01: How to network virtually

Career coach Win Sheffield tells us how the pandemic* has changed the job market. Networking virtually is now the norm and Win shares how to reach out and connect with people online when you're trying to switch industries or professions. 

Episode Highlights:
•  How to network virtually
•  How to use LinkedIn
•  How to connect with new people
•  The 3 groups of people who can help you
•  The #1 question to ask when looking to change careers

* This episode was recorded in March 2021 at the height of the pandemic. The original title has been changed with a focus on networking. 


Find Win Sheffield at:

Website: www.winsheffield.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/winsheffield

Facebook: www.facebook.com/WinSheffieldCareerCoach

Register for Win's online Stories Workshop: Conveying Your Value 

Mondays at 4:30 pm EST

https://www.winsheffield.com/events-2/

Music credit: TimMoor from Pixabay

Podcast info:
What's your career switch? What do you think about this episode and the show? Tell us at careerswitchpod.com. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Transcript

Lixandra: Hi, everyone. I'm Lixandra Urresta, and this is Career Switch Podcast. This show is here to encourage you to take action with whatever career change you've been considering or are working on. In some episodes, I talk to people who've made their own career switch, whether by choice or circumstance. They share the good, the bad, and the truth about their journey, including what worked for them and what didn't. In other episodes, I speak with experts who offer their best career advice on issues that can come up during the process of making a career change. After all, it takes guts to switch things up and it's not easy. However, it is possible. So. I hope you hear something in this episode, an idea, a suggestion, a piece of wisdom that'll spur you into action with your own career switch, whether it's taking that first bold step or trying something new. Welcome. I'm glad you're here. 

It's our first episode and we are hitting the ground running with a question many of you may be wondering. Can I make a career switch during the pandemic? The answer is yes. Our guest today is certified career coach, Winn Sheffield. Winn provides one-on-one coaching for his clients to sharpen their networking skills and develop the confidence to communicate their value in the job market. He's helped clients transition into a variety of fields. And in this episode, he's going to tell us how the pandemic has changed the job market and the possible advantages to making a career switch now. Let's jump into it. Hi, Winn. Thanks for joining us. We're in a pandemic. So many businesses have closed or are closing and people are losing their jobs. We hear about it in the news all the time. So can someone make a career change during this time?

Win: The fact is that what's happening is not just that businesses are shutting down, like everything in the hospitality industry, but that industries are reinventing themselves. And even the hospitality in good time, probably a year or more, will be coming back online. Clients who I'm working with who do get employed are being employed into businesses that people see growing down the road or that need to be done now, but in a different way that they've been done before.

Lixandra: What are some of these different ways?

Win: If your business model required you to have people meeting in person, that's obviously no longer possible. For instance, I have some clients in sales. Some of them have dived into sales because they like the way that they can efficiently sit at their desk and meet other people and are doing the kinds of sales where that works well. There are other people in sales who are frustrated because even though they had to travel around to their territory to visit clients, they liked being on the road and the interaction, the physical interaction between them and their clients. So the job no longer meets your needs because the business model is changing for the people who might employ you. The thing that hasn't changed is the way in which people are listing jobs on job sites and people apply to those. The fact is, most people aren't going to get their job through a job ad. If you're just graduating from school, then the odds are almost 50% that you're going to get your job through an ad. The further you are away from that date of graduation, the less likely it is that you're going to get a job through an ad. So what you're going to have to do is to figure out how to connect with people so that you can get a job through those people. And that's what's changed because obviously there's no more running into people at a networking event. There's no more taking someone to lunch and being able to bring up the job. And so that's what's really changed. Then there's how you reach out to people. Meeting in person is the most effective way because communication is so much clearer when you're in person. 

The second best for that is to meet online using any number of things out there. Zoom is very popular these days. Whatever it is, if you introduce video into it, you get a better connection with somebody, which means that just like going to work, you have to dress up to present yourself. So think of the dynamic of networking. A lot of people feel very uncomfortable approaching someone else because they think that it's all about them and they don't want to be imposing on someone else. Well, first of all, if you think about your approach, if they're asking you for something that you know about and you can fill them in about, you're going to feel great. If you're willing to do that, chances are they're willing to do that back to you sometime down the road when you really need it. But the key to making it work is asking them for something that they have. I'm all set to help you. I'm ready to do what I can. We've been introduced by our mutual friend, Diana, and I want to do what I can for you. And you asked me for a job. I'm lost. I'm disappointed. I want to do what I can for you. Anything that I can do, I will. But do I have a job? Most of your contacts won't. So to go in with that strategy of trying to end the pain of being on your own and out of the workforce or trying to get out of an unsatisfactory job and into something you really enjoy, you really want to do it quickly, but you have to hold back when you're networking. Do what you can to think of things that the person could provide for you. And the easiest thing that they can provide is their experience. 

So, if they have done any of the things that you might like to do, or if they have experience in any of the industries that you're interested in, or any of the functions you'd like to switch into, simply ask them, how did you do it? How did you get here? By asking them that, you are sure that you're asking them for something that they have. And so when they speak to you again, when they think of you, which they will do, because you've asked them for something that they've wanted to do, and they've been able to do it, they're going to be enthusiastic about seeing you again, about picking up the phone when you call again, or responding positively to your email when you ask them for the next Zoom meeting. So use the people in the way they'd like to be used, and you will create a larger network instead of what a lot of people do is ask them for a job which they don't have, in which case you're using up your network because the last thing they're going to want to do is talk to you again because it just reminds them of their disappointment.

Lixandra: So for someone who's looking to make a career switch, whether it be to change industries, change their profession, change their location, they would need to reach out to people outside their company, outside their industry, and outside their city. LinkedIn is a great way to find people and network. Can you recommend how to connect with new people?

