Networking Pays Off

My last post I mentioned getting a job at Etelos. Things have been going well since starting. I like the people I work with and what I am doing as a web developer.

I thought it would be useful for others to know how I ended up getting the job. By the way, if you are in the Seattle area and interested, Etelos is hiring. Send my your resume and I’ll make sure it gets to the right people.

Now to the details…

I had been unemployed for a few months and looking for opportunities to meet people, find new companies to apply at, anything to find a job. As most of you know, meeting people and using your network is the single most effective way to find a job.

As I was searching for events to network, I saw that Gnomedex 2007 was just starting to allow people to register. As far as conferences go, Gnomedex is cheap ($500) and after doing some research, I found that the best part of the conference is meeting people and exchanging ideas with the other participants. I also had never been to a conference.

After a little nudge from my family, I decided to take a chance and register for Gnomedex. Chris Pirillo made it very easy to see who was also attending the conference. This helped me big time. I was able to find out who was going and concentrate on meeting people from local companies. I did my research and made a list of people I needed to talk to.

On that list was Eric Berto, the Corporate Communications Specialist at Etelos. I decided to email him prior to the event and he replied that I just needed to look for the big tall guy.

Eric was easy to find. I spoke with him at the first meetup of the conference. He explained what Etelos did. It sounded interesting. So I gave him one of my business cards. He ended up giving it to the people that needed it. I got the interview and the rest is history.

In a future post(hopefully in the near future), I want to get into more detail about what happened after giving my business card to Eric. It’s an interesting story…

During my job search, networking was by far the best way to get an interview. I quickly learned the importance of maintaining a network even if you have a great job.

Speaking of networking. A while back, I read some posts from an awesome blog on business networking. Unfortunately, I didn’t subscribe to the blog and now I can’t find it. If any of you know of any blogs on the subject, let me know. I did a search and couldn’t find anything worthwhile.

Tags: etelos, seattle, gnomedex, networking