Untangling yourself from networking

We’re on the countdown to the Fourth of July, that noisy, joyful celebration of freedom from tyranny and a tax on tea. Of course, the tax issue wasn’t about the tea or even taxes so much as the lack of representation it symbolized. But tyranny? That was and is just what it sounds like.

In a quick review of online dictionaries, one finds these associations with the word “tyranny”: oppressive, arbitrary, unlimited power wielded by an absolute ruler, etc. The word is firmly rooted as a descriptor of government systems or despots who oppress their citizens. We still have a horrifying number of rulers operating this way in our world, so the word is sadly still alive.

Like most powerful words, “tyranny” is also used in our everyday vernacular. When it comes to job search processes, I find myself using the word tyranny a lot. What else would you call it when applicants are repeatedly told to engage in time-consuming and invasive processes over which they have little or no control for outcomes they can’t predict and which more frequently than not won’t favor them? They spend time, money and effort doing things with no evident benefit to them, only to be repeatedly told (or not told) that they didn’t succeed. In case you don’t recognize the subject, I’ve just described online job search and, to some degree, networking.

In last week’s column I provided several myths about online processes, to demonstrate that this system of job search is not all it’s cracked up to be. To be honest, I find the networking mythology to be almost as oppressive, but it’s also much more difficult to debunk.

As a starting point, we have been overusing the term egregiously. “Networking” has been given almost magical powers to conjure up jobs, while simultaneously being used to describe almost any activity that involves one human speaking to another. With this kind of nebulous breadth to the term, I suppose it is functionally accurate to say that all or nearly all jobs come from networking.

To take my share of the blame for this, I’ll admit that I’ve defaulted to using the term networking when another, more specific word would have been better. But I’ve been paying my penance for the past several years by being as specific as I possibly can in describing actual actions and steps instead.

My list could go for pages, but let me give you just three of the most common “networking” activities that I don’t associate with productive job search.

Setting up a LinkedIn site. Getting yourself onto LinkedIn is a very good idea, but it's not networking and it's not job search. It's more like a form of advertising. If you use your LinkedIn connections to generate conversations or to set appointments with employers, you're headed in the right direction. The problem is, most job seekers simply post the site and wonder why it's not working. My best tip: Tinkering with the site isn't much different than tinkering with a resume – it only matters if someone sees it.

Telling everyone you're looking for work. It's not that your job search should be secret. But if the gist of each communication is "I'm looking for work," followed by "Tell me if you hear of anything," you're just giving a status update. This rarely produces actionable leads.

Attending networking meetings. Really? You're going to have meaningful conversations in a random herd of people holding plastic cups? I'm a strong advocate of attending meetings; I just don't confuse this process with job search. I'd rather you attend with the goal of identifying key issues or organizations, and possibly to gather some business cards or names for later, more intentional contact. But mostly, I'm going to be skeptical about the whole exercise if it steals too much time from an actual job search.

Let me stop before I gore the sacred ox we call the elevator speech. I hate those. But that can go for another column. In the meantime, we have one last installment in this three-part Independence Day series. Next week I’ll wrap up by providing relief for the tyranny of online processes and unproductive networking. Stay tuned if you want a simple job search process that simply works.