It's Still Who You Know...

By Laura Koss-Feder

Michael Kim, 27, a violinist turned first-year finance-and-information-management student, has gone high tech to get help in landing that perfect job after graduation from the business school at the University of Texas at Austin. He is using an online service called BranchOut--not to look at help-wanted ads but to network with other professionals in the world of finance who might be able to point him in the right direction. The website offers Kim a nationwide choice of 40,000 potential tipsters, organized by school, industry, company, geography and job function. Kim spent barely two hours tapping out 25 e-mails to outline his needs; the very next day, he got five answers from knowledgeable guides who were willing to offer him advice or job suggestions. "This online network is kind of cool and very futuristic," says Kim. "And you can talk to these people and ask them important job questions with just the press of a button."

In the booming U.S. economy, with unemployment at lows not seen since the late 1960s, it's easy to forget that job hunting is still one of the most important rites of adult life--maybe now more than ever. High-tech whizzes and software wonks may be snapped up barely out of their mother's womb. But the structure of working life has changed to the point that virtually everyone will be looking for a new job--and the people who can help them get it--far more often than in the past. Since the downsizing of the early 1990s and the blitzkrieg arrival of the New Economy, millions of Americans have come to realize that they are not going to spend their life working for just one, two or even three different employers. In fact, the average number of job changes in a professional career is now hovering between eight and 10, and half of them are made by age 40, says John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a Chicago outplacement firm. And, of course, there is that all-important first job, as Kim's search suggests.

When it comes to job hunting, the old bromide that it's not what you know, it's who you know is even more pertinent in a fast-moving, fluid economy. While Internetworking is about to become the wave of the future, even tried-and-true methods of touching base and gathering tips are useful--and perhaps even essential. There are no hard data on the networking phenomenon, but career consultants and outplacement specialists estimate that as many as 70% to 80% of the best jobs come from effective, consistent networking, as opposed to using headhunters, blind resume mailings and job ads. At the Harvard Business School, for example, 80% of alumni find jobs via networking, says Bob Gardella, assistant director of alumni career services.

For all that, the job is as much art as science. "It's six degrees of separation. Within six people, you will probably meet someone who knows somebody that you know who can have a profound influence on your career," says Eva Wisnik, president of Wisnik Career Strategies, a New York City career consultancy. Adds Challenger: "Make up a list of the 25 people in your industry or your town whom you would want to work for and try to find the contacts who will get you to these people." Some other tips:

--GIVE YOURSELF TIME If you are looking for a lower management position, it can take up to about six months of consistent networking on average to find the position you want, says Deborah Arron, a Seattle career consultant. A middle-management job could take up to one year, and an upper-management position could involve a two-year networking crusade.

--JOINING IS NETWORKING Mingling with people who have formed an association around a common interest is as old a custom in job seeking as in politics. But be sure you are really willing to get involved. Consider Lawrence Tabas, 45, partner in the Philadelphia law firm of Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP, whose passion for local politics helped land him his current position. Tabas was running as a Republican for a city-council seat in 1991 when the chairman of his current law firm, Marvin Weinberg, a staunch Democrat who was backing Tabas' opponent, took notice of his vigorous, well-endorsed campaign efforts. Weinberg ultimately lured Tabas away from his job at another law firm. "I love the thrill of politics and how much you can do to help people while you are in political office," says Tabas, who lost the race but still spends about 25% of his time on political activities. "But it also gives you the chance to meet all kinds of people who can become very important to you."

The same can be said for charity work. Susan Riker Dolan, 41, a former nurse turned attorney, began volunteering at a hospice in Madison, Wis., in 1995. She started spending four hours a week comforting dying patients and their families. When she married and moved to her current home of Park Ridge, Ill., Dolan continued her volunteer work. She began spending time with hospice administrators, lunching with the executive director and assisting the group with volunteer training. Eventually she signed on as a marketing and promotions manager. "I can't wait to go to work each day," Dolan says. "I guess I was meant to do this."

The quintessential networking group is the professional association, and it's important to take advantage of any that meet your needs. This is what happened to Mindy Ferrentino, 47, who handles marketing and communications for the law offices of Harriette M. Steinberg P.C. in Westbury, N.Y. Three years ago, she joined the Long Island Center for Business and Professional Women, a networking group, and eventually became a board member and vice president. Another board member introduced Ferrentino to her current boss, and she moved into her office a year ago.

--SPEAK UP Those who not only join network groups but also stand and deliver before them are in effect advertising their expertise. Wisnik, for example, conducts legal training seminars through the United Jewish Appeal. Attorneys pay a fee to attend the seminars, which raise money for the charity, and Wisnik benefits through client referrals. But what really keeps her going is gratitude. The u.j.a. paid for Wisnik, her parents and her brother to emigrate to the U.S. from Poland 30 years ago.

--BE AN OLD BOY (OR GIRL) In the modern age, universities are offering alumni the chance to do more than flaunt the old school tie. It's a lot more high tech now. About 20% of major universities offer online databases that help you find other alums who can offer guidance and assistance, says Cindy Chernow, director of the alumni career-services department at the University of California, Los Angeles. About 4,500 UCLA alums, out of 276,000 graduates, have volunteered to network online with other alumni. At Harvard's graduate business school, almost half the school's 60,000 alums have volunteered to advise other graduates seeking job changes through the school's two-year-old online database.

It's clearly getting faster to let the Internet do the walking. The BranchOut database, for example, began in 1997 and was initially open to Ivy League graduates only; the general public was given access last October. Users can register for free by offering a short profile of themselves and their aims. They can indicate if they want to be a volunteer mentor; about 15,000 of the 40,000 current members (average age: 36) have done so. Searches can be based on undergraduate and graduate schools, job function, company, location, industry or a combination of any of these. Most of the professionals registered with BranchOut in the technology, financial-services, investment-banking, consulting and marketing fields. The company makes its money through finders fees it collects for hooking up companies with employees and through online advertisers. "With online networking, you're not limited to time and place," says New York City-based co-CEO David Ronick. "It's like a giant cocktail party on the Internet." The party is only getting bigger.