KEY QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN NETWORKING DURING A JOB HUNT.

Here are the questions to help you get the most out of any networking encounter during a job hunt, whether face to face or online.

Every student I meet knows they should be engaging with employers and building relationships. However, many will admit they don't - or at least not nearly enough. One of the most common reasons I get are:

" I don't know what to talk about, especially to more senior executives."

The purpose of this article is to arm you with an easy road map of simple questions to make that conversation much easier, and ensure that it is worthwhile in terms of getting the information you need.

These questions will give you confidence to help you enjoy these meetings, keep them focused and start the beginnings of valuable relationships.

Let me also assure you that most people are far more impressed by good questions than any attempt to brag about your strengths during such meetings.

NOTE: You can also use these questions as an interview readiness check list. If you can not answer many of them it means you are not familiar enough with the requirements of the job, and therefore unlikely to have prepared enough.

SO WHAT INFORMATION DO YOU NEED AND WHY?

A college degree?is a huge achievement and often a requirement. However it is not by itself enough to differentiate you as the winning candidate. Employers will look beyond a college degree, and use questions to identify candidates who can demonstrate that they:

• Know what job they want to do.
• Have goals for where - i.e. which employers in which industries.
• Know how to understand the specific needs of those employers.
• Know how to proactively develop their skills to meet those needs.
• Have goals for when - which drive them to act with urgency.
• Know their reasons why - which motivate them to persevere and overcome challenges.

To get to 'the one' in a job selection as Dean Jarley of the UCF College of Business Administration likes to say - you have to convince employers of the above bullets.

Employers steer away from generic candidates who can not convincingly show that they know what they want to do and why. They have learned at great cost that such candidates rarely last longer than six months to a year in the job.

You will have to show (with real examples and evidence) that you made intelligent data supported decisions, and took actions to ensure that you are ideally skilled and driven to succeed in their jobs, not just any job.

They look for a profile that is aligned to meet their specific needs.

Intelligent decisions and actions to build an aligned profile requires the right information. Hence it is essential that you carry out many information gathering interviews - armed with the right open questions (i.e. those that start with what, where, when, why, who and how). Many people tend to rely too much on closed questions which elicit one word 'yes' or 'no' answers. These do not encourage an informative dialogue. So instead of asking "Did you - - -?" (closed question that will get a yes or no) ask "How did you - - ?" or "Why did you - -?

I have created handy lists of questions to help you get the specific information you need in each of the Target, Prepare and Win phases of landing a job.

Here are the lists of questions for each phase:

PHASE ONE?- TARGET

The objective in this first phase is to find a direction that appeals to you - to help you decide what you want to do and why. Although the questions in this phase look easy and obvious, many people spend far too little time on them. I regularly meet people in their thirties who still don't have a direction and the resulting impact on their career is clear to see.

The most effective way to find your direction is to combine your personality tests and online research with as many information gathering meetings as possible. (Note: due to the Covid 19 virus most of your meetings will have to be on line so pick a few technologies such as Zoom and master them so you can arrange and run such meetings professionally.)

You can use these questions below, on everyone you meet - then see how their answers appeal to you.

I have listed the questions under the headings of job, company, industry and advice to give you a structure and a flow to follow.

Job:

• What attracted you to this job?
• What are the key activities and processes that make up your current job on a day to day basis?
• Which of these activities and processes in the job do you enjoy or dislike? Why?
• What activities/processes do you feel you are you good at? How did you become good at them?
• What aspects of the job give you a sense of pride and purpose? Why?
• What personality type tends to be best suited to your job?

Company:

• What attracted you to this company?
• How important is the company mission to you and how does your job impact the mission?
• How did you find the job and what was the selection process like?
• What areas did they focus most on during the selection process?
• How would you describe the prevailing culture, management style and team dynamics? What aspects of each do you enjoy or dislike? Why?
• What type of personality and attitudes are most helpful to fit into the team?
• How much staff turnover is there? Why?

Industry:

• Who is the market leader in the industry and how well does your company compete.
• What opportunities or threats do you perceive to the job such as industry growth/decline, or new disruptive technology such as artificial intelligence?
• Which industry publications do you like and recommend I read??
• What professional associations are you a member of and why?

Advice:

• What actions would you recommend I take to secure a career/job like yours? Are there any specific skills or experiences I should seek out?
• What kind of job shadowing, internships and mentoring opportunities do you offer? When would be the best time to apply?
• Who else would you recommend I interview to learn about this type of job?

These are simple easy to ask questions. You can add more of your own such as how much travel is involved etc.

NOTE: There is a difference between an interview and an interrogation.

Do not just rattle of another question as soon as you receive an answer. Remember you are building a relationship. The stronger the relationship the more information and help you will get, and the more likely they will talk to you again during the next phases of your job hunt. You have to at least cross their 'Like & Trust' threshold. People like other people who have interests and experiences in common. They trust people who they believe genuinely care, and think like they do. So when you get an answer respond to it with comments such as:

• That is particularly interesting to me, can you expand on that - - - -
• That is impressive, how did you - - - -
• I agree I would find that difficult too, how did you overcome - - - -
• Thank you for sharing that, I do not think I would enjoy that either - - - -

You get the picture. Get into the habit of either clarifying or expanding answers so that the conversation has a flow and creates a feeling of a connection being formed.

Apply these questions to as many people as you can because targeting the right job is utterly critical. Joining an organization only to find out you do not enjoy the job, dislike the people, fail at it and leave, is a disaster for you. It is also very expensive and time wasting for employers.

