Your Next Job Is One Conversation Away | Dawn Graham | TEDxJHUDC

[Applause] imagine this you wake up tomorrow roll over grab your smartphone and find a message in your inbox it says effective immediately you're unemployed where would you begin your job search honestly on a job board or with your contacts there is an article in the Harvard Business Review titled professional networking makes people feel dirty one of the observations mentioned was that individuals use excessive amounts of hand sanitizer after a networking dinner the takeaway was despite the slew of evidence for its effectiveness we feel unclean or more in the a key when networking because we've convinced ourselves it's a transactional one-sided I'm just using you for my own gain activity so we avoid it but what if there is a way to network in the job search that didn't feel icky I'm here today to share how but first we have to let go of two incorrect assumptions the first incorrect assumption is that if we're competent and qualified we really shouldn't need help finding a job this is so wrong I experienced my first layoff in 2002 and despite that experience being a gift today at the time it hit me like a brick I'd recently finished my master's in an evening program and was working my way at a at a global company and they were getting ready to move me across the country for this exciting new opportunity and then I got a voicemail at 5:00 p.m. on a Tuesday saying I've been let go and Monday I had a drawer full of stellar performance reviews and an exciting role waiting in California on Tuesday poof it all vanished just like that me and 60,000 my Arthur Anderson colleagues were jobless and Enron was about to become a global scandal immediately I started scanning the online job boards emailing resumes to roles that were even a remote match to my background I thought what has happened few weeks earlier I was telling the world about my exciting career plans and now I barely left my apartment because I was mortified well thought I'd lost my job and that I wasn't good enough to find a new one then one night in passing I mentioned my misery to my neighbor in the elevator mentioning some of the companies where I've been applying only to learn that his colleague was married to a director at one of my top choices he offered to pass my resume along and within two weeks I had an interview after months of building an intimate relationship with my computer which got me nothing one brief conversation with a human landed me an opportunity this experience changed my entire career trajectory I not only realized there was a better way to find a job than emailing resumes in the cyber space but that I wanted to help others never feel this stuck I wondered how would the job search be different if the norm was to approach it as a social activity when I say social activity I mean the old-fashioned way humans talking with humans offline face to face without an app having conversations like with the person sitting right next to you go ahead make eye contact it's okay if you're an introvert like me this is the part where you want to run out of the room but stick with me long gone are the days when people spend their entire career with one company the average tenure in a role is 4.2 years and with retirement age increasing you'll likely engage in over ten job searches during your lifetime sometimes voluntarily sometimes not so much networking has been hailed as the most effective strategy for uncovering opportunities because it works so why does a root canal seem more appealing it's like exercise we cognitively know it's effective but despite the evidence still choose Netflix anyway well I wanted to find an answer so I studied networking and discovered although we can learn the strategies and buy into the research this doesn't increase our comfort with using it in a job search similar to exercise simply believing something works doesn't automatically equate to action think about it you've come to a TEDx and are surrounded by people with like interests if you introduce yourself to anyone here you didn't already know as a licensed psychologist I've learned that humans make decisions based on emotions then we rationalize afterwards which cherry-pick data that support our choice so regardless of the overwhelming evidence for networking we're still seduced into a linear click apply' send process because approaching people we don't know makes us feel vulnerable which means we're stuck we know networking is extremely effective but can also feel ridiculously uncomfortable and I get it most of us aren't going to talk to strangers that's not the problem problem is we're not talking to anyone when I got laid off in 2002 I believed getting a job was about my skills or background our education these certainly boosts the shanell used to justify hiring decisions but after years of recruiting what I've learned is that hiring managers are really trying to assess is if they can stand working next to you for 40 hours a week even with job boards matching algorithms and fancy apps final hiring decisions are based on trust which comes from relationships in fact without trust research shows managers may perceive your strengths as a potential threat wicked is a highly confident employee who takes credit for your work and then steals your lunch fair or not managers prefer to hire based on trusted referrals that's why up to 80 percent of jobs are never posted because they're getting filled before that through relationships so we need to approach the job search relationally as well as individuals we can either use our energy to resist this reality or tap into the power of our existing relationships to access the roles we want hiring managers want to make good decisions and they want to do it efficiently they hate hiring as much as candidates hate the job search they do sifting through resumes distracts them from their day jobs like online dating what's on paper isn't always what shows up at the door even if pre-screened by a recruiter so how do we make an important decision efficiently we use referrals in our daily lives we use apps like Yelp or TripAdvisor and often lost friends for recommendations on things like a great dentist or a mechanic managers do the same when hiring in fact referrals have a 50% shot of getting an interview where's for non referrals that drops to just 3% several years ago I passed over an online candidate and a week later a trusted colleague but that same resume on my desk along with the glowing endorsement after interviewing the candidate which I wouldn't have done with the referral she was