By Jeff Westover
Not long ago, a computer user was known as a geek. They were thought to be on the same planet but from a different world. These days of "dot com" everywhere have proven that the "world of the geek" has squarely collided with the world as we know it. As is always the case when worlds collide, the struggle to adapt is left largely to those that either have not seen it coming or have refused to be "assimilated".
The Internet is doubling in capacity every 100 days. As it creates opportunities and fosters radical change in the workplace, it is growing to become central to finding and performing a job- no matter what that job might be.
While the new economy of the elancer and outsourcing has provided organizations with creative options in managing projects, it has at the same time wreaked havoc on the career planning of individuals.
According to PCComputing, the average 32 year-old has changed jobs nine times and will continue at a rate of changing jobs every two years.
These churning waters of employment demand better job search skills. That is why the new skills of "inter-networking" are fast becoming a hot topic of conversation in businesses finding new success online.
Baby Steps
The Internet is yet in its infancy. According to Nicholas Negroponte, co-founder and director of the Media Laboratory at MIT, the Internet has only seen the beginning of its growth. With the current online population estimated at roughly 120 million people, he predicts that to explode to upwards of 1 billion people as early as the end of 2000. Therefore, a natural sense of urgency exists for the job seeker to gain online skills and build an online network of contacts that can help forward a career of perpetual change.
The first task in preparing for this world is to develop an online presence.
The online presence is more than obtaining an email address. A free email address can be had at the public library via one of thousands of web sites offering the service. It allows for connectivity. But it is only a baby step in the progression of developing an online presence.
An online presence is the transfer of who you are to the online realm. A carefully cultivated online presence broadens the reach and expands the potential of a far-sighted job seeker. It makes finding the contacts necessary to network for a new job two years from now much easier to do.
Big Steps
Just as moving to a new community requires a series of steps to become established, jumping online is more than just getting there. A proactive approach is advised to anyone wishing to make the Internet part of "who they are". These steps are:
- Develop a list of who you know and who you want to know
- Find places of relevance online that can serve you
- Become inter-active in the online community
Be committed to research. Carefully consider the permanent home you make for yourself online. Contacts are lost online rather easily because of a fast change in email addresses. Take a look around at all the email options available before making a permanent home online. In some cases, a company email address may be something you want to publicize. In other cases, perhaps not. Each individual needs to weigh how their online presence is anchored. The goal needs to be one of permanence.
Fight the feeling of being overwhelmed once you are online. The world of the written word and multimedia web sites can be intimidating. But remember that the majority of people online today are new to the Internet too.
Once online, a job seeker may be taken back by the plethora of choices. It can be almost too much to sort through. A quick study is all but impossible. Just as careers vary amongst individuals, the strategy of building a presence online takes individual strategy and effort.
Start the Old Fashioned Way
Online networking begins the old fashioned way- with a list. Begin by listing every contact you have. Leave nobody, including family, off this list. Remember to list professional contacts, old bosses and co-workers, teachers and professors, neighbors and church members, dear friends and mere acquaintances. You may not use everyone on this list in building your network online. But you never know what small tidbit of information that any of them can provide that will prove profitable down the road.
The only thing different between this list and a traditional list is that you will want to add email addresses to this list. Most job seekers new to networking on the Internet are surprised at how many people they know but have no idea how to contact online. In fact, many personal contacts are completely unaware of the online activity of other people they know. A first step in online networking is to find out who you know that is online. If you know someone but have no idea how to contact them online, what better reason do you have to re-establish contact with them than calling them for their email address?
A second step, just like networking offline, is to decide who you want to know online. This can be more difficult and time consuming to obtain. In many cases, who you want to know might be a corporate manager for whom you do not even have a name. Do not worry at this point about the details of such people. The Internet can only make it easier to find them. At this stage, let it suffice to know who you will later need to target online.
Explore What Is "Out There"
Develop an online search list to include companies and organizations. Make a complete list of every known resource you are aware of that can be of benefit in even the smallest way. Your strategy plan will allow you to research them online.
Before you connect online, prioritize the places you need to go first. Start with known online locations. Next on the list should be company web sites or places where you can search for targets specific to the industry related to the job search. And finally, a list of people-search options needs to be developed to help find the online contacts of individuals you want and need to know in order to progress.
Be disciplined in your browsing habits. Remember that the point of this first exploration is to lay the foundation for your network. Try not to become side tracked by interesting links that would take you off the path to finding contacts. Be familiar with how to "bookmark" a page in your browser. As you find sites that might prove useful over time, bookmark the key pages to folders that will improve your efficiency in the future.
If you do not know where to find companies or associations within a target industry, there are resources online to help you find them. Many large corporations have a "dot com" address similar to their name (such as
www.ibm.com). But if that does not work, try to find the company through business specific search engines such as
www.companiesonline.com or
www.dotcomdirectory.com.
For industry specific associations, myjobsearch.com has the most comprehensive resource on the Internet in the association directory at
http://myjobsearch.com/network/associations.html.
Take Interaction
Take careful note in the company and association sites of links that are provided. Learn the habit of right-clicking to open new browser windows in your exploration online. This allows you to surf off of a company or association site and return to where you left off easily.
Where you see opportunities to join in discussion groups or chat sessions, do not be hesitant to do so as time allows. These online inter-activities allow for a more personal level of contact that can prove very fruitful in making reliable contacts.
As you explore known places online, also be sure to subscribe to the electronic newsletters or "ezines" that are widely available. Networking does not mean having contacts that give you a job. It means having contacts that provide information that lead to jobs. Online newsletters are a free and easy resource that job seekers need to tap into in order to identify emerging opportunities and influential people.
This is the Beginning
The evidence for learning the skills of inter-networking is compelling.
According to the United States Internet Council, the population on the Internet has grown from about 90,000 users in 1993 to over 81 million users as of 1999. A 900 percent increase in just about anything is bound to be big news. Whatever "it" is that a person or a company does, it now does online too.
Inter-networking is not just an idea who's time has come. It is an essential skill central to success in the years to come as more and more people connect to the Internet.
-- Jeff Westover is an Internet Content Developer based in Salt Lake City. He has 15 years of executive level experience in personnel and project management. Jeff writes for
myjobsearch.com, the largest independent directory of online career resources.
