How to Find Contacts When Changing Careers
- 1). Use social media. Join "fan pages," or input keywords for your desired career into social media searches and you have instant access to hundreds if not thousands of people doing what you want to do. Many companies now "tweet" about their business on Twitter.com, so following various comments by the company's followers can alert you to potential contacts willing to share information with you.
- 2). Visit website groups and forums. Similar to social media, forums allow people to gather and discuss common interests. Sites such as LinkedIn.com allow people to join groups that discuss various topics including their business and industry. Many people joining these groups and forums are happy to mentor newcomers and will provide them with information they have learned or experienced in their profession.
- 3). Join the professional organization for the field you are going into. Make a point to attend as many functions as possible and donate as much time as you can. Remember, your main point of attending is to interact with other people, but more important consider it a learning opportunity to listen and observe how group members conduct themselves. These people will eventually be your peers.
- 4). Have contact cards (printed without business information on them) made to hand out to people when you discuss your job search. You do not want to scramble for pen and paper when you meet someone who has the potential to help you network. Keep in mind that contact cards should provide only your name, phone number and an email address. Do not include flashy sayings or logos; you are wanting people to remember you for your professionalism, not the funny saying on your card.
- 5). Ask everyone you know if they know of someone in the profession you want to be in. See if they will give you an introduction or provide information for you to contact them. This is how the cliché, "It's not what you know, but who you know," came to be.
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