Thanks to everyone who joined us for our July 16th webinar, Networking & Relationship Building with Employers, presented by Chris Arnold, Clinical Director at Provincial Networking Group Inc (PNGI). We were once again extremely pleased that so many of you were able to take the time to attend. If you were not able to make it, no problem! See below for a recording of the full webinar.
For a PDF copy of the presentation slides, click here, and for a copy of PNGI’s ‘Degrees of Job Development’ handout, click here.
Chris provided a number of practical tips and strategies for engaging employers. Now it’s time to open up the discussion: What approaches work for you? Do you have any strategies for building relationships with employers that you have found to be successful? Maybe you have a question for Chris or the career practitioner community. Whatever your question or comment may be, we would love to hear from you.
Let’s keep the discussion going with a question that was posed by a participant at the end of the webinar:
“Chris, the examples you covered in the presentation were mostly for entry-level positions. Do you have any examples regarding other types of positions?”
Regarding the examples and types of positions, when you are working on networking and relationship building with employers, the activities are not really attached to any ‘type’ of position. Networking is networking. You can just as easily meet a local restaurant manager or owner or an executive of a large corporate office, depending on where you focus your networking efforts. For example, volunteering on your community’s summer games committee could end up having you interacting with the owner of McDonalds but also a local accountant or manager from ICBC. Even though one of my examples was to do with Tim Horton’s, the press that we got in the local paper would have been viewed by all types of businesses so the ripple effects could in fact be far reaching.
If you are looking for a particular type of job, and you want to try some of these networking ideas, do some initial research to find out things like what volunteer causes or charities does that business support? Do you have any purchasing power within that business? What sorts of awards might that business be eligible for? Also look at your built-in networks – within your agency, your own networks and the job seeker’s networks, and ask the question, “Who do we know that either works in that industry or business or a similar industry or business that might be able to provide information or contacts we could follow up on?” If we don’t know anyone through all the networks at our disposal then we ask “How could we get to know someone in that industry or business?” and follow up with that.
Also it’s important to keep in mind that any networking or relationship building work you engage in now may not pay off with an immediate job but it could sew the seeds for future interactions or involvement with your program and the job seekers you represent. Sometimes it takes time to build up relationships and that is why it’s important for career development professionals to have some ability to do ongoing networking and relationship building activities as a regular part of their job, not just related to one specific job seeker.
Hi Chris how are you do you remember me enjoyed your webinar I forwarded it to our MACL employment services hope they can ues it
Thanks for the nice feedback and for sharing the webinar, Jerry!
Hi Jerry, of course I remember you! We’ve crossed paths at many events now and you are always a memorable guy to chat with. Thanks for joining the webinar and passing it on. (I was away on holidays when you posted so I’m a bit late responding).