How to e-network into an organization

In my last post, I wrote about the importance of being targeted in your job search.

Rather than send out 100 identical resumes to 100 different organizations, I recommend you target 5-10 key organizations that are of great interest to you and pursue them with purpose.

How can you get to know more about an organization during COVID?

Here are three tips to help you learn more about your dream workplace:

1. Explore alumni and other networks
   When I worked at UNC and Duke, I saw alumni networks create golden opportunities for students again and again. School is about gaining skills and networks. To reach alumni from your schools (think high school, undergrad, and grad school), you can search for them on LinkedIn, or contact the school’s career office to learn about internal systems or initiatives that connect alumni. You should also be creative when you think about ‘alumni networks’ – for example, if you were the recipient of a scholarship or fellowship, there is likely an alumni network of fellow honorees willing to talk with you. If you were in the Peace Corps or any other sort of training cohort, the same applies. Before you reach out to others, read this piece on networking to make sure you’ve got the right approach.
2. Attend the organization’s online events
   I admire Simon Sinek, so I signed up for an online workshop of his. At the workshop, I was put into a dyad with another participant who soon became a client of mine. I didn’t attend the event to find clients, but I found one when I showed up to an event that interested me. An unintended benefit of COVID isolation is that many events are online and accessible now in a way they never were before – participants can attend without booking plane tickets and hotel rooms, for example. If you follow organizations you care about on social media, as detailed below, you should know about the events at which they are presenting, or that they may be hosting. Sign up and show up and you’ll meet the right folks for your next steps in life.
3. Follow the organization and its leaders on social media
   When I organized a panel on careers at the World Bank for Duke grad students a few years ago, one of the panelists suggested that a great way to network into the Bank was to follow the people who are doing work you admire on social media. “When we publish reports, we post about them on Twitter, and we are glad for comments and interaction,” this economist said. You should have met people personally to follow them on LinkedIn, but you can follow strangers’ Twitter accounts and they’re glad to have you. Figure out who’s doing work you aspire to within your target organizations and download their reports, watch their videos, read their quotes when they speak to reporters and comment when they post about it. You can have conversations with people you greatly admire this way. You can also be supportive of your LinkedIn connections, reacting to, commenting on, and sharing their posts, or writing them recommendations if you’ve worked together professionally. This generosity will be appreciated by your colleagues and will boost your profile in the algorithm, as social media is…social.

It’s not easy to stay motivated during COVID isolation when every day feels like Blursday. Keep yourself moving forward and meeting new people in these unusual times, and you’ll be surprised at the doors that may open.