Scott Schimmel (00:02.99)
Unless you're forcing your kid to take over the family business someday, they will inevitably enter into the job market probably multiple times. This weekend there was an article in the Wall Street Journal, the secret to a successful job search. The secret is having a network. The question is, will your kid have one, the one that they need? Because right now, because of AI, because of automation, because of virtual working, they are not just competing with the people in the zip code.
They're competing with the whole world. And the only candidates who make it to the top of the list, to the next round of interviews, or the next round of scrutiny, are the ones that have a personal relationship with someone in the company. I'm Scott Schimmel. I've been working with young adults for the past 20 -something years. And now we work with parents to help them give their kids everything they need to transition to adulthood confidently.
towards success and happiness. Now, your kids will have relationships, that's for sure, many of them online as they grow up. But one thing that you can teach them and give them is, I believe, one of the greatest assets for their future success. That is a professional network. And chances are your kid is not gonna come up to you and say, gee mom, gee dad, I really wanna be successful one day. Will you please teach me your tricks?
But you might have a case where your kid says, hey, what do I really need to do to get a job? I don't really know that yet. And that would be a wise thing for them to do. If they do, if they happen to ask, you can then say, you know what, there are a few things. Number one, you can get on LinkedIn now, young, early. You can get on LinkedIn in high school and start building out a resume. And there's lots of ways to dig into that. There's resources to pursue and we highly recommend.
that every single kid gets on. Like, Dana, we help them do that. Secondly, you can be actively building relationships as you go through life. For the kid, that means teachers, professors, coworkers, colleagues, supervisors, bosses, and especially your friends. Have you given permission and guidance to your kids to become friends with your friends? You can do that. You can introduce them.
Scott Schimmel (02:28.302)
through informational interviews, it's what I'm doing with one of my kids right now. We're just setting up conversations via Zoom or in person if they're close to build a relationship. And what I'm teaching is the very simple strategies and tactics of networking, which really looks a lot like the tactics and strategies of being a friend. Remembering things about them, taking initiative to get in touch with them.
and sending them things that you think would be interesting to them. That's what good friends do. LinkedIn and building relationships are critical. And so if you don't have a kid that is asking you for advice, don't lose heart. You can still teach them the simple power of a strong professional network. And that's by telling stories. When they're around, whether that's breakfast time, car time,
dinner time, around bedtime, when there's downtime, you can share stories about specifically the ways in which relationships that you have have contributed to things like people getting jobs, people getting clients, you getting someone an interview, you can put little deposits of those stories over time that can sink in, not necessarily will sink in, but can sink in.
And more than anything, at the end of the day, what we can do is model for our kids what it looks like to build genuine, authentic relationships, which not only will be a tremendous foundation for their overall life success, but especially for their career success. Teaching them how to have authentic friendships and build a professional network. If they start early, can yield tremendous results later in their life. I've had a few jobs. I've had a lot of clients.
I can't think of one of them that didn't come through a professional network, that didn't come through a recommendation, an email introduction, proof of past reputation by who knows who. That's how it all works. And having been new to town for me coming out of college, I just had the sense that at 22 years old, if I were to start now building authentic, sincere, genuine friendships that
Scott Schimmel (04:50.542)
at some point it would pay off. And not just pay off for me, but it would pay off because I could be useful for others. And it makes the town small and it makes life and especially work a little bit more fun. So I don't know if your kids will have the network they need to have this secret to a successful job search, but I think you know what to do at this point and teach them that life skill.
