Trying to switch careers and enter a new field was an incredibly ambitious idea on my part, especially with record high unemployment. Searching for a new job is a painstakingly difficult task and a full time job in itself. My good friend Lily keeps reminding me of the job market statistics, and how 90% of the job market is hidden. Well, where the hell is it hidden, on a different planet? In a last ditch effort to find a new job, I decided to explore the hidden market in hopes of a positive outcome via a non traditional route.
A couple months ago at my friend Mariya's place, I was introduced to Mariya’s friends Floyd & Didi. Mariya mentioned to Floyd that I was looking to change careers and we had a nice conversation about Floyd's contacts that I could utilize. Floyd recommended that I contact him on Linked-In and that I could access all his contacts. I was so excited about my new contact and the possibilities of this new contact’s contacts.
Well Floyd's first, hugely exaggerated contact turned out to be this insipid man called David Davyd (yeah, creative name) who seemed nice virtually through email contact, until my actual phone conversation. Keep in mind this was not supposed to be a job interview but merely a connection that could point me in the right direction. It was supposed to be a friendly, casual phone conversation with the hopes of setting up a meeting. The interview (full on) turned into the interrogation from hell. This moron wanted every aspect of my life and back tracked all the way to high school, when I couldn't remember what I ate for dinner last night. I was extremely frustrated and disappointed with this contact. I had half the mind to tell him off, but I didn't.
The next day I sent a short, diplomatic email to Floyd saying his contact didn't pan out and thanked him for thinking of me. Imagine my surprise when I got scolded via email by Floyd about how I didn't handle David Davyd properly. (What? Oh no you didn’t!) I was thinking to myself. I wasn’t going to send a long winded email to Floyd stating what an ass---- his contact was to me. Secondly I don't even know Floyd, so why was he scolding me under the guise of helping me? Suffice to say, that networking episode not only didn't pan out but succeeded in getting me riled up by two complete strangers! I'm not sure if Mariya was aware that her friend Floyd turned out to be useless (but I wasn't about to say anything). On a separate note, I did notice Floyd had changed his Linked-In picture, to try to appear less geeky than the last pic. News flash, it doesn’t work Floyd!
My next "networking" mission was through my Russian friend Karina. Every time, I would speak with Karina, she would ask me the same thing. "How is job search going?" "Are you on Linked-In? Connect with me so you can access my network". I did connect with her on Linked-In, only to discover that she kept avoiding “accepting me” as a contact for weeks. When I mentioned this to Karina, she shrugged it off as a “technical issue” and offered herself up as a reference instead.
A few weeks after that, I had an interview at a marketing agency downtown and had provided the company with my reference list which included Karina's name (a marketing and finance graduate) with her place of employment and contact number. Well the next day I got a call from the employer saying they were unable to check my second reference as the contact I provided was no longer with the company, and for this reason they decided to go with someone more reliable. Gee whiz, thanks Karina!
Feeling utterly embarrassed and livid at Karina for not giving me a heads up about this, I decided to send her an email instead of yelling at her over the phone and getting yelled back at by her in Russian (she reverts to her mother tongue when she's angry. (Not fair, as I don’t speak Russian).
Hi Karina,
Thank you so much for your offer for me to list you as a personal reference. I can't thank you enough for willing to help me out like this. Someone with your skill set and education is exactly what I need on my reference list.
A couple of days ago, my potential employer tried to reach you at Global Source Marketing at the phone extension you had provided, and couldn't reach you but someone called Harold Baxter. Harold apparently had no idea who you were and my potential employer was left puzzled. Apparently after a few enquiries, they were able to ascertain that you are no longer employed with Global Source Marketing and had apparently quit a few weeks ago and therefore were unable to verify my reference.
I know we haven't spoken in two weeks, but you could have given me a little indication about you planning on leaving the job you told me to list as a reference. Well, I didn't get the job after all, I'm sure it had nothing to do with my references, so please don't feel bad.
Hope you're well.
Love, MG.
I finally received a reply from Karina after a couple of days:
Oh, sorry sweetie, I changed jobs, I was going to tell you when I saw you. Don't worry, those people are "ass----s", you can do better. Let's go out this weekend. Love, Karina xoxoxo
Anyway, chasing my contacts for their contacts or contacts of contacts had proven to be futile and a big waste of time for me. It turned an already frustrating situation into an even more exasperating one, by people in my inner and outer orbit wasting my time with futile goose chases, under the guise of helping me. I'm happy to say that since the networking debacle, I am now gainfully employed again :) It had nothing to do with networking. (Details to come later, &/or when I'm fed up with this position!)
Moody Girl Out.
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