An interesting thing happened to Lars Schmidt as he transitioned from a great corporate job to entrepreneur: he decided to thank people publicly via Twitter for their help in his career journey. That first random acts of kindness effort led others to follow and March 8th this year is #RTOK day. This effort led to many others realizing what a good idea it was.
Why am I talking about this?
Because most job seekers and transitioning military reconnect with people from their past and grow their connections as they look for a new position. And you would be quite smart to do more than make one email or message the end of your effort. You will reap big benefits if you remember to keep people in the loop over your career, not just during job search. And when you are in job search mode, do the same:
- thank anyone who offers information or connections of use
- keep your contacts in the loop as you move along the job search process
- update contacts as you change target companies or job focus
- remember to thank each person who helped once you have that new job and to tell them a little about it
be the helpful contact to others that they are to you
Then keep your network going. Call or write a contact periodically. Comment on something they posted to social media. Introduce two of your connections who might benefit from knowing each other.
And if you want to play along this year – Random Tweets of Kindness (#RTOK) is a great time to do so. And you can make this your own and do it any day too.
