Starting from Scratch.

I recently attended the LDI convention in Las Vegas. If you haven't been, it's worth attending at least once. According to the stats, there were at least 14,000 attendees meeting up with 360 vendors, suppliers, and industry professionals. In addition to training sessions in rigging, lighting control, stage management, and other production skills, over 230 presenters opined on a wide range of topics. I was among the speakers, invited to present as a volunteer for the Behind the Scenes Foundation on the topic of career transitions.

In addition to my presentation, I also provided an opportunity for folks to sign up for one-on-one "flash coaching" sessions. You get a half hour to figure out what you want to do with your life, essentially. The presentation was well attended, with about two-thirds of the participants being mid-career professionals seeking a change. This is not surprising; in a recent TCG survey, over 68% of working professionals have considered leaving the industry.

The flash sessions were also well attended; I ended up booking two additional 2-hour blocks during the conference, and there was a waiting list for more. Most of the participants were in the early stage of their career (i.e. just out of college) or were compelled to make a change due to lack of work or layoff. This was also not surprising; its been a rough road for people in the industry all around.

What I found surprising about the second group was their inability to figure out how to move forward. A flurry of job applications yielded few nibbles; a ream of resumes produced little results. Usually at this point in a session I would break out my patter around the importance of networking. To my astonishment and distress, nearly all of the one-on-one participants did not have a good grasp of what that actually meant. In the presentation with the mid-career group, as I worked my way through concepts I have touched on here in the Causerie (exploring the self, the strength of weak ties,"test and learn," etc.), there were plenty of head-nods and note-taking. For the one-on-one folks, they looked mostly perplexed. Some of the more common responses included:

• I've approached some employers to ask if they have any work available, and they say they will get back to me, but then they don't.

• I could never be that kind of "social butterfly."

• I've asked my friends in the business about jobs but nothing has turned up.

• I have my (insert social media platform here) but I don't know how to use it to get work.

At this point it was clear that I needed to step back a bit from the theoretical and do a refresh on what networking actually is. So I spent the remaining amount of coaching time on the basics:

1. Explore who you are, not what you do. If you're seeking change or aiming to pursue new opportunities, you might need to challenge your existing perception of your "job" identity. Concentrate on your fundamental competencies and skills, and be ready to adapt to how these skills can be applied to a different job.

2. Your friends, family, and colleagues all care about you, but they can't help you. You need to meet new people that can bring different perspectives on what your options might be. Fresh faces carry no assumptions about who you are.

3. Reaching out to meet new people is an intentional exercise. The informational interview is the most common approach. It puts people at ease since you're not directly asking them for a job; you're asking for their advice and input on what they do and whether there might be an opportunity to explore a position in their field.

4. LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, etc. are all fine places to find a position. They are terrible places to apply for a job.

I have ranted about online job applications before--the system is clearly broken. Applicants don't like filling out online forms knowing they are going to be screened out by an AI algorithm. Employers don't like being inundated with unqualified applications because the applicant figured out how to game the system. If no one likes the system, why do we still use it? Because we are told it is more efficient and impartial? It will deliver the best candidate in a field of 300 plus candidates? Everyone instinctively knows that employers just want to hire someone they can get along with that can do the job. They would also rather take a reference from someone they already trust than sort through a stack of unqualified junk.

My working theory is that multiple generations of people, both employers and applicants, have conflated networking with social media, and so the art of developing genuine business connections has been lost. "Networking" is a term that was coopted from technology. Prior to the information age, the way to go about meeting business contacts was to build connections, cultivate acquaintances, show up at the Kiwanis Club, "glad-hand," "grip and grin," and so forth. Face to face, not FaceTime or Facebook. Much more personal, don't you think?

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