I was interested to see how the poll on the jobs.ac.uk career development site is progressing. For those of you who haven’t seen it (go and have a look now!) the current question is ‘what is most important when finding a job?’ and the three possible answers are: networking, searching for a job online, or searching for a job in print media. The poll changes when anyone updates it, but as I write this well over half the respondents have chosen online jobseeking. But interestingly, in second place comes networking.
I have just got back from a high-powered conference in London at which I was networking like mad. I really must get some business cards printed up; I was having to scribble my email address onto a scrap of paper, not a professional look! Even though I am not an active jobseeker at the moment, I can see the benefits of getting to know as many people as possible, getting your work known and reputation broadcast. For active jobseekers this is even more vital of course. You never know when that contact will be on an interview panel (or, as in my case, be able to provide inside information about what the employers were looking for).
Another interesting poll would be to ask those currently in work how they got their job, whether by applying ‘blind’ or whether they a) contacted someone in the university to ask about the job or b) knew someone on the inside in advance. Of course we all like to think we got our jobs purely on merit, but in my opinion having a contact at the hiring institution must help.
Certainly academic jobseeking is changing fast, with online application and selection becoming very important. But, networking seems to be a constant in academic hiring. So how many academics do you think got their jobs via networking? How many applied and got the job on the back of their application and interview alone? That would produce an interesting result providing a lot of help for future jobseekers.
