The Networker

The FSRI would like to introduce "The Networker", Decateur Thoms, to the FSRI blogging team.

Mr. Thoms is known world-wide as an expert on Faking Smart! and has made his reputation as a top-notch corporate networker through his work with the FSRI and its affiliate programs. Decateur graduated from the FSIHL (Faking Smart! Institute for Higher Learning) in October of 2006 and has since been nominated for several awards. His recent book Filling in the Gaps has sent ripples through the job-hunting community. (It will be published any day now...) And his work in philanthropy, obviology and ersatz epistemology has garnered him substantial praise from the FSRI and other leading labs and organizations.

We hope you will share in giving him a generous Faking Smart! salute, and we look forward to his contributions to this invaluable blog.

KWA and the FSRI

Networking

There are many who argue that networking is the single, most effective method of getting a job in our current corporate environment. When you network with your family, friends and acquaintances you are essentially "casting out your net" in an attempt to "trap" them into helping you find corporate work.

The first thing you need to do before you start networking is to acquire family, friends and acquaintances, and this can be easy if you follow these steps:

-Get in touch with members of your family: Family members are people directly related to you through blood or marriage. If you don't have a family or don't know where your family is, you may want to consider getting one ...by getting married! ...and you may want to get married to someone with "good corporate ties." Once married, tell your spouse about your desire to find corporate work and then go ahead and tap into this new resource of eager-to-please networkable contacts!

-Make friends: Friends are fun to hang out with, watch movies with, hit up for a few bucks when times are lean and to help you get places when your car is broken down. But there is another advantage to having friends, and that is that friends may have the corporate ties necessary for you to get your foot in the door at a good company. If you don't have any friends - befriend one! Get out and introduce yourself. Volunteer at a non-profit and BE FRIENDLY! Not only will making friends improve your chances of finding a job, but it will also provide you with the opportunity to communicate and talk with someone (or something) other than your pet or a houseplant!

What other avenues of networking can you think of?

Traditional Job-Hunting Strategies

In Look at Me, Corporate America! we examined seven cutting-edge tactics for getting youself noticed by a company. In today's post, however, we mention briefly some of the more traditional methods of the job-hunt. Then, in subsequent posts, we will explore each method in greater depth.

To be frank, today's job market is downright treacherous. To come out successful one must attract the attention of a company's "wandering eye", and to do this one must appear more eager and busy than ever before. This may seem especially daunting (...and for good reason) but if you allow us to steer you in the right direction - if you allow Faking Smart! to grab the wheel during this nail-devouring ride through the corporate landscape - you quickly discover your journey to be pleasant and nearly sleep-inducing.

What many job-hunters don't understand (due to perceptions instilled by distorted television representations)is that companies often do need to hire people. Contrary to popular belief, companies are not necessarily composed of a permanent, attractive staff of lovable misfits who perpetually torment one another in the manner of a close-knit, yet, dis-functional family unit. No. In fact, throughout corporate America jobs are opening every day due to resignations, retirements, layoffs, corporate expansion, disappearances, industrial accidents and mysterious worker death. But to get in you have to act. If a company can't find you, you have to find it.

Here are five traditional job-hunting methods:

1. Networking.

2. Internet Searches.

3. The "Cold Call."

4. Temporary Agencies.

5. The Faking Smart! Secret Method.

More to follow...

KWA

P.S. The FSRI would like to apologize for having frightened any small children with the image of Mr. Jankowskowitz in yesterday's post. Such moral indiscretion will not slip by us again.