Networking for a job while employed is tough. This is especially true for those in sales and marketing roles who may already be heavily involved in networking on behalf of their current employer.

So, how do you handle networking for the benefit of self-promotion while also representing a specific employer? Discretion and good judgment are key. In your networking circle, cherry pick a select few who you feel comfortable can be in the know of your job search efforts. It’s important these individuals not be closely tied to your existing employer. There is no need to put someone in the position of feeling they are betraying a relationship they have with your boss or company.

For those who you invite into your search efforts, give them a basic idea of what you are looking to do and the contacts and information they may be able to help provide that would help you pull off your goal. Stay positive. There is no need to go into any negative aspects of your current situation when sharing your desire to move on. It’s a waste of time and creates the potential for you to appear unprofessional, bitter or unable to filter.

Once you’ve decided who you can include in your search, you then have to figure out what to do with everyone else. The worst thing you can do is to stop participating in networking circles until you’ve made your move. One of my clients felt awkward striking up conversations with people and building relationships knowing full well the clock was ticking on how much longer she’d be in her current job. Networking isn’t necessarily just about you as an employee of a particular company though. It’s about building relationships with people who can be resources to you, and you to them, now and in the future. Talking up your current employer and the services offered might not make a lot of sense. Make the conversation more about them instead. Use the time to find out more about their needs and goals. Work to establish and even better rapport since there is no temptation for you to accidentally slip into salesman mode. Also consider the information individuals may be able to provide to you without ever having to know you are actually on a job hunt. Through the course of regular conversations you can gain a lot of intelligence on who is hiring, what industries are busy and what business events are setting the tone in the community at large.

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When a recruiter or hiring manager calls you and asks if this is a good time to talk, be honest. If it’s not, it’s much better to reschedule the call for a more ideal time than to attempt to have a conversation with chaos going on in the background. Yes, potential employers want to feel like they are high on the priority list for a job candidate. More importantly, they want to know the person has good judgment. Putting the person first by taking the call while there is a baby screaming or dog barking in the background is not going to give you the edge. Neither is filling their ears with profanities because a cop is closing in on your car and you haven’t been paying attention to your speed.

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Just for the sake of discussion, advancing your education is supposed to open doors for you. Too often I find individuals turning the tables on that notion and allowing the knowledge they’ve gained to push them into a corner.

What do I mean? It’s the belief once you have a degree in ‘XYZ’ it becomes your sole focus and option. In a world with job descriptions beyond your wildest imagination, people are convinced they are now only suited for a tiny sliver of the overall pie. It’s simply not true.

Gaining knowledge in a particular subject area does help show your relevance in that specific field. Do not negate the universal qualities of the education experience, however. Don’t discount the benefits of having refined, through the education process, your ability to write, read, interpret, memorize, conclude, problem solve, theorize, achieve goals and the like. These are all necessary skills in many areas of the working world. Never mind there are likely pieces of the actual subject matter that translate nicely to other fields too.

The point of this post is to push those of you who are finding yourself in a corner to realize it is your own mind putting you there. The limitations you encounter in this world are most often self-created. Look at your skills and abilities. Seek out the doors they lead you to and walk through them.

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It’s been over a week since my last blog. Naughty, naughty, naughty on my part. In the blog world that kind of absence can dramatically affect your following. I could have mind blowing blogs, but by neglecting to stay in front of my readers with fresh content, I am at risk of losing their interest and following. It wouldn’t take long to become a blogger they enjoyed at one time, but no longer think much about. It’s not that I did anything to turn them off, I just didn’t do anything to keep them turned on.

The same thing happens with job seekers. They make a great impression with a decision maker or networking contact and then fail to keep themselves in front of that person. Months go by with no contact. In short order it has been a year. There is some thought that if the impression you made was good enough that person will come looking for you and do their part to keep things warm. Not so. We all are busy and prone to going with the options readily available versus putting the effort into remembering those who wowed us and tracking them down.

Make time in the coming days to reconnect with those who you hit it off with in the past. Don’t allow more time to pass. Once you’ve done so, put a plan in place to make sure you do not repeat neglecting them. Don’t let those valuable relationships fade. You need those people to get you where you hope to go.

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At the risk of sounding like a Bart Simpson groupie, I have to tell you about my favorite episode of “The Simpsons.” Of course, I’ve only seen three or four. Here goes.

