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For illustrative purposes, we’re using PeopleSoft as the company. This will bring back results that will include people who have worked for PeopleSoft in the past. The preceding example resulted in 127,000 hits at the time—your results will vary because Google changes by the minute.

Substitute the name of the company in this example for the company you want to research. Find a contact name among the returned links, get a phone number, and call that person. Using Google in this way should provide a handful of leads to former employees.

There are other ways to do this. One of the largest databases of professionals in the United States is Zoominfo.com (www.zoominfo.com). This search engine allows you to do a keyword search by title, company, location, and a host of other criteria. The free version of the product allows users to search for a specific person by name with or without a company name. The lists include former employees. They are ideal because it’s a universal truth that if approached correctly, they will most often discuss previous employers quite openly. This is a tactic that successful headhunters use and so should you. After the first couple of awkward calls, it’ll become as easy and matter-of-fact as pouring a cup of coffee. The good news is you can always hang up if you get nervous. Of course, there is an easier—if somewhat slower—way to do this.

■ TARGETING REFERRALS USING SOCIAL NETWORKS

The key to networking is to find people you can network with. For those of us who are terminally shy, the Internet has made it possible to network from our computer keyboard and avoid those awkward mixers most people associate with networking events.

➤ Social Networking for Success

There are many online sites that facilitate networking. Most are based on the “six degrees of separation” principle that recognizes actor Kevin Bacon as the center of humanity. Each site has slight variations on how you build and grow your network.

First you join a site and create a personal profile. Your profile can include anything you want but generally it’s your business profile that is of interest. Before you get too excited, let me tell you right now that the sites are designed to protect your privacy and that of the other members.

Second, you invite all your friends and business associates to join. Many sites have technology to facilitate inviting your entire Outlook database. When these people join, they are “1 degree” away from you. Their network of contacts then would be “2 degrees” away.

Your network will grow as quickly as you recruit members who recruit members. Your ability to e-Network your way to a new job grows exponentially as your network develops.

➤ Link In and Connect

LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) is my favorite. A basic account is free and you can upgrade to premium accounts for less than one night out on the town.

LinkedIn works by first requiring that you set up your online profile and then invite your friends to join your network. After people join, they ask their friends and colleagues to join. For job hunters, this is a treasure trove of leads.

There are several ways to use the site to find people you’re looking for quickly. This site recommends doing a search on the company you want to be referred to and see whom you find. You then send a note to the person who is directly linked to the person whom you want to connect to. With our PeopleSoft example it would look like Figure 8.2.

The Results Show 13,653 Contacts

You can experiment with the technology to get more or fewer results. In my case, 13,653 people (via my network) is far too many to start to network with. I want fewer people but at a higher level in the organization. By putting in the title vice president, I narrow the number of contacts down. In our example, this amounts to 1,263. I can narrow this further by location if I want to, so I select to narrow it down by zip code 10001 in New York. The 68 hits is a manageable number for me.

Figure 8.2 Networking example.

The basic idea is to then request,