New Year, New Job: Tap Into Your Professional Community to Help You Land the Role

If landing a new job is one of your career goals for 2019, you’re in luck. January is one of the hottest months for hiring and there are nearly three million hiring professionals using LinkedIn every day. If you are wondering where to start, try tapping your professional community. According to our research, more than 70% of professionals get hired at a company where they have a professional connection.

So how can you build your “career community” to land a new job or lend a hand to someone in need? Here are some tips:

Build real relationships. Nearly 70% of professionals want to use their communities to find jobs for others, but that number falls to 10% for people in their community they do not know personally. So make sure you are building real relationships. Here are a few pointers:

• Get an introduction from a common connection. This helps warm a relationship right from the start, as does identifying shared interests and beginning a dialogue around trending news or events. Be specific with asks to your connections — like requesting advice on a specific skill you’d like to develop — and tap into LinkedIn Groups to connect with others who have shared interests.
• Recognize milestone moments. When people are celebrating, or struggling get in touch with a heartfelt, yet professional note.

Prioritize your professional community. Being time-stretched is the biggest obstacle to building professional relationships, with 26% of professionals stating they simply don’t have time and almost half saying they'd rather use free time for family or social commitments.

• Try non-traditional networking. It’s no surprise that 51% of professionals prefer non-traditional networking — think meet-ups over manicures or “sweatworking” — that maximizes time by killing two birds with one stone. Push yourself this year to try something new with a professional contact, making the most of your time and theirs. And, since half of survey respondents say they would rather network in small groups, feel free to bring along a friend!

Work-it Wednesday. Nearly one-quarter of professionals (24%) say that, given work schedules, Wednesday is the best day to make a relationship-building meeting, followed by Friday (20%). So, if you’re going to try and get away from your to-do list and plan a meet-up, aim for hump day to increase your chances of getting a “yes.”

Reach out and repeat. With that first one under your belt, it can only get easier. Do it again. And again. Let LinkedIn’s diverse community of more than 575 million professionals help you get closer to your 2019 career goals. Our community really is in it together: remember that two-thirds of professionals say they plan to help someone advance their career in the future. That someone could be you.

Whatever job you’re looking for, there’s a community of LinkedIn members who are ready and willing to help. #InItTogether

Methodology

The survey was conducted online for LinkedIn by Censuswide from December 18-21, 2018, among more than 2,150 working professionals, ages 18-74, across the U.S.