Interviewers will therefor want to know that you really looked into this and made an informed decision which you are committed to.

They will turn many of the above questions around and use them on you during a job selection interview. They can easily distinguish between those who have networked, done the research, made informed decisions, and taken actions to prepare and align - versus those who have not.

Recommended Actions:

Practice using these questions on friends and family first, then branch out and meet as many people as you can.

Set your self goals to meet at least two or three people per week.

Initially as you do the above research it is important to spread the net over a wide range of opportunities to gain insight to a diverse range of jobs. The more people you meet, the more astounded you will be at the different types of jobs and careers there are out there.

After a while however you need to use the information you have gathered to focus your search on a narrower set of targets that seem appealing.

This is important for the next phase Prepare - because you cannot differentiate yourself by preparing your unique relevance to a wide range of jobs.

Hence this next set of questions will help you narrow your choices down by confirming the desirability of the target job to you. At the same time you will learn their specific needs in as much depth as possible so that you can subsequently align yourself to meet those needs more accurately. Companies often like to evaluate candidates in terms of their skill fit, team fit and drive. I have therefor divided the questions under these three headings.

Skill fit:

• What are the top priorities in terms of desired success outcomes for the job? Why?
• Which activities have the most impact on these top priorities? How?
• What are the most difficult activities or processes to complete? Why?
• What are the most critical skills needed for each activity, especially the high impact and difficult ones?
• What systems and or tools are you required to use/master for Spreadsheets, CRM, Presentations, other?

Team fit:

• Who is affected by these activities outside the team? How?
• What dependencies and work hand over points are there within the team for this job? Specifically, who and what is dependent on this job being done well?
• What 'team skills' are most sought after? Why?
• What attitudes and personalities fit well or poorly into the team? Why?
• What behaviors are expected from 'good' team members? What behaviors are frowned upon and to be avoided?

Drive:

• How are the key required results defined and measured?
• What are the consequences of success and failure? Who is impacted? How?
• What are the top three reasons people typically succeed or fail in this job?
• What behaviors and activities would management look for in a committed, engaged and driven employee?
• What are the promotion possibilities and career path from this job?

You need this more granular level of understanding if you are going to pick a job you are likely to enjoy AND be able to prepare yourself for it.

This takes us to the next phase.

PHASE TWO - PREPARE

Once you have selected a target employer and understood their needs, the questions in this phase of informational interviews should focus on how to align yourself to their requirements. i.e. How should you build your relevance to become their ideal candidate?

• What do you see as my biggest weaknesses for the job that might prevent me being hired? What actions should I take to fix them?
• How would you recommend I go about building the key skills we identified are needed in this job? What certifications do you look for?
• What do you look for as indicators of genuine interest & commitment to this industry?
• How can I get relevant experience such as an internship?
• How will I know that I am aligning successfully enough to become “The One” you will want? Who else inside the organization could I ask to coach me on how to get selected onto the team?

Recommended Actions:

Focus on setting targets to identify and meet individuals who have the job you want AND people who manage others in the job you want.

LinkedIn is a great tool to identify such people, connect and start a dialogue with them to identify the above information. Alumni are a great place to start. Once you have the information, start executing a self development plan. Keep your relationships informed of your progress so they know you have listened, taken action and are aligning to their needs. This makes it worthwhile for them to help you - they will be waiting for you when you graduate.

PHASE THREE – WIN

The focus of the questions in this phase are to make sure you understand the selection process and how you are going to win it. If you do not know the answers these questions - you are at a clear disadvantage against someone who does.

• Who makes the decisions?
• What are their key decision criteria? Why are those so important?
• How can I demonstrate my most relevant strengths to meet their decision criteria? What would impress them? What evidence do they like to see?
• What are the key steps in terms of: On line aptitude and personality tests, video interviews, face to face interviews, role plays, presentations, negotiating compensation etc?
• How can I rehearse & practice each of these steps?
• Who would be considered a credible, relevant reference? How can I build such references? Remember employers are much more likely to believe a respected third party than anything you say about yourself. It is often a good reference that will clinch the deal for you.

Recommended Actions: Set your self goals to find out the above through more information gathering interviews, do some personality tests, plus practice some video and face to face interviews. Do not make your dream job the first time you try a video interview. Start identifying people who could become references and build the relationship you will need for you to be able to rely on them.

All this takes time and dedication. Those who leave it until after graduation are likely to face a lengthy period of underemployment as nationwide statistics clearly show.

The best time to select your target employer, build and nurture key relationships, and make the effort to become more aligned to their needs is while you are still a student.

SUMMARY - WHO IS GOING TO WIN?

Who will an employer choose? The person who can talk about the people they met in that organization, what they learned about the job, including the team interdependencies, the impact of success or failure, and how they developed the specific skill strengths to meet the job's top priorities - or the person who shows up at the interview with none of this knowledge hoping to rely on their generic academic qualifications plus their 'fast learner' and 'hard worker' claims.

Once in the job repeat some of these questions to make sure you remain fully aligned with your boss and their objectives because priorities can change quickly. Use them to make sure you understand and exceed expectations every day.?After a period of over-performance do not just wait to be promoted. Target a specific promotion and apply all the above checklists to prepare and align yourself to make it happen!?

Good luck!

Written by Alex Groenendyk

Author of frequent No 1 Amazon best seller: 'This Is Who We Hire'?-?Employers reveal: How to get a job, Succeed in it, and Get promoted?.