Networking: Contacting Inside Sources
By Sue Chehrenegar
The Lou Dobbs’ Report on CNN includes daily reference to the number of companies that are currently outsourcing jobs. About ten years ago, Californians were concerned about the influx of foreign-born residents, who were taking a large percentage of the states’ lower-paying jobs. During this same period, I was working with a very skilled Mexican, and one who had, in a brief period, contributed substantially to the potential of a down-sized Infectious Disease Lab at a growing biotechnology company, one located in Los Angeles.
Prior to the downsizing, I had worked hand-in-hand with this fellow research associate, helping with tests for some of the company’s diagnostic kits. Later I spent about five months in the company’s Biochemistry Laboratory, before becoming a contributor to the research done by the Molecular Biology Lab. I was more than happy to lend assistance when a friend of my fellow employee, also a Mexican, landed an interview for a position in the Biochemistry Lab, where I had been for five short months.
I did not know exactly what questions this job applicant would be asked, but I did have an insight into the thinking of his intended boss. For example, I knew that the biochemical scientist and Department Head, who wanted company help with the hiring of another research associate, pictured his place of business as being like a wheel. He saw the Biochemistry Laboratory as the hub of that wheel, with all projects flowing into the Biochemistry Lab, where each received important changes or additions, allowing their passage back out to another lab, and to a point further along the production of a completed product.
I shared with the prospective job interviewee all that I knew about the interesting outlook of the man who would have a decisive voice as to who the company’s new biochemist(s) would be. I will never know how useful that information was, but I do know that this young man soon joined his friend as a skilled research associate at a biotechnology firm, one that had earlier been listed among the Fortune 500.
This story underlines the importance of networking prior to an interview. In addition to networking, it is advantageous to review some possible interview questions. You can gain access to such questions by going to http://hop.clickbank.net/?nineliner/jiq2001.
About the Author:
Sue Chehrenegar has used her PR skills to secure front page coverage for her organization in the local paper. She has also done PR work for the American Lung Association.
She may be contacted at suecheh@aol.com.
