Opinion Sur Joven

Do you usually spend hours and hours filling out CV forms online? Do you keep sending mails that are rarely answered? Introducing the revolutionary product…

No, there’s no revolutionary product here to solve your problems. But in this article we do tell you how to use a resource you surely have: what if you try using your contacts? They’re present in all activities of life: from the grocer at the corner to a friend’s sister and even someone you’ve added to your Facebook contacts can be the key to your first job.

An old friend of mine used to say “you can get as far as your contacts go”. Instead, I thought getting a job thanks to a contact was like cheating, and I never wanted to use that resource. Let alone for the beginning of my working life. Well, this opinion changed when I started looking for my first job. A friend told me in a wedding her company was looking for someone with my skills, so she handed me her email address and I sent her my résumé.

On Monday I got an email from the company notifying me that they’d start a recruitment process. Since until that moment I was against the idea of using contacts, I decided not to call my friend and try it on my own. After two months of dealing with the eight-stage recruitment process of a holding company, I ended up working at the same position my friend had mentioned. In my last interview with the manager of that department, I found out my contact worked in her team. From that day I started noticing the difference between using contacts and "cheating". Asking someone to "use their leverage" to help you out is one thing, whereas "using someone’s leverage" is another.

Leverage, in a few words, consists in the power to influence a person or situation to get a particular result.

Contact networks are mentioned in many surveys as the main resource to obtain results in a job search. The advantage is that the résumé is submitted at the right time and circumstances: it is given at the exact moment a position needs to be filled and directly to the person in charge of the selection process. Another advantage is that the résumé has your contact’s approval. It’s a win-win-win situation. You win, your contact wins and the person looking for your skills wins.

“Traditional” contact network

Mariana’s father runs a large company and she’s looking for her first work experience. She knows she could be hired at her father’s company, but she’d always be "the chairman’s daughter", so she prefers to build her own name. That’s why she resorts to a friend who had been recently looking for a job. He gives her a list of Human Resources contacts for her to contact them directly.

This is the classic work-by-contact case. The “traditional” contact network includes your family and your friends: they are your most important and direct source. The advantage is that they know you very well and they surely want the best for you. The disadvantage is that, in some relationships, these types of favors are avoided due to personal reasons, to lack of impartiality, or in order to avoid the negative connotations of having two closely-related people in the same work environment. Many times these issues prevail over the good relations with the relative or friend.

The more people this network has and the better connections they have, the higher your chances will be to find a job. A basic recommendation: let your family and friends know you’re looking for a job. Send emails, call them, put a phrase on your MSN nick or whatever, but make sure to do it in the right way. Have in mind that you’re generating your own publicity.

In Mariana’s case, both contacts were from the "traditional" network. Always choose the option you’re most comfortable with and that generates the type of opportunities you’re looking for.

“Transitive” contact network

It’s the primary group of your primary group.

Martín studies Business Administration and is at the final stage of a recruitment process at a leading consulting firm. He managed to get the first interview by sending an email to an address his friend Sol gave him. Sol knew Martín was looking for a job, and when she found out there was a vacant position at a friend’s company, she gave her Martín’s résumé. It was directly handed to the line manager, who was in charge of the search.

A children’s song says "your friends are my friends, and my friends are your friends”. Such a simple concept can’t be forgotten as we grow up. Although at first your contact network doesn’t seem to offer many possibilities, you never know how many connections they have of their own.

“Online” contact network (E-Networks)

Matías belongs to the Facebook group “Recursos Humanos” (Human Resources). When he participated in the discussion board, he talked to a colleague through messages. After some months, Matías lost his job and asked his colleague about the best means to send a résumé to the company she works at. She gave him a direct contact to send his résumé and a week after that he was called to begin the recruitment process.

In the virtual world you can get as far as your proactivity goes. The best networking websites are LinkedIn and Facebook.

One of the pros of LinkedIn is that it’s especially designed for the labor market. One of its cons is that, in comparison with Facebook, there are less young people in the system. First we must load our résumé, add our contacts and visualize theirs. If we are interested in one of our friend’s contacts, we request him or her to introduce us, thus reaching new work contacts.

Signing up in LinkedIn is a long-term investment, which can become very profitable if you want to succeed within the online labor market. Perhaps you have just a few contacts now, but having an account allows others to add you and lets you start investigating the global contact networking world.

On the other hand, is there any reader of this article who doesn’t have a Facebook account? It has extended in such a way that it’s hard not to belong to this system. Although one of its disadvantages is that it wasn’t meant for business at the beginning, we can contact people we never thought we’d ever see again. From an old schoolmate to the whitewater rafting guide, all of them are contacts, your contacts.

In today’s world, being constantly trained and prepared is a compulsory requirement due to new responsibilities and growing competition. However, doing things right isn’t enough sometimes. Though being good at what you do can be essential to keep a job, it is rarely the key to the job you want. That’s exactly where contacts can make a difference: because maybe they’ve heard about a vacant position and they know you, and they can recommend you based on your responsibility or your personality. These are very important issues for employers when it comes to hiring someone without any references.

So make use of your acquaintances and let your search ne known through the Internet; thus, using some of your time, you’ll probably obtain good results. But be careful: your contact isn’t a guarantee that you’re going to get the job, and let alone keep it. So be sure to make a good impression. Because the person who recommends you is also putting at stake their own judgment.