hired her skills didn't change my trust in her did based on that referral it's not the most qualified person who gets the offer it's not the woman with stellar performance reviews in a master's degree it's the one with a connection that's why employee referral programs and companies work so well in fact 40% of hires come from the referral pool which is only 7% of applicants and one study showed that over 60% people who were hired were referred by a current employee that number increased to 91% if that referral came from a director level employee or above what if you don't know any directors in your field most of us don't I didn't when I got laid off but my neighbors colleague did everyone you know has a network just waiting to be discovered including you so some of you may be saying yeah but what about that guy know who landed his dream role on a mega job board well even if you're fortunate to win the online sweepstakes once or twice if this is your go-to strategy you're limiting your options to the fraction of jobs that get posted online while also taking your chances with applicant tracking systems that weed out qualified candidates for relevant reasons like how your resume is formatted and unfortunately many online jobs aren't what they seem I've seen candidates thrilled to make it to final interviews only to lose out to an internal employee who has promised a job all along one highly qualified candidate was flown across the country for a full day of interviews leaving her search was over she was devastated after learning she was a pawn in their charade used to check the legal box before hiring the person they'd already selected the second incorrect assumption we have to let go of is that the people we regularly interact with can't or won't help us also not true well most people you know don't have available jobs falling from their pockets there are so many other ways they can be a bridge to opportunities through their contacts if they only knew more about your career I bet most people in your life have no idea what your career goals are much less what you actually do every day at work I'm not talking about surface details like you were going to start up or our lawyer or do something in marketing but specifically your aspirations and particular expertise think about it can the people you routinely interact with your siblings neighbors yoga buddies classmates your hairdresser book club or the regular is at the dog park accurately describe your expertise in one to two sentences can you explain theirs unfortunately when most of us have conversations about our job socially it goes something like hey how's work busy traveling much yeah some pass the salt contrast that responds with well actually I'm looking for a new opportunity in New York right now and you've just initiated a chain of events that may change your future last year in a rare moment I mentioned to my brother I was trying to land a speaking gig at a company in New York coincidentally his good friend in Utah knew the head of that organization which after a few phone calls ended with me giving that talk six months later I'm still shocked someone in my immediate family especially my brother had access to contacts I did it but it's easy to forget we all interact with diverse groups of people every day work online in the community everywhere in a world where six degrees of separation has narrowed to less than four our career goals are more within reach than ever and the simplest thing we can do is initiate career conversations with people we already know and a great place to start be curious about their goals first helping others is a great way to build relationships and when you ask hey what's one goal you have for this year most people will reciprocate and dig into your goals as well these conversations can lead to brainstorming introductions you might make irrelevant news you recently heard or job you can be interested in maybe today or maybe six months from now but if you never speak up you'll miss a lifetime of opportunities that were just one conversation away one night I asked my regular waiter in a local Italian restaurant about his goals he mentioned he was a refugee working his way through college and looking for opportunities in his field but missing the bridge to access relevant opportunities our brief conversation led to me introducing him to a senior leader in the field he was targeting and honestly I'm not always privy to how things turn out when I make introductions but I do it his job searches are a universal experience and we don't need to face them alone if you want to maximize your opportunities engaging humans is necessary it doesn't have to be strangers real networking is simply having a different conversation but the people you already know we've built relationships all around us and have no idea who has a hidden connection until we start a dialogue like I did with my neighbor and the elevator or the waiter and the restaurant it's easy to forget that the alumna we quickly wrote off because she doesn't work in the industry we were targeting has a hundred successful classmates strong networks of their own conversations are the opening not the outcome and I can tell you as an introvert my mastery of people avoidance is ninja level I can slip in and out of gatherings on notice and always give five-star ratings to eibar drivers who don't speak to me only the cost of avoiding these precious moments of social engagement it's months of frustration behind a computer when the missing link may be right next door networking knows no limitations except the ones in our mind so what if tomorrow you asked to friend her career goals and then shared yours these everyday interactions are the game-changer no matter where you are in your career today between jobs passively looking or happily employed statistically speaking you will be in another job search it's not enough to believe networking works for the magic to happen we must take action so rally 20 seconds of courage improve that discouraging voice in your head wrong use hand sanitizer if you must but start that conversation for you for others for all of us because managers hire on relationships job seekers get referred on relationships getting a job is a social activity and we have access to more connections than we realize thank you [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 19,354

Rating: 4.8773947 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Business, Career, Connection, Conservation

Id: 6DTWDvp4KcE

Length: 16min 39sec (999 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 19 2019