The old maxim, “It’s not what you know, but who you know,” really is a good way to sum up the importance and relevance of networking in the life of the job-seeker. Thus, it would not be a stretch to say that networking is the most important activity for a job-seeker to get a handle on to achieve success while searching for a job.

You may have already realized during your job search exploits that there are more jobs available than are listed in your local paper. This is because a majority of job openings are simply never advertised. They are held back by the business owners or left up to the job-seeker to take the initiative and contact the HR department or some other internal contact.  Other times, the one who may have a position open is keeping the position for just the right candidate and doesn’t want to deal with dozen of applicants who simply do not have the qualifications. But what if you do have experience or qualifications that this job requires? Perhaps, someone you know may have heard about this position. 

Let’s put it another way. The actual percentage of jobs that are openly advertised is between five and twenty-five percent. This means that there are scores of unadvertised openings that can be discovered only through talking to as many people as possible and letting them know that you’re currently looking for employment. Since you may know “someone who knows someone” you could be a better position than those who limit themselves to ads in the classified section.

The relationships that you build through networking can help you in a number of ways: 1) those in your network may have information about hidden employment opportunities; 2) you may have contacts that can help while researching your career plans; 3) you can be inspired and motivated by some of great personal contacts you’ve made; 4) if your contact works for a company you have an interest in, you could gain valuable inside information regarding in-house opportunities that have not be released to the public yet.

According to U.S. Labor of Statistics, around 85 percent of those seeking jobs successfully find what they’re looking for due to networking and direct contact with business they chose. Approximately 60 percent of all jobs are actually found by job networking.  The Wall Street Journal has reported figures as high as 95 percent of the total amount. 

A network of professional and personal contacts that can provide support, information, and job leads provides a powerful edge for any job seeker. But a question remains: Should a job seeker concentrate more about the quality of his network or the quantity of those who make up the network?

Quality Vs. Quantity

Should you keep your network small and made up of quality professional and personal connections, or go for a larger number of contacts who are relevant to your search efforts but may or may not be what you would consider quality contacts?  In other words, should pay more attention to the quantity or quality of your networking relationships? If you’re unsure, let me cut through the uncertainty. The fact is, you should really do your best to develop both aspects of your network, but doing this is far from simple. Time is the key factor here. You must have time to both build and more importantly maintain those relationships; to make them quality contacts takes even more time. Unfortunately, most of us only have so many hours in a day to devote to this. Therefore, one aspect or the other may suffer for it.

Under natural time constraints, we all understand that there can never be an exact balance of quality and quantity but this does not mean you should not strive for the balance. It is true that the more people you know, the less you will be able to get to know them.

So how can you find a clear balance of quality connections with highly relevant people and maximizing the number of people in your network? Everyone has different requirements when networking. In order to make the most of your efforts, you need to find out what sort of relationship quality will be enough to accomplish your job-seeking goals. Then you can then build the numbers based upon this information.  Of course, there is no one right solution all the time.  Your specific needs will have to be revised when the context changes.  Any strategies that you find help you build those stronger, quality relationships and reach out to more people should be time-sensitive, allowing for the constraints of your schedule.

Quality Network - Though it may be obvious by now what a quality network is, it will be good to go over a few more points. A purely quality-based network will be small and limited in scope. Many people have networks made up of close friends, family members, and occasionally old acquaintances. Your time and attention is fixed upon maintaining these intimate relationships and using them to gather information about opportunities.  Even if your quality network is made up of business contacts, they will be those that you’ve invested considerable time in, cultivating them into strong relationships.

Even if you started a relationship as a chance meeting with an executive at a social function; you have not left it there. You’ve worked to make them much more. By focusing on the quality of your networking contacts you have sacrificed the range that larger numbers could afford you. For some, this is preferable because it is easier to manage a smaller list of contacts.

Quantity Network - Creating a network that is based on numbers involves the extension of your contacts. A primary way that you can do this is to ask those who are already in your network if they know other people that may have relevant information that you can use on the job hunt. This works on both the personal and professional levels. Not only can you ask your friend or neighbor if they might know somebody, but you can ask co-workers as well. That’s right; you just ask them. Most people will be helpful and maybe point to some potential leads.

As you continue to branch out and locate more contacts, you will need to keep their relevance in mind. This will help you determine how they can be used and what effort you will need to take in the development of a relationship. Some contacts will just be a means to gain information regarding other prospects that will, in the end, be more valuable to your employment-seeking efforts.

Once you have a strategy for taking names and making new contacts, you can keep adding them indefinitely, but you should keep in mind that the more people you have to manage, the less time you will have to carry out other networking strategies.

How to make quantity work for you - The sheer amount of exposure to multiple individuals particularly on online networking sites such as LinkedIn and Ecademy will ensure that you have an exponentially larger area potential coverage by possibly hundreds of contacts that can help you find the right position in a company or other corporate setting. With a large networking list, you have more people who can potentially scout out a job for you and let you know about it. If you’ve taken the time to develop your quantity network relationship strategically, and targeted key players who can influence many of the other lesser contacts, you can use numbers to gain a decisive advantage and find what you want much faster and effectively.

How to build a quality network with quantity - You should start by building a core group of quality contacts and use them as a base to expand the quantity of the network, while striving to keep the quality of contact in check along the way. This provides the best of both: the range of a quantity-based network with the strength and reliability found in quality contacts.