Win: There are three groups of people, in a simplistic way I think about it, who you can speak to. You can speak to the people you know. You know people socially and you know people professionally. Now, those two groups, if you're switching outside your industry and outside your function, the odds are that they don't know the answers to your questions and your questions are like, what does one do to succeed or how does one get into this new place that you know nothing about? That doesn't mean you don't ask them because while they're your primary network and they don't know anything, they have a lot of goodwill towards you. They are the people who you socialize with. They are the people who you have worked with and done a lot for socially or professionally. And so they're inclined to do what they can. And one of the things that they can do is to refer you to their networks, their primary networks. They are your secondary network. You have no idea the depth and breadth of the people that they know. So what you need to do is to be able to articulate as best you can what it is that you're heading for and what questions you have so that they can refer you on to people who could answer those questions. 

Before I mention the third group to speak out to, one of the things that I'll mention is that you want to be very careful when you're talking to people to make sure they know that the reason you're going to reach out to their friends is not to ask them for a job, but you're going to reach out to find out more about that location, industry, or function that you'd like to change into. The third group, and often the easiest group for you to approach, Is another group who you're strongly connected with and who you don't know at all. What you say how could i be strongly connected with them and don't know them at all. Because you share some kind of affiliation with them organizational affiliation the most obvious example of those. Is alumni people who went to any school you went from elementary school on. are going to talk to you because they remember those fond days at Shadyside or Union High or anywhere you name college. That loyalty, that common shared loyalty that you have with them will allow them to pick up the phone and answer your call or to respond to your email because they trust you because of that shared connection. Now that shared connection doesn't have to be alumni. It can be a social group, a bowling league, a religious group. It can be a professional group. 

One of the things you can do on LinkedIn, which is great, is you can join a professional group of a profession you've never darkened the door of with the stated intent of learning about the profession, which the people in that group may love and be happy to share with you. Those people have a lot of loyalty to that profession, or there could be a group, the Friends of Cincinnati. If you're moving to Cincinnati and you don't have a network there and you'd like to build one, if you join the Friends of Cincinnati, and I don't even know if the Friends of Cincinnati exist, but they probably exist as a non-LinkedIn group and would be happy to have you as a member because they think nothing higher than living in Cincinnati. So those three groups, you have your primary network who may or may not know the answers, but have all the will to do things for you. You have their primary network, your secondary network, who will be willing to do things for you because of the mutual connection you have with your primary network. And you have your affiliate network who have a loyalty and a willingness and a real need to help you because of the common affiliation you share.

Lixandra: Would you say there are actually advantages to making a career switch during this time?

Win: Yes. So one of the simple things is it's awfully hard when you're working at a place to be making calls during the middle of the day. When you're making calls in the middle of the day, it's suspicious. When you're at home and you make calls in the middle of the day, no one knows. Another advantage is there is a common Subjective conversation which you and every other person on this earth share. And that is how you're dealing with this pandemic. So when you're looking for the getting through the awkwardness of small talk, you can be on a subject which everybody shares and which leads to naturally leads to a conversation about business where you can talk about how things are changing or will change. One of the things that I talk to clients about is the reality of really wanting to change how you contribute to the workplace, the way in which marketing or operations or accounting or anything else is done is changing. And we have to be ready to embrace that by seeking things that are interesting to us. And by talking to people about that, people will be able to tell us where that might be. And maybe six months later or two months later, they'll call back and say that that thing is there. But your focus is to recognize the importance to you of what it is that you want to share with people, other people, the importance of what you want. Not because you're being a braggart, but because you recognize ways in which you've brought value to the workplace and which you want to bring value again, albeit in a slightly different way.

Lixandra: So for our listeners who are thinking about making a career switch or in the process, and maybe they're hitting a wall, what are three tips that you can offer our listeners to take action?

Win: So we have to think about ourselves in a different way. As career changers, we need to focus on learning, because we have a lot to learn, before we focus on selling ourselves. So my tip is remember any conversation we have outside the interview, our job is to impress with asking good questions because we need answers to questions more than we need anything else. So the first tip is ask questions as a first priority, sell ourselves as a second priority. the good questions will sell us anyway. Second tip, part of our jobs as career changers is to learn where else our skills and abilities, this is a lot of learning we need to do, are useful. The most effective way to have people help us is to tell people how we succeeded in the past by telling those stories they will be able to tell us where and how we can be useful in other environments. This has always been an important part of any career changing. And it's such an important part that for my clients and other people who would like to join, I offer a workshop every Monday afternoon on telling those stories that will help us to tell others how they will recognize our experience as valuable. And the third thing I say, it's so tempting when we feel uncomfortable and unsure of ourselves to try to do this alone. The most important thing that we can do more than anything else is not to try to make the change by yourself. Ask friends and friends of people to assist you wherever you can think of ways they might. People like to help other people take advantage of that.

Lixandra: Thanks, Win, for your insight and advice. Thanks to Win Sheffield for being our guest career expert today. You can find Wynn at his website, wynnsheffield.com. His weekly virtual stories workshop, conveying your value through sharing your experience, happens every Monday at 4.30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, and you can register for it at winsheffield.com under events. 

You can find links to the resources mentioned in this episode and more helpful information in the show notes and on our website, careerswitchpod.com. While you're there, join our mailing list and follow us on Instagram and Twitter at careerswitchpod. So what's your career switch? Are you excited to take action after listening to this episode? Tell us at careerswitchpod.com. We'd love to know, along with any feedback you have about the show. We're a new podcast, so please rate, review, and share with your friends and colleagues. It'll help get the show out there. Thanks for listening today. Till next time. The music heard on this podcast is by Tim Moore from Pixabay.