The show begins with Bart’s sister Lisa trying to come up with a science project for a school report. She decides on a test to determine who is smarter, Bart or a mouse. The test involves a treat rigged with an electrical current to shock whomever touches it. For the mouse, it’s a block of cheese. For Bart, it’s a cookie jar. Lisa allows the mouse and Bart access to their respective treats and then counts how many times each is shocked before realizing the problem and giving up. For the mouse, it only takes one or two shocks before he hangs up his gloves. Bart is another matter, however. A good chunk of the episode is devoted to watching Bart getting shocked over and over again. He’s so focused on getting a cookie, he’s unable to see how pointless his efforts are. Instead of applying his energy towards getting a different snack, he keeps at the cookie, never learning or adjusting. The closing shot of the episode shows Bart with his shaking hand hovering over the cookie jar and getting ready to give it another try.

That episode stuck with me because it reminded me of what I see all too often with job seekers. They allow themselves to be beaten and battered over and over with strategies that aren’t effective and don’t generate results. The focus on the prize is so intense, little attention is paid to the means of winning it. Many swear they’ve tried everything with their job searches. When I quiz them, more often than not I find they too are hovering over an electrified cookie jar and reaching in over and over again. I don’t see them foraging through the cupboards looking for other options. And they wonder why they hate looking for a job so much?

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A colleague of mine was talking up a woman he was hoping I could help with her job search. He didn’t know much about her work history and skills, but he was able to offer up “she’s got instant like!” He said it with a smile and a wink. He wasn’t discounting the value of a person’s expertise, he clearly understood the advantage people have in a job search when others like them on the spot. Lucky ducks.

Are they lucky though? Luck implies a chance outcome. Most people I know who have “instant like” have a three main things in common. One, they smile a lot. Two, they listen well and give others a chance to share the limelight. Three, they are more positive than negative so it’s not a strain to be around them.

When you think about the qualities I listed above, it’s easy to see why many job seekers struggle with getting their “instant like” working for them. It’s hard to smile and be positive when hunting for work. If you parted ways with your last employer under less than ideal conditions or are struggling financially and emotionally as a result of your search, being Susie Sunshine is a chore. Listening to others and seeing to their needs is also tough. While looking for a job, we tend to slip into “me, me, me” mode and aren’t even aware of what others need or when we haven’t given them their turn as the point of focus.

Thinking back through the years, those who managed to go about their search with enthusiasm, a smile, a positive attitude and the ability to think beyond themselves have clearly done better. They were the people corporate clients would get into bidding wars over. They were the ones whose skill deficiencies were cast off as no big deal.

I can hear people now, “but that’s not fair!” Prepare to be annoyed. “It is what it is.” It used to drive me nuts when people in my life would use that line of reasoning. That said, what’s so wrong about asking people to make a genuine effort to be pleasant? In the end, a likable person with the right skills is going to beat out the person who is likable, but doesn’t bring as much to the table.

I know a lot of people are working on beefing up their credentials right now in the hopes of standing out and gaining the advantage in the current market. That’s all well and good, but it’s also important to take stock of how likable you are at the moment. Hiring managers are much more likely to move on candidates they like.

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Are you sending your resume to potential employers via email? If so, please pay attention to the document name you are using for your resume. You certainly don’t want a hiring manager’s chuckle for the day to come at your expense.

When we save documents on our computer, we give them names that will help us know what the document is without always thinking how it might look to others. I’ve received all sorts of attachments through the years that have raised an eyebrow or inspired a giggle. Some have been bad enough the document hasn’t even made it through my spam filter.

When naming a document you will be sending as an email attachment, consider the following suggestions.

1. Don’t use any funky abbreviations. Be particularly careful with abbreviating assistant and associate. “Executive Ass Resume” doesn’t exactly give you the foot in the door you are striving for.

2. Be careful not to include company names from past opportunities you’ve applied for. “Nike Resume” doesn’t come off so good when you are applying to New Balance.

3. Make sure your document title doesn’t draw attention to a skill you don’t wish to emphasize. For example, if you are looking to get away from sales, “John Doe Sales Resume” isn’t a good title.

4. You should have several versions of your resume, but you need not tip an employer off to that fact. You can come off like a serial job applicant. “Jane Doe Version 263” isn’t the best idea.

5. If you’ve used another person’s resume as the foundation for yours, take care not to use that individual’s original file name. Tiffany Jones shouldn’t be sending a resume titled “M Smith HR Resume.”

