R, was a high-level executive in another company in my industry. R came to work for another brand within the corporation I worked for, we met, and she became a mentor to me. Shortly after meeting R for the very first time, I told her about a job that I was applying for, and she looked up the hiring manager. It turned out that R’s sister’s beach house was down the street from the hiring manager’s ex-husband’s cousin’s house (yes, really!), and they, too, had heard about each other forever since they were in the same industry. So my not-yet-mentor who I had just met called this woman, made some small talk about their connection, and strongly encouraged her to interview me. (Yup, I got the job!)

3: I approached this sweet girl at a networking event who didn’t know anyone, and it turned out she had just started working at my company. We got together for lunch and drinks a few times. One time she brought her friend S along, who was also around our age and working at our company, and we kept in touch as well. A few months later, S got a new job within the company and was being introduced around to people at departments she’d be working closely with. One director told her they were desperately seeking someone for a recently vacated position. S knew I was looking, talked me up, called me, and within one hour I’d had my interview and been offered the job (and a big raise).

4: Years later I left both my industry and the city in the midst of a massive burnout. I figured I’d take a few months off and then find a new job pretty quickly since I always had before. However, those quick job hunts had been the result of a strong network—one that couldn’t really help me in my new area—and it wound up being nearly a year before I found something. I tried all SORTS of job-hunting tips: literally driving around my area writing down company names I saw on buildings and writing to people, taking “informational interviews,” checking local listings, everything in the book. I had a few drawn-out interview processes that I did a ton of work for, only to ultimately be rejected. So how did it eventually happen? Someone I had briefly and indirectly worked with a few years earlier added me on LinkedIn, and we messaged a bit to catch up, since we’d both made big changes since. I mentioned I’d moved to the suburbs and was now seeking something close to home. Reader, she CALLED me, super excited—she, too, was in the ‘burbs, and had just told her new company that they really needed someone who did what I had done at our mutual former employer. I honestly may have been the only person they interviewed, I’m not even sure, but once that happened, I got the job quickly.

5: When I had my first child I decided I’d rather do work that was creative and flexible, so I left to become a creative freelancer. The very day that I gave my notice, R, the former mentor from Story #2, who I had pretty much lost touch with in the ensuing years, called me out of the blue. She was with a different big company in my former industry and they were creating a job description she thought I was perfect for—the exact job I’d spent my whole twenties wanting. I couldn’t believe it when I heard myself tell her that I wasn’t interested—I really didn’t want a job that required an NYC commute at this point in my life. She said, “I just need you to come down and talk with the hiring manager; I’m sure she’ll want to work with you and can make something happen.” I took the interview. They did indeed want me—for way more money than I’d ever made, and with a few days a week from home, which nobody else had at that company at that time. And, still, I found myself saying no. BUT. My newly-freelance self had the guts to tell them I’d be happy to do it freelance, on a 20-hour-a-week monthly retainer that broke down to a neat half of the full-time salary they’d offered me, with the agreement to come down to the office for the day every few months when they had a big launch or something coming up. And SHE SAID YES!

6: This isn’t really a random connection story, but I like it anyway. I checked the masthead of a local magazine I wanted to write for and cold-emailed the editor about freelance work. I got an out-of-office reply directing me to someone else, so I emailed that someone else with my request. The magazine turned out to no longer be in circulation, but both women still worked together at the parent publication; it was a stroke of massive luck that I landed in the inbox of that second editor, since the first editor was the sort who’d have deleted my email immediately, but the second one gave me a chance which turned into steady work; she eventually referred me to an additional colleague, who gave me even more work. After a little while that second (third?) editor let me know about a new in-house opportunity on her team and encouraged me to apply. I had a panic attack the night before the interview and canceled. (Honestly, seeing who they hired, I wouldn’t have gotten it anyway, which made me feel better later on.) They kept working with me, and when I was encouraged to apply for another in-house position with them soon thereafter, I got super honest about my hesitations: it sounded like a BIG life change. They reassured me about the work environment, I interviewed, I got the job, and it changed me for the better in ten thousand ways.

7: My first client when I launched Christine Gritmon Inc. (2016) was a business whose opening I’d written about as a freelancer, who I’d later quoted in pieces for additional publications, and whose re-opening (after a fire) I wrote about as a staff reporter.?We are still friendly many years after ending our work together.

Others who have come to Christine Gritmon Inc. over the years include:

• Various schoolmates I hadn’t seen since 1998
• A former vendor I worked with in 2004 and kept in touch with through numerous career changes for us both
• A friend of a friend of a friend I had drinks with one time over a decade ago
• My retired middle school teacher’s husband
• Several people I sang with in the early/mid aughts
• My former band mate’s brother, and the singer who replaced me in that same band (we didn’t overlap)
• Someone whose house I’d tried to buy in 2009
• A girl my husband’s train seat mate had tried to pick up at a bar in 2010
• An ex-boyfriend from the mid-nineties

And so on, and so forth.

Relationships matter. Support matters. Doing a good job no matter who’s watching matters.?

Don’t sleep on your network.?

You never, ever know.

What's the most random connection that ever led YOU to an opportunity you couldn't have anticipated?