[MYTH BUSTER POST] 5 things you think you know about networking to find a job that we’ve proven to be wrong.

So, last year I founded the Straight to Shortlist Challenge, in which I take a small group step by step through the process of tapping into the hidden job market to find a job.

It’s been wonderful to help people make career u-turns they’ve never thought to be possible before.

Having helped people develop target list of contacts and employers and map out what to say to complete strangers, it’s been truly insightful to work through in real time some of the advice experts routinely provide.

Now having done that,  I suspect much of the advice about best practice networking comes from people who have not put it into practice at all.

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So here’s what I’ve learned to be bollocks about networking.

And here’s what I’ve learned to be true.

MYTH 1: You’ll need a large LinkedIn network to find your dream job.

This is so not true.

One client I coached was wanting to move to the UK from Australia.

She was originally from the UK and had worked in HR previously which she loved.

However, she had not been in the paid workforce for 6 years, and out of HR in the UK for 15 years.

She found her dream HR job in the UK with less than 30 connections.

MYTH 2: Don’t connect with people you don’t know.

LinkedIn recommends you only connect with people you’ve met.

However from the 100’s of connection requests we’ve sent out to strangers, we’ve found that 60% of those strangers have said yes.

What’s interesting in this, is sometimes we’ve added a note and sometimes we’ve not.

Yet the rate of people saying yes to connect, stands about the same.

MYTH 3: You can’t ask senior people for coffee.

Oh, yes you can.

Networking gurus will say don’t this.

But the truth is, what they’re saying is “don’t reach out to me”

It’s pure projection.

People on the Straight to Shortlist Challenge have asked for a meeting with very senior people.

Many have said yes.

Those saying yes range from senior partners of top 4 consulting through to CFO’s of top ASX listed companies.

When we’ve made that request in a sincere and polite way, outlined why we’ve selected them and expressed a genuine interest in that person – that’s gone a long way to our success in getting a yes.

MYTH 4: It helps if you have an introduction when you want to meet someone.

We’ve found this to work both ways.

Sometimes it’s helped to know someone who can make the referral – but sometimes you can end up waiting a long time for the person you’re counting on to get back to you – and it slows up the process of networking.

In having someone make an introduction to your target, it does depend on their relationship with your target person.

Are they respected?

Do they have influence?

Your success also depends on how the person making the introduction views you.

MYTH 5: Most people won’t say yes to you.

I find many people are initially skeptical when it comes to reaching out to people they don’t know, and they limit themselves to people they believe will say yes.

But this is where your mind can play tricks on you.

If you’re in that negative spin cycle, you can have the underlying thought pattern that nobody will say yes – that you don’t deserve a yes, or that you’re not smart enough for anyone to say yes to.

So you self select out of even trying.

When we’ve reached out and cold emailed people for a meeting I say expect 25% of people to say yes.

But typically we’ve had yes rates between 50% to 90% – depending on the person.

So these are the 5 biggest myths we’ve busted so far on the Straight to Shortlist Challenge.

If you’d like to bust a few myths of your own, then I invite you to join the Straight to Shortlist Challenge.