6. Avoid using the document title as a chance to make a statement. The risk of coming off weird is too great. “Number1Candidate”, “The_1_2_Hire”, “PickMe” and the like are just wrong, wrong, wrong.

The best plan is to keep it simple. You need a system for keeping track of the versions of resumes you send employers. How you name them must help you distinguish what was sent while also allowing you to present professionally to the company.

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There’s been an increase of what I like to call Mulligan Stew job descriptions. If you aren’t familiar with Mulligan Stew, it’s essentially a meal made from all sorts of things thrown together. In cooking, the outcome can be delicious. When it comes to job descriptions, mixing a whole bunch of random responsibilities together can be a catastrophe.

My client, we’ll call him Pete, found one of these positions just last week. 75% of the job suits him perfectly. The position requires someone with the sales, networking, marketing and presentation abilities Pete has to offer. The remaining 25% of the job, which the posting states the candidate must have experience with, includes preparing financial statements, budget reporting and technology functions. There’s even more to the position than I’ve referenced. 14 bullet points of various qualifications, to be exact. You get the point.

What’s likely happening is the organization is in the position to add someone to its staff, has several functions suffering at the moment and is trying to solve all of its issues with one key hire. Perhaps they’ll get lucky and find that perfect candidate. More than likely, they won’t. Even Pete recognized the problem. His words, “they are looking for the impossible.”

When companies are looking for the impossible, it’s a great time to toss your name in the hat. Reach out to the organization. Make it clear what you can deliver on and what you can not. Wish them luck, in a sincere way, in finding the person capable of all outlined functions. Couple that with the suggestion they consider your abilities and what you could immediately offer the organization in terms of bottom line contributions should the position prove difficult to fill. In the end, it’s all about profitability. If you can show hiring you, even though you don’t have the expertise in all requested areas, is better for their bottom line than their current plan, it’s a winning outcome.

For the job that Pete found, the company is likely going to think they have to make a decision of where to take a hit. They’ll believe they are either going to have to hire someone with the talents to bring in connections and sales while crossing their fingers the person can figure out the books or they’ll have to hire someone who is up on maintaining and preparing financial statements with the hope they will find the time and the social means to work networking circles and pound the phone. If Pete can help them see profitability in another option, hiring him and outsourcing/reassigning the bookkeeping/technology functions, he may just be able to be the one to lead the way to an outcome where everybody wins.

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Receptionists deserve an apology. They get blamed by the masses for not putting calls through to key personnel. They are the supposed obstacle to job seekers being able to effectively follow up on opportunities and make valuable connections with decision makers.

Contrary to popular belief, there is no receptionist boot camp where those screening phone calls are taught to make your efforts futile. The reason receptionists stick callers in voice mail or throw job seekers to human resources is because the caller hasn’t taken the time to make the call important. You can’t get to an important person if you don’t have something important or valuable to say.

The most common mistake job seekers make when calling a company is telling whomever answers the phone too much information. There is this knee jerk reaction to explain how you’re looking for a job, don’t want to be a bother, are hoping to talk with someone and, if the person missed it the first time, you’re looking for a job. Blah, blah, blah. That type of lead in is all about you. Never mind that person likely has other lines to answer while your babbling on.

Anytime a job seeker calls a company, the approach needs to be the same as any other business call. It is a business conversation, after all. It’s not a plea for a charitable contribution. Success relies on knowing who you wish to reach (this means doing some homework), what you can say to make your call important to them and getting to the point as soon as possible.

When the receptionist answers start with a simple, “John Smith, please.”

You’d be surprised how many times you get passed through with no explanation. It’s not always the case though. You might get hit with “who may I say is calling?” No big deal. Tell the receptionist your name and leave it at that unless prompted for more information. If you sound confident, your call will have an air of importance and won’t be as likely to be screened.

Let’s say it’s not your lucky day and the receptionist decides to ask more questions. Answer any questions honestly without turning it into a mini autobiography. Stay on point and share information that would make the call valuable to the person you are hoping to reach.

Of course, the best way to get through to someone in a hurry is to have been recommended to call that individual by another. Referrals gained through the networking process are gold. To be able to say something like “Jane Doe gave me his number and told me to call,” takes a lot of stress out of the situation.

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Just a quick note to let you know I’m stepping away from the blogosphere for 5 days. New York City, here I come. Don’t forget about me while I’m gone.

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