Meeting Employers Where They Look for Talent
More than 30 years ago, in "What Color Is Your Parachute," Richard Bolles identified a disconnect in the way employers look for talent and in the way job seekers look for opportunity. Understanding the nature of this disconnect is critical for understanding the value and effectiveness of developing your professional network.
To emphasize the challenge, I created the graph shown in Figure 1.
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Figure 1 The job seeker/employer opportunity gap: Job seekers often start looking for opportunity in the last place employers look for talent.
Figure 1 shows the perceived risk associated with the method used to acquire talent. It also displays the preferred starting point for employers and the common starting point for job seekers. The dilemma is obvious.
Professional networking positions you closer to the employer’s desired starting point when looking for talent.