When you’re searching for a new job, have you ever approached trusted friends and former colleagues to refer you to a manager within their company to discuss a job opportunity with them?

I’ve had occasions where people I know were looking for a new job and I offered to refer them to a manager I worked with to see if there was something available for that person within the company.

So ideally you’d get referred to a person by having the opportunity offered to you and where you didn’t have to ask someone to refer someone else to you. Some people may not feel comfortable referring you to someone within their company especially if they don’t know you that well or to be frank, if you’re not that good at what you do.

I certainly wouldn’t recommend everyone I’ve ever worked with or know. But one of the hardest parts of the job search – as you’ve probably already found out – is getting your foot in the door. Sometimes, convincing someone to interview you is the hardest part of the process especially if they have dozens or hundreds of other people that they could interview instead of you. If you have someone in your corner who already works for the company and they are willing to vouch for you, it can help to make your job search a bit easier or at least help to improve your odds.

How can you improve the chances that people would voluntarily refer you to people who they know who can positively influence your job search and thus your career? For starters you should:

1. Let people know you’re looking for a new job. Let people in your life know you’re looking for a new job and let them know that you’d appreciate them letting you know of anyone who they’d suggest speaking with regarding your job search. Your not asking your friend to find you a job, you’re simply asking them to point you in the direction of someone they know who might be interested to speak with you.

2. Make sure you’re someone who people would actually want to refer to others. The only people I’d refer to others are those who are good at what they do, have a good, positive personality, are skilled, likable and would fit the company I’d refer them to. Basically someone who wouldn’t embarrass me and make me look bad if they ended up getting hired by the company! Are you that kind of person?

3. Be the type of person who would do the same for others. This isn’t so much a quid pro quo situation where “you help me and I’ll help you” but are you the kind of person who other people would like to help? Are you the type of person who also helps others or are you a selfish person who generally only takes care of themselves? I won’t help that kind of person and I suspect many others would say the same thing.