Stop Looking at Your Network: Start Looking Through It

“I don’t know anyone who works there.”

I hear this regularly from job seekers when I encourage them to use their network as part of their search. And I fully understand why. When we think about our network, we tend to think about the people we know directly: former colleagues, friends, family members or people we’ve interacted with professionally over the years.

But that’s only part of our network, and our circles are so much bigger than that. One of the most powerful shifts we can help clients make is to stop looking at their network and start looking through it.  One of my friends from a networking group I was part of years ago shared this phrase, and I haven’t forgotten it since. Lately, I’ve been sharing that phrase with a number of clients who have seen an increase in their outreach activities (and results) by integrating this message into their job search strategy.

A Career Transition Lesson

I learned the power of looking through my network after I was restructured from my Learning and Development role in financial services and decided I wanted to move into the not-for-profit sector. I looked at my network and found exactly one person who had worked in the not-for-profit sector. Only one!

At the time, I thought: Well, this isn’t going to get me very far. What I didn’t yet understand was that I wasn’t limited to the people I directly knew. Every person I knew had their own network of colleagues, friends, former classmates and professional contacts. Chances are, each person in your network knows hundreds of people.

Instead of asking, “Who do I know who works in the not-for-profit sector?” I needed to ask: “Who do I know who might know someone in the not-for-profit sector?”

That small change opens up an entirely different network.  Now, your network isn’t limited to just the people you know – it’s multiplied exponentially.  Putting this into mathematical terms:

Number of people you’re directly connected to  x  number of people those connections know  =  your network

So, if you know 50 people, and those 50 people know 50 people each, your network actually includes 2500 people!

LinkedIn Makes Looking “Through” Easier

When a client identifies an organization they want to work for or finds a job they plan to apply to, I encourage them to search the company name on LinkedIn and select the “People” tab.

First, look for first-degree connections. Does your client already know someone who works there?

If not, they would look at their second-degree connections. These are people you don’t know directly but who are connected to someone you do. And here’s an important distinction: I don’t recommend reaching out cold to that second-degree connection. Instead, go back to the person you do know. Ask your first-degree connection whether they know the person well enough to make an introduction. That warm connection can help open a door that an online application alone (or a cold reach-out) may not.

I recommend doing this for every job they are serious about, as this step can mean the difference between getting an interview invite or not. Before simply clicking “Apply,” encourage your client to take a few minutes to look through the network. Is there someone who could provide insight into the organization, make an introduction, or help get their résumé into the right hands?

“But I Haven’t Talked To Them In Years”

An outreach barrier I often hear from clients is deciding that too much time has passed since you last spoke with a network contact. One of my clients recently found a job he was very interested in and discovered that someone he knew had a connection to the organization. There was just one problem: they hadn’t spoken in more than 10 years.

He was hesitant to reach out. Would it be awkward? Would the person even remember him? Was it inappropriate to contact someone after so much time?

He reached out anyway. Not only did the person respond, but he introduced my client directly to the HR professional overseeing the screening process. The organization was already interviewing candidates. But because my client came through a referral, HR agreed to meet with him.

Several interviews later, he got the job!

Imagine if he had decided, “It’s been too long. I shouldn’t bother him.” That one assumption could have closed the door before it ever had a chance to open. By not reaching out, he would have made the decision for the other person, never allowing them to say yes.

Networking is Research Through Conversation

Networking can feel intimidating when we treat it as asking someone for a job. Especially for clients who hesitate to reach out, I reframe this important job search activity with them.

Networking is research through conversation.  And we all have conversations with people every day – sometimes even with people we don’t know, or don’t know well.

It’s an opportunity to learn: What is this organization really like? What challenges is the team facing? How did someone move into their role? What skills are becoming more important? Who else might be helpful to speak with?  We can help clients shift from asking for something to being curious about something. That takes some of the pressure out of networking and makes conversations more authentic and grounded in curiosity.

CPC member Lori Jazvac’s article on informational interviews offers another useful way to think about this: informational conversations can support both an immediate job search and broader career exploration.

If You Don’t Ask, You Don’t Get

I called the networking chapter in my book Cultivating Career Growth: Navigating Transitions with Purpose, “If You Don’t Ask, You Don’t Get,” for a reason. It’s the principle I reinforce most often with clients: ask for the conversation, ask for the introduction, ask who else you should speak with, and ask whether someone would be comfortable passing along your résumé.

Will everyone say yes? Of course not. But we can sometimes convince ourselves this approach won’t work before giving someone a chance to respond. My client could have decided that 10 years without contact was simply too long. Instead, he asked, and one conversation eventually led to a job offer.

Help Clients See The Network They Already Have

When clients tell us, “I don’t have a network,” our role as career professionals can be to help them challenge that assumption. The network may include a former colleague, a neighbour, someone from university, a person they volunteered with five years ago, a parent they met through their child’s activities, or someone they know from an industry association.

And sometimes the most valuable person isn’t the one who can help directly. It’s the person who knows someone who can. That’s the magic of looking through the network.

– By Michelle Schafer –

Written in collaboration with ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, based on the author’s original ideas. Image generated using ChatGPT.