People get together for the holidays, often seeing friends they haven’t seen since the last year’s year-ending holidays. So, holiday parties are a wonderful time to network and to connect with jobs, before the new year starts.
If you have unemployed friends (most of us do), help them leverage these holiday get-togethers to advance their job search. What a great way to start the new year – a new job!
Do NOT –
Even sympathetically, don’t ask “So, still job-hunting?”
If you’re unemployed, you face the reality of job hunting every day, and it isn’t fun.
So, when you meet with unemployed friends, be sensitive to your friends’ feelings, and don’t ask awkward questions. People seem to flounder around trying to be helpful, often making everyone feel uncomfortable.
Instead -
After you’ve exchanged the usual pleasantries, look for concrete ways you can help your friend with their job search.
Ask these 3 questions:
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1.) What?
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Ask your friend, “What job are you looking for?”
Hopefully, they will know what they want. And it will hopefully be something they enjoy doing so they won’t hate their next job!
But, they may feel so desperate that they say, “I’ll take anything at this point.” Understandable, but not useful or, ultimately, helpful because they usually won’t find any ”anything” jobs available – legitimate jobs with real employers are always about something specific.
If they don’t have a target job, ask:
- What did you enjoy doing in your last job? Or, in the job before that? Or before that?
- If not what you’ve been doing, then what else?
If they can’t think of any jobs they would like next, you might suggest a few yourself based on your knowledge of your friend’s accomplishments, skills, and experience.
2.) Where?
Ask your friend, “Where – which employer or employers - would you like to work for next?”
- Like your last employer? Or, the employer before that?
- If not like recent employers, then what other employers would be interesting?
- Make suggestions of employers you know about that your friend might not.
Having specific employers in mind for that next job makes the job search easier and the networking much more effective.
3.) Who?
Now, ask yourself if you know someone who works at the right place or in the right job or industry.
Introduce your friend to that person or those people.
Think about the possibilities.
- Employees -
Tell your friend the names of people doing the job your friend wants, particularly if those people work at any of your friend’s target employers. Then, make an introduction, if your friend is interested. - Employers -
Tell your friend the names of employers you know who are currently hiring, particularly if you have friends working for those employers and you could help your unemployed friend connect with the person working for one of the expanding employers. Again, if you have connections, make the appropriate introductions if your friend is interested.
But, even if you don’t know anyone working for one of those employers, strategize about how to connect – LinkedIn, Facebook, Google, etc.
Bottom Line
Don’t ask awkward questions. Focus on providing concrete help with networking rather than sympathy or even commiseration. Networking help will be more work for you, but the payoff will be bigger – for everyone.
© Copyright, 2011, Susan P. Joyce. All rights reserved.
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About the author…
Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. In 1998, her company, NETability, Inc. purchased Job-Hunt.org, and Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt since then. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg.
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[...] Helpful Holiday Table Talk with Unemployed Friends – 3 Key Questions [...]
Good post. It is so many unemployed here in Europe recently that everyone are concerned how to help their friends and relatives. I also write post on helping unemployed to find a job.
http://hrseconds.com/unemployed-how-to-get-job/
I hope you don’t mind a link.