Peer-to-Peer Career Networking

Regular Gradspot readers may notice we talk a whole lot about networking, and they'd be right—we definitely believe that networking is one of the most integral and dynamic aspects of the job hunt. While brand new resume-writing tips don't tend to crop up too often, the landscape of career networking is constantly evolving, and it's worth keeping up with the latest techniques. With over 50% of positions filled through networking, the only question is "why not?"

Anyway, if you're interested, The New York Times has a good trend piece on Gen-Yers finding jobs through friends. This is the part that resonated most with me:

“Boomer parents will tell me that they offered to introduce their son or daughter to a high-level person, but they don’t want to approach it that way,” said Ms. Erickson, who is also the author of “Plugged In: The Generation Y Guide to Thriving at Work.” “Getting in at the top is more of a boomer strategy, and the Y’s are using more of a peer-infiltration approach.”

Despite the entitlement issues we're often accused of harboring, I think that our generation really does want to feel like we deserve what we get in the job market, and getting hooked up with the CEO of a company by our parents can feel a bit uncomfortable.

It's also worth pointing out that while the CEO and other top brass certainly have influence, they're often not the ones making decisions about entry-level hiring. Instead, twentysomethings may be asked to screen resumes from people attended their alma mater, so don't think that anyone is too low down the totem pole to be worth speaking with.

For Help Finding Jobs, Friends in Low Places [via NYT]