How do you expect to find your next job — through an online ad, through cold calling companies you want to work for or through a recruiting agency? Fifty percent of people think their next jobs will come through networking, reports Right Management, a recruitment and outplacement firm.

Always have a card ready when a networking opportunity arises.

The breakdown of responses Right received when it surveyed 600 people in the U.S. and Canada:

• 50% Networking
• 22% Job board
• 19% Agency/recruiter
• 8% Direct approach
• 1% Newspaper/periodical

“These findings track well with actual outcomes,” said Monika Morrow, senior vice president of career management at Right in a press release. “It turns out that face-to-face contact is how more than half of our candidates find new employment based on firm data for the past five years, although nowadays job searches may begin through social networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook. By itself, however, job boards are about half as effective in actual circumstances, just as the individuals surveyed anticipate.

“There’s constantly something new in the job search world, particularly as it relates to social media,” says Morrow, “whereas for years recruiters have been losing ground to the Internet and social media. Likewise, classified print ads hardly play a role any longer. But all tools and approaches should be used along with traditional networking given that one frequently leads to the other.”

So keep networking and always be job hunting; whenever you meet someone new professionally, add that person to your potential job search network. You’ll be glad you did.
John N. Frank