How I learned to stop worrying and love the boot

I told a hiring manager yesterday that I'm enjoying my job search so much, I don't want it to end. Steven, if you're reading this, IT WAS A JOKE. But the truth behind it is that sometime in the last two weeks a mental switch flipped and I went from considering networking a bore and a chore, to finding it pleasant and even exciting.

One reason for the change is stumbling across the single most useful (from a job seeker's perspective) feature of LinkedIn. I'm not sure whether it's a new feature or I simply never thought to try it before, because it is a little counter-intuitive: Select "Search People," not "Search Companies," but then enter the name of a company, not a person. What you get back is a list of your contacts and their contacts in order of closeness to the company you're interested in. Now I see why so many reporters are on LinkedIn: in one second you can save yourself half a day of calling around to see who knows whom. (Whether they're on LinkedIn to help them continue reporting or be able to stop is another question.)

Using this feature in combination with the human beings I've met at such events as Andrew Hudson's annual pre-Thanksgiving networking party and a breakfast meeting of the Colorado Healthcare Communicators, suddenly I'm landing the introductions to hiring managers that previously eluded me. My best connection is somebody I didn't even know two weeks ago. At Andrew's party I commented to another guest that the two of us were wearing identical jackets. It soon emerged Luke Clarke and I were living nearly identical lives: ex-journalists (me at the Post, he at the Rocky, which is why we didn't recognize each other) now interested in using our message-making skills to serve organizations. We exchanged cards and, the next day, LinkedIn invitations.

"Even though we're direct competitors, I like the way you're thinking about your career because it's validation of the way I'm thinking about mine," I told him.

Soon after I found a posting I liked, applied for it, then hopped on LinkedIn to see if I knew anybody at that company. I didn't, but there was Luke: one of his former reporters was the hiring manager. He introduced us; she and I yakked for 45 minutes about old times and why she's happy with her career change; I have a formal interview set for next week.

Imagine that: in this day and age it was a tweed, not a tweet, that led to a networking success. I told my Facebook friends that if ex-Rocky can help ex-Post land an interview, maybe every single Israeli and every single Palestinian should get on LinkedIn and offer to walk each others' resumes down to HR.

As I write I still don't have an offer in hand, but I have something more valuable: confidence in my and my contacts' willingness to help one another.