Let’s go back to 2005. I want to tell a tale of how my network helped me get to where I am today.
I wasn’t always working in Social Media. For a while I was just an internet nerd with other ambitions. From 2000 – 2005 I was a waiter, and a student until 2003. I started a Personal Chef service in 2003; yes I love to cook, here’s the photo gallery to prove it. I ran the business while working as a waiter. Somewhere around March of 2006 I was sick of it. I didn’t like the hours, I didn’t like the pay and working in a restaurant was seriously limiting the amount of time I could spend with the woman I would marry 4 years later. I decided I needed a change and I decided to go back to school to get my MBA.
Unfortunately all of my experience was in restaurants. I needed to move into the professional world to get some sort of business experience. Unfortunately as some of you know, you need experience, to get experience. I looked and looked and looked…no jobs. I searched online, I searched in newspapers but I couldn’t find any positions. In October of 2006, fed up and without answers, I put out a bulletin on the popular network at the time, MySpace.
Below is the letter that I sent:
It was a flare, a shot in the dark…but someone saw it. To make a long story short someone in my network had a position open and I worked there for about 8 months before I started my MBA at Drexel. I had been searching and searching but never thought about how powerful and valuable my network is. It was putting myself out there that contributed to a chain of events that got me to where I am today, and I LOVE my job.
Don’t forget the age old advice, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”
Social Media has given us unprecedented access to one another, it has connected us in ways never before possible. When you are trying to do something remember that you are not alone. They say the world is flattening, I agree. But not only is it getting flatter it’s getting smaller. Don’t be afraid to ask your network for help when looking for a new job, I’m proof that it can help.