One of my many gigs is writing for Recruiting Trends newsletter. It is lots of fun and gives me the opportunity to present the “candidate perspective” to recruiting professionals.

My most recent article made the case for active candidates. After all, when you switch from “not looking” to “looking,” what has changed except your status? You bring the same expertise, knowledge, accomplishments, skills, and value to your next employer. I have heard so often of executives being passed over by recruiters because they weren’t “sourced” by the recruiter. Seems awfully foolish and shortsighted to me.

If you’re in career transition, you are probably sick of hearing, “you’ve got to network!” and “networking is the best way to find a job!” While these sayings might be true, they’re not really helpful because they don’t tell you exactly what is meant by “networking.”

A common perception of networking is that it means “asking for a job” or “bugging my friends for referrals.” Thus, instead of an entirely natural, pleasant activity - the kind of thing you do every day when you need any kind of help or information - networking becomes a dreaded chore that you’re uncomfortable doing and therefore put off, avoid, and don’t get around to.

Jason Alba has written a really helpful blog post (also published as an article in The National Networker) that provides some very specific ways to ask for the help you need - and increase your chances of getting it. Here are his main points - be sure to read the entire article to see how he applies this advice specifically to networking during a job search:

• Make sure your contacts know and understand what you need.
• Make it easy for them to help you.
• Be quick to thank, quick to forgive, and quick to reciprocate.

Reading the results from Vault.com’s recent survey on interview etiquette, it’s interesting that interviewees report better behavior than interviewers perceive - and vice versa. E.g.:

• Only 5% of candidates say they’ve ever answered a cell phone during an interview, while employers report this number as 26%.
• More than half (55% ) of candidates report they send thank-you notes “almost all the time,” yet just 9% of interviewers say they receive notes that often.
• 71% of candidates say they’ve been rejected for a job by not hearing from the employer at all after the interview, while only 11% of employers report this behavior.

Of course, the surveys don’t represent the same sets of interviewer-interviewee pairs, but it’s interesting that each group believes the other’s behavior is worse than it is in that group’s own perception!

It all goes back to the basics: good manners. Remember what mom taught you (be on time, make your guest feel comfortable, say thank you, don’t leave people hanging, etc., etc., etc.) and you’ll improve things on either or both sides of the desk. These helpful post-interview tips from a young job seeker are a great place to start!