Is job-hunting success more about who you know or what you know?

This seems to be a constant point of interest and stress while one is in school and preparing to one day soon move into the professional workforce. What is more important? How much you know or who you know? Sure we go to school for years to learn all that we can in order to make ourselves more marketable to employers of the markets of our choice. The more education, training, and experience you can bring to an interview the better. Clearly degrees, education, and work experience are important and can be a major point of selling yourself in a highly competitive market, but ultimately your major does not even have to correspond to your career.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 70% of all jobs are actually located through networking (i.e. getting out and meeting people in the industry). By marketing yourself through networking events, career fairs, information sessions, touring a company or any thing else that may put you in contact with professionals of your choosen field. There are a number of ways to put yourself on the market and the more you can use the greater your odds are of  obtaining the job your looking for. An individual could hunt for jobs online, refer to jobboards and joblistings etc and look for ways to build off those leads and create opportunities for face-to-face interaction. One great example of connecting with professionals is a social media program called LinkedIn. This is a fantastic tool to begin networking and putting your name on the market through a network of professionals. And ultimately a great way to establish face-to-face interactions with professionals.

In my own experience 100% of all jobs I have had in 26 years have been through who I have known and had actually very little to do with how much I knew. The most recent example here in logan I was networked through a friend into a new industry on which I had very little knowledge. I created a resume that I thought would cater a little more specifically to the particular employer and scheduled an appointment. When I brought in my resume the interviewer simply glanced over it quickly and asked a few simple questions. An hour later I was contacted and informed that I had been hired. That simple face to face interaction is what really sold the employer on me. And it all came through networking and being first informed of the potential opening.