How to Expand Your Job Search Target List Part 2

In last week's newsletter, we recommended a variety of research strategies to help expand your job search targets. But online research is not the only way to learn about new opportunities that might align with your experience. Word-of-mouth is a great way to gather information, learn about companies who may be expanding soon, and identify unexpected areas of opportunity. If you’ve been focusing your networking only on making inroads at the more obvious companies, you might be missing out on potential roles.

Many people think the most effective networking strategy is to connect with the most powerful people. In reality, you want much more of a balance between people you know and people you don’t know, and the people on your list that you don’t know should not all be department heads at the major studios and streamers. While the people at the more traditional media companies will have a better sense of which roles might be opening up at their companies, they aren’t going to be as tapped into what’s going on at newer companies or companies that are industry-adjacent. Plus, with all the hiring freezes, workforce reductions, and layoffs -- not to mention that plenty of people prefer mid-size to small companies -- you may want to cast a wider net. So who can you meet that might clue you in to out-of-the-box opportunities?

This may seem counterintuitive, but other people who are looking for work are often attuned to what roles are opening up in creative industries. They’ve been following the job boards and doing their own networking, so they’ve certainly learned some valuable information, especially if they’ve been out of work for an extended period of time. It’s good to connect with other job seekers, where you can be honest about your goals and ask authentic questions without having to worry whether you’re making a good enough impression for them to hire you. If you’re worried about these conversations feeling competitive, you may want to focus your networking on those who aren’t applying for the exact same types of roles as you are. But even if they are, you should help each other out. It’s great to have allies, and hopefully you’ll be able to share some knowledge with them too.

Secondly, identify those in your network who have made a career transition to a more unexpected role or something that is industry adjacent. Ask them what their process was and how they marketed themselves for the new role, where they looked, and how they ultimately landed the job. Then, you can learn more about what they are doing now and assess whether their path is one you might want to pursue, whether it’s at their company or somewhere similar.

It's also a good idea to meet with people who are super plugged in to the industry. The friend who reads every trade and tracks every script or pitch hitting the marketplace. The former colleague who sits on the board of a professional organization or attends multiple networking events or panels a month. Or the super connector who loves making intros between two contacts and keeping tabs on the interesting things everyone in their sphere is up to. It's possible these people don't work in the same area of the industry you're interested in, but they probably have some knowledge of it or know someone who does, and they can offer ideas of who you should meet next and why.

Finally, try to figure out which of your contacts or contacts’ contacts have had the most nontraditional career paths. Who is an innovator? Who is always the first to spot new trends in content, marketing, or technology? These people have cultivated a range of skills that make them marketable for a variety of roles, and they've designed careers where they're positioned for growth, no matter which direction they turn. Because they always have their pulse on where the industry is headed, they'll often have some of the most surprising suggestions for where to go next, and they’re likely very attuned to companies that might be expanding in the near future.

Regardless of who you are meeting with, you should also adapt your informational interview strategy to be less about finding your next job at the interviewee's company, and instead make your meetings more of a fact-finding mission. Ask questions about where they think the entertainment industry and adjacent industries are headed, how their past companies were or weren’t innovating, how current companies are changing and adapting, and what their strategy is for continuing to get content made. You should also tell them your story and areas of interest and ask directly whether they have any ideas of places to reach out to or people to meet.

Remember, not every networking meeting is going to lead directly to your next job. If you can re-orient some of these meetings toward finding information that will point you in new directions to continue your research, that may be more valuable in the long run, as you’ll be more likely to find opportunities in unexpected places – and be ahead of the crowd in doing so.