NO NETWORK: NO JOB

Building a network is vital for your career, both for the present and the future. Networks can take multiple forms, like the social networks that are now everywhere in our lives.
However, the boundary between private and professional use of these networks can be slender. As a result, it is important to understand all the underlying mechanisms, so as to ensure they do not work against you in your hunt for an internship or a job. So, no network: no job?

Present on the networks or not

Digital tools highlight the real state of your network, or your lack of one! The famous lament – “I’ve got no network” – takes on a visible presence, and the extent of your network becomes palpable not only for a potential employer, but also for internship or job candidates.   

Over the years, the web has become the leading medium for recruitment, communication, sourcing and for forging new relations. It is now both social and collaborative. For example, nobody would now book a hotel room without having read comments on the subject first. And it’s the same for job applicants and recruiters! The web has become an all-weather tool for finding a job.  
Digital professional social networks are a practical way of managing your overall network, particularly when looking for a job!

Sifting through a mass of information

The social networks have become the biggest activity on the web, with Facebook the world’s biggest social network thanks to its one billion users worldwide. On the  professional side, two people join the LinkedIn international network every second. Businesses are present on social networks too, whether they use it to organise their visibility or not: The 100 largest corporations are mentioned 350,000 times a day, including 60,000 times on Twitter, while 88% of businesses are on Facebook and 93% update their content every week.
As a candidate, neglecting this welter of available information is tantamount to cutting yourself off from an immense vector of discussion, communication, contacts and visibility. You need to “fish where the fish are”, both within the social networks and outside them. Integrating yourself fully into the communities that form within these networks is undoubtedly a plus for your job hunting. Each company has its own identity and hence its own community based around it. They are a source of promising offers: it’s then down to you to make the right choices.

International dimension

If your hunt for a job is internationally focused, you need to understand that social networks have no borders (except in certain cases like China). If you’re looking to work abroad, it is important to adapt to local mores and to accustom yourself to foreign networks, even though technological progress has made it quite possible to build an international network from home.  

Use the social networks assiduously, but remember that as an extension of your personality, they only provide a first image of yourself. Use them to better understand the job market and to avoid being swamped by the increasing volumes of information that are now available.

No network = no job = no, but you would be passing up a real opportunity by not using these readily-available tools as a vector in your job-hunting.  

How to use the EDHEC network?

The value of the EDHEC network lies in its members, and also in the way each member contributes to and uses the network. As EDHEC students, it is natural to seek advice from your elders, but also vital to respect your alumni. Here are some key tips to help with the right approach:  

• Do not use the familiar “tu” form without the alumnus asking you to do so (avoid  excessive informality, such as “we come from the same school, so can you get me a job?”).
• Find out about the company for whom the alumnus works (avoid “so what do you guys do?”).
• Prepare a description of your project (avoid “well, I dunno, but I really like fashion…”).
• Contact the alumnus with a personalised message (avoid sending him/her an e-mail with a circulation list as long as the message!).
• Ask when it would be most convenient to contact him/her.
• Thank the alumnus for devoting time to you via a short e-mail after your contact. And don’t forget to inform him/her of the progress in your job hunting.  

The more you respect the network, the more it will do for you in return!