Don't overcomplicate it, find "cool" people

Hey! Hope the morning is off to a good start.

Below you’ll find…

1. Career Focused Insight.

2. Example of what’s working for job seekers.

3. What I’m doing personally & professionally.

1. Career Focused Insight

We overcomplicate “networking” and it destroys our job-searching energy. 

I had a LinkedIn post that hit home with 15k people this week that asked people to do the following before rolling their eyes when they are told to go “network”

1. Find people doing stuff that you think is “cool”

2. Working to land a conversation with them consistently

3. Taking notes and actions from the information that you hear

What would I add to this post?

You win in so many areas of life when you give “networking” a chance. For me, it’s helped me do the following…

• Buy my first home

• Send my parents on vacation

• Travel internationally with friends

• Learn financial literacy and start to build

• Create content and start my own business

These are things I didn’t know were possible until I was genuinely curious about what other people were doing with their lives. They did cool sh*t and I wanted to know how they did it. That’s it!

What did I hear from you that I enjoyed in the comments?

• “Networking is only annoying if you follow the advice a Google search gives you” - Greg Roche

• “Talking to cool people doing cool things with no ulterior motives = networking.” - Sarah Johnston

• “What I found useful was to look up company rosters on LinkedIn by location and by job title. I'd look for people who were active on LinkedIn and participate in their posts.” - Jeremy Duffy

What else should you consider?

• Start with what you have. Look at where you’ve already spent time, try networking there first!

• Find a way to use the “no” as fuel. People said “no” to me all the time, it happens - move on. 

• If you’re not genuinely interested in hearing their story, it’s not worth the time!

2. Example of what’s working for job seekers

Tracking the job search meticulously.

We’re amazing at procrastinating as humans. When we do it in the job search, it becomes extremely apparent.

Especially when we’re tracking our action steps meticulously. 

Recently, I’ve asked my clients to start using a project management tracker for their work. Answering questions such as:

• Who am I speaking with this week?

• Where do I need to target my network outreach?

• What are the roles I’m considering applying to here soon?

As a job seeker, if you can’t answer the above then how can you expect to be making any progress?

“What gets measured gets managed” and I couldn’t think of a place for that to better play out than your job search. 

The goal is for you to have multiple options in your search, tracking it meticulously will make each week manageable for you to achieve that. 

Bonus: What are you good at? Start tracking there - it’ll feed your ego and be easier to start.

Question for you in your career…

“When was the last time you started with what you already had to work with?”

TL;DR

• Don’t overcomplicate networking, talk to “cool” people. 

• Track the areas of your life where you want to win. 

• Start with what you have in the job search.

3. What I'm up to that month personally and professionally

Personally - I’m done traveling for Deloitte this year! That wraps up 151 nights on the road in 2023. I’m excited to write more about my experience this year. I’ll spend a few weeks in Texas before heading home to spend time in Cleveland and kick off 2024!

Professionally - I am working with a couple of clients right now as we wind down the year and also staying consistent on the content creation. A quote that has hit home with me recently in my career, “Boring makes you rich.” So how often can you knock out the boring work consistently? I’ll be carving out time in the last couple of weeks of 2023 to understand what 2024 looks like for DxConsulting! Exciting things in the work professionally - a potential long international stay in 2024!

I appreciate you taking the time to read this far! Have a day and respond here if you have any questions!