For awhile I (and my co-workers) have known that our facility would close at the end of this year, and so for the past few months I have been reading articles about job searches. All these articles, at one point or the other, pretty much say the same thing: ‘Network, Network, Network!’ :dubious:
All well and good, but they never quite say what to do if your ‘Network’ is rather skimpy and the local chapters of your professional societies are somewhat lame, and so on. 
Sometimes people write in asking the very question that I’m interested in (such as what to do if they social network consists of unemployed friends and former co-workers, the local professional chapters are in trouble of their own, their alma mater doesn’t have much info, etc.), but alas their questions are usually skipped right over without further detail. :rolleyes:
So Dopers, here’s you chance to fill in the gaps, 'cause right now I believe the best method for getting a decent job is via the ‘hidden job market’, which to me means a word of mouth recommendation via (you guessed it) a social network contact…
You’re networking right now.
It depends on what you reasonalby wish to get out of a network. If you want to just phone up a bud and say i got laid off ,what do you have , its possible , but more likely that she/he will be sympathetic ,but beyond that somewhat powerless to help.
Networking must be started by the time you are twenty and you must be thinking of networking up. Just having a bunch of buds in the same demographic is not enough , you have to be able to chat with people in the higher pay grades.
Okay , so what do you do now. You post explained about having to network with out having one , so now you have to create one.
My advice is to see whats on the market for volunteering. It may not be your thing personally but you need to be able to get a network up and running fast ,and doing time with some outfit puts you in contact with lots of people.
You may get results , you may not , depends on the area you live , the job you do ,and the ability and desire of people you don’t know to help you out.
Declan