St.Louis Business Journal
USE NETWORKING INTERVIEWS TO VET YOUR CANDIDACY

By Anna Navarro

August 2005  

Author's note: Client stories in this column are based on actual situations fictionalized to protect privacy and told with permission.

One of the most powerful ways to use networking is to invite the people you network with to vet your candidacy. Good networking can help you discover your weak spots. It can also help you find ways to deal with them so they don't grind your job or career change to a halt.

The central feature of a networking interview is seeking input and advice. You should never ask for a job in a networking interview, either directly ("Do you have any openings?") or indirectly ("Have you heard of any openings?"). That puts the person with whom you're meeting on the spot, and it is inappropriate networking behavior.

The good news, however, is that you can use networking to get input on almost anything you'd like to know but can't ask a prospective employer.

Here are some quick examples:

· Their frank opinion of your strengths and weaknesses.

· Feedback on your resume.

· Their opinion of any aspect of your candidacy which concerns you and is either visible or sure to surface, like your age or lack of experience in a particular arena. (But don't use a networking interview as a confessional!)

· The counter-arguments you've developed to your weak spots, and how well they play.

Bruce was the Vice President of Medical Affairs for a well-respected 600-bed hospital in the Pacific Northwest. He wanted to be a hospital CEO.

After putting together a resume, he started networking. He targeted three individuals whom he knew slightly from his past work and were now CEOs.

When he contacted them he said he wanted their advice about the career shift he was contemplating, and made it very clear he wasn't asking them for a job. He also asked for confidentiality.

He started the interview by asking about them: How were their responsibilities structured? What were the biggest challenges they faced? What were the joys and downsides of their work? He listened attentively.

Then he shifted the conversation to himself and gave them a well-rehearsed and succinct rundown of his background.

His first advice question was about his strengths and weaknesses as a candidate. He prefaced his request by saying he hoped they would be totally frank. All said he had excellent credentials. But two of the three told him he lacked the bottom line responsibility to be a viable candidate for CEO.

This, of course, was not what Bruce wanted to hear. But it is what he needed to know; otherwise he would have spent a lot of time spinning his wheels. So he put his job search on hold, went back to his institution and looked for opportunities to take on P & L responsibilities.

His chance came a few months later when the head of his hospital's Heart Institute passed away unexpectedly. Bruce, a former cardiologist, persuaded the Administration and the Board to let him run the Institute on an interim basis in addition to his existing responsibilities. It was an easy sell because they needed someone quickly. And by the time the search committee got organized and evaluated other candidates, he'd done such a great job that he was appointed to the position permanently, along with his VMPA job.

The Heart Institute gave him exactly the experience he needed. A few years later he succeeded in getting a CEO position. A key to his success was the work he'd done at the Institute. But he would never have gone after that assignment if he hadn't learned from his networking interviews that he need P & L responsibility before he could be a serious CEO candidate.

Bruce is not alone in benefiting from a willingness to make himself vulnerable by asking for meaningful advice in a networking interview. Here are some other examples of what clients have learned taking similar risks:

· The "buzz words" they were using in their resume weren't appropriate for the position they were seeking.

· The clothes they were wearing didn't match the position they were after.

· Their age might be a problem for the job they were pursuing but that a related job might be a better fit.

An additional benefit of using your networking interviews to vet your candidacy is that it can help build rapport. Being appropriately candid about yourself and asking for frank feedback is a powerful way to build a close connection to the people with whom you are networking.

Anna Navarro is the founder of Work Transitions, a nationwide career consulting firm that trains independent career strategists and consults with individual clients.

This column was originally published by the St. Louis Business Journal. The actual title of the column and date in which it appeared in the Business Journal may be slightly different from what appears on WorkTransitions.com.