If I’m a product manager from the Philippines looking for a product job in the Netherlands, this is how I would go about searching for 100 people to reach out to and connect with.
General principles
- Always find a mutual connection or interest. If you initiate with one, no matter how 'weak', it's always better. It's an effective way to start by establishing mutual ground.
- Initially, make a broad search, e.g. Netherlands instead of Amsterdam. If you get too many results (you want about 100, not 5,000), narrow it down. For example, only in Amsterdam. Or only in your profession.
- If initially, all you see are ‘LinkedIn Members’ that are out of reach... Don’t worry. Once you connect with a few people, your network in that location expands and you’ll see even more people. To start, you really only need 1-2 people in your target country to connect with you. Once they do, the whole country will open up to you.
Finally, a quote:
When I encourage twentysomethings to draw on the strength of weak ties, there is often a fair amount of resistance: “I hate networking” or “I want to get a job on my own” or “That’s not my style” are common reactions.
I get it, but that doesn’t change the fact that, as we look for jobs or relationships or opportunities of any kind, it is the people we know the least well who will be the most transformative. New things almost always come from outside your inner circle.
-- From The Defining Decade
Top 3 Searches
Search 1: People from home country in target country
Main purpose
- Inspiration and motivation
- Practice talking about who you are and what you're looking for
- Open connecting in target country
LinkedIn Search
Watch this quick video for how to do the search.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vvizLARa6LM
LinkedIn Connect Script