CAREERS NOW 07-30-08

Finding Jobs Through Serious Networking

DEAR JOYCE: After hearing a pep talk at a job workshop about the value of networking to find employment, I tried it for a month. Zero. I don't know what to think. Help? - C.C.

Like most things, the outcome is in the details. Networking means different things to different people and it's more than just exchanging business cards at a networking event. One of the all-time masters of the art, Harvey Mackay, wrote many excellent books on getting ahead in life, including "Dig Your Well Before You're Thirsty: The Only Networking Book You'll Ever Need."

Mackay explains that the best networking results come from investing in people over a reasonable period of time - making deposits in and withdrawals from a kind of "favor bank." In Mackay's view, networking is a way of life, not a life jacket you pull out as your ship goes down.

Brooke Allen, a technology executive, agrees that networking done right works. It did for him some years ago. The principles he used are valid today. In an online article Allen describes writing to everyone he knew or knew of - friends, acquaintances, distant relatives, former employers and former employees - 200 people in all:

"I explained that I was now a freelancer (read "unemployed") and was looking for work. I gave an outline of my credentials as a programmer, but I attached no resume. I asked everyone to please let me know if they had work and to introduce me to anyone they knew who might."

To find out more about Allen's successful experience and the savvy way he did it, use Google to locate his interesting article "Finding Opportunities in a Dysfunctional Job Market." He has some tips you may not have thought of.

DEAR JOYCE: What are the hot skills in information technology and will certifications in them bring higher pay? - B.H.

Respected IT skills authority David Foote, chief research officer for Foote Partners, a research firm headquartered in Vero Beach, Fla., says that "Except in certain areas, (IT) certifications as a whole are losing value."

In Foote Partners' latest quarterly "IT Skills and Certifications Pay Index," an extensive survey of 22,000 professionals in the U.S. and Canada, researchers report an average overall decline of 2.9 percent of premium pay for more than 160 types of IT certification skills in a year-on-year comparison.

Two segments of the index that did show premium pay increases are IT security and architecture/project management.

Get many more details from FootPartners.com; scroll to bottom of the home page to read articles about skills and pay. Also visit Dice.com; at bottom of the home page under Career News and Advice, read "Certifications Lose Their Punch in Compensation."

Here's the take-away: IT certifications in specific technologies are trump cards in landing a job but are no longer a sure way to boost your pay. Those days appear to be gone.

DEAR JOYCE: Sometimes I answer job postings and printed ads that don't reveal who the employer is. I try to personalize my replies with names but that's difficult when you don't know who's looking to hire. You also don't know if you want to waste your time applying when you may not even want to work for a particular company. Ideas? - M.A.E.

You're describing what's known as a "blind ad." Thanks to John Lucht, CEO of ZapData.com for company research that will help you decide how to better respond to the job ad. RiteSite subscribers can unearth a tutorial on the sleuthing process in "Who's Behind the Blind Ad?" in the RiteSite University section.

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