Teachers in Transition

Teachers in Transition - Episode 171 - The Importance of Your Network when Job Hunting

September 28, 2022 Kitty Boitnott
Teachers in Transition
Teachers in Transition - Episode 171 - The Importance of Your Network when Job Hunting
Show Notes Transcript

When job hunting, it's important that you use your network of friends, family, and perhaps even your colleagues to help you uncover possible opportunities that you wouldn't otherwise know about. 

In this week's episode, Kitty shares a couple of anecdotal examples of real people who found new jobs by sharing that they were looking for a new opportunity with their network.

You can also use your LinkedIn network, so it's important to expand your network using LinkedIn.

Kitty also shares the importance of learning how to conduct #informationalinterviews when #jobhunting.

To learn more, reach out to Kitty at kittyboinott@boitnottcoaching.com. 

Kitty Boitnott:

Are you a teacher who's feeling stressed out and overwhelmed? Do you worry that you're feeling symptoms of burnout or are you sure you've already gotten there? Have you started to dream of doing some other kind of job or perhaps pursuing a whole different career, but you don't know what else you're even qualified to do? You don't know how to start a job search. You just feel stuck. If that sounds like you, I promise you're not alone. My name is Kitty Boitnott. I'm a career transition and job search coach and I specialize in helping burnt-out teachers just like you deal not only with the stress and overwhelm of your day-to-day job, but to consider what other careers might be out there waiting for you. Join me for"Teachers in Transition." In some episodes, I'll be speaking to stress management techniques and how you can manage your stress on a day-to-day basis. In other episodes, I'll be talking about career transition. What tools do you need to be successful in a job search when you're moving from one career into a totally different track? These are questions that you need answers to and I can help you find those answers. My name is Kitty Boitnott. Welcome to"Teachers in Transition." Welcome back to episode 171 of teachers in transition the podcast and the YouTube channel. My name is kitty Boyk. I'm a heart centered career and transition a career transition and job search coach specializing in working with burnt out teachers who are ready for career change, but don't know how or where to begin. If you've listened to this podcast before you know that I alternate topics each week, one week, I talk about career transition strategies and on a alternating weeks, I talk about stress management strategies. The reason for that is I'm a certified stress management coach. In addition to being a trained and experienced career transition and job search coach this week, the topic is career transition. Um, and we're going to talk a little bit about the importance of using your network. I can't emphasize this enough. You know, people often think that they need to keep it to themselves when they're job hunting and nothing could be further from the truth you need to share with your friends, your family, your colleagues, to the extent that you feel like it's okay to share with your colleagues. If you don't want your principal to know that your job hunting yet, that's fine. At some point, you're going to need to let them know. But in the very beginning, you don't need to, to tell them that and give them reason to be paying closer attention to you. So you wanna tell them at the appropriate time, and that varies depending on each individual situation, at some point, however, you might be able to use your principle as part of your network to help you to find new opportunities that might be useful to you. That's what using your network is all about using potential opportunities or learning of potential opportunities. I know I anecdotally I've heard of situations where someone went to a neighborhood, barbecue. They didn't wanna go cause they felt down and out about themselves. They'd been let go from their previous position and they weren't eager to share that information. They were embarrassed and just not eager to tell anybody that they were out of work, but this particular gentleman went to a neighborhood barbecue. He happened to mention to one of the people that he was talking to, that he had been let go. And he was looking for a new job and the guy that he was talking to just happened to know of a new opening in his company and gave him information about the job that was coming up and told him that he would give him a or good recommendation to the HR director. Boom, boom. A few days later, he's got an interview. I don't know if he got the job or not, but just getting as far as the interview stage is a massive accomplishment. Another one of, uh, my clients shared that she decided just to, I think she referred to it as take the bandaid off and announce through her Facebook network that she was looking for work and that if anybody had any suggestions or ideas to let her know before the end of the day, she had heard from an old friend, an old school friend, somebody she knew from all the way back in elementary school, middle school, high school, they had gone to school all the way through. He knew her work ethic. He knew how hard she would work. He knew how smart she was. He reached out to her. He said, I think I might have something that you'd be interested in. Send me your resume. She did. And he reworked it for her so that it better fit a potential job that was opening his company. He took the resume to the HR director. He facilitated an interview, um, connection. And she interviewed for the job. And next thing she knew she had the job. So use your network wherever it may be people at church, people that you hang out with friends, family, like I said, if you don't wanna share with colleagues just yet, that's fine, perfectly understandable. So be discreet about who you share it with. But if you know people who might be able to offer you introductions, use that as leverage. You don't want to sit on the information and possibly miss out on a potential opportunity. So use your network, use LinkedIn to increase your network, increase it through sending invitations to people who work in the industry that you're interested in, working in people who are doing the job that you're interested in, doing people who are working for the company that you're interested in working for. Once you've connected with them, ask for an informational interview. Now don't mistake what an informational interview is all about. In fact, I think I've talked about informational interviews and the difference between an informational interview and a, uh, an interview that you need to have at the end of a job search process in an informational interview, you're looking for information from the individual about how they got started, what they had to do to get the job that they have, people that they work with. What's the culture of the company? Like, is it a good place to work? Is it a healthy place to work? What's the, what's the boss? Like what are the other people? And the company like information that can add to your store of information and help you determine if it really is a job that you would be interested in, or really is a company or industry that you would be interested in or do you need to continue to look elsewhere? So use your LinkedIn network for informational interviews or wherever else. You might be able to find an individual or a group that can help you with your job search. Don't skimp on asking people for help when it's appropriate and you don't wanna be overly needy. You don't wanna be bugging people for sure, but you do want to be forthright about your need for help assistance along the way. People who might be able to offer an introduction that would be key to your success as a job seeker. So that's it for today. Have a wonderful rest of your week, enjoy your week. And I will talk to you again next week. Goodbye for now.

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So there you have it, an episode of"Teachers in Transition." I hope you enjoyed the information and I hope you'll plan to come back. Please subscribe to"Teachers in Transition" so that you can be alerted of future episodes. And let me know if you have any questions or topics that you would like me to specifically cover in a future episode. I'm more than happy to help with individual questions as well. So email me at KittyBoitnott@BoitnottCoaching.com. If you are interested in finding a new career or just enjoying your life more, this is the place to start. I'm Kitty Boitnott and this is"Teachers in Transition."