For those of you who know me and/or are regular readers of this blog, you are aware that I am a big advocate both of networking and finding ways to give back to your community. The reality is, these two great activities have the potential to create synergies more often than you realize, especially if you are looking for employment.
The CNN website is featuring a great series of profiles of people who have successfully been hired in today’s difficult job environment. The most recent person featured was experienced sales manager Steve Kaye. After having no luck finding any strong job leads near his home of Boca Raton, Florida, he decided to put together his own job fair. More than 400 interested applicants showed up to receive job information from eighteen companies who were currently hiring. Thirty people received job offers that day.
Through his outreach, Mr. Kaye met many professionals who operated within his chosen line of work. Eventually, one of those new connections led him to his current job as vice president of sales and customer care for a company that sells motivational products. Through his initial undertaking that resulted in employment for so many others, Kaye soon met the man who would bring him back to the world of people who are on a payroll.
While I advocate volunteering your time and energy to people who need it without any expectation for payment in return, there is nothing wrong with acknowledging you may benefit personally from an act of service. Whether you are building a house for Habitat for Humanity, fund raising for Haitian Earthquake Victims or for Homes for Our Troops, tutoring children in math after school, or simply holding the door for a woman whose hands are full with a baby and grocery bags, you just might meet that one person who has the connections to move your career accelerator into high gear.
My blog is chock full of tips on the art of networking as well as my justification for why giving back to your community is so important. I invite you will check out the archives to start accelerating your career!
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Joe – great stuff. Thanks for bringing awareness of this concept. Such simple stuff, actually, but so rarely done.
I am a passionate advocate to my business clients that giving back is a powerful way to market themselves.
But giving back to advance your career is a must.
Hey Todd! Thanks for your comments and your support! I like to think of both networking and giving back as catalysts for a lot of good things that we all want like better jobs, higher pay, access to better investment opportunities, etc. Best wishes! Joe
{ 2 trackbacks }