The Five O'Clock Club LinkedIn Group (Members Only)
Terms of Service

Please read the following tips and guidelines for use of the The Five O'Clock Club LinkedIn Group. If you fail to network within these guidelines your access to the database will be suspended immediately.

As always, Five O'Clock Clubbers have been generous with their time and insight. We appreciate the help members give each other. Without this help, many Five O'Clock Clubbers would have to start from scratch to research the industries and fields they are targeting.

However, a lot of people who are new to the Club (or who have not attended in a long time) do not know how to network. They plunge right in, make contacts, but end up harming whatever relationships they might have had.

Before You Begin

Before you begin networking, there are several things you must do:

· Wait until you have been with the Club for at least four group meetings before contacting other members.

· Make sure you have mastered your "Two Minute Pitch" by practicing it in your small group.

· Role-play a networking meeting in your small group. Chances are, at first you'll unintentionally put the other person in an uncomfortable situation. Try it again until you are more polished.

Those who are having trouble with job search and feel desperate are more likely to network incorrectly. As one anxious Five O'Clock Clubber said, "I could recite the do's but really didn't understand the don'ts of networking." For example, an anxious job-hunter may tend to come on too strongly with networking contacts. But you don't want to pressure people who are already inclined to help you.

Networking With Other Five O'Clock Clubbers

When you network with other Five O'Clock Clubbers, show them even more courtesy and consideration than you would someone outside the Club. After all, this is a club, and you are trying to form lifelong relationships-just like the members of the original Five O'Clock Club. Like any inner circle, word spreads quickly about other members. Here are a few additional suggestions:

· Remember to operate on the time frame of the person you're contacting, not yours. Club members have made comments such as, "He expected me to drop everything and talk to him right away even though I said I was busy." If someone can't see you for a month, get on his or her calendar a month from now.

· Prepare for your meeting. You don't want the new contact to say, "She was totally unprepared. I could have given her so much more information if she had done some research first."

· Follow up on every lead. If a fellow member gives you a lead and offers to make a call on your behalf, it is very important that you follow up. Otherwise you make your fellow member look bad.

· Let Club members know what happened with the contacts or information they gave you. They have given you the names of people who are important to them.

· And be sure to formally thank Club members for their time. Don't take anyone for granted.

§ The Networking Database is for use by FIVE O'CLOCK CLUB MEMBERS AND ALUMNI ONLY. ACCESS CANNOT BE PROVIDE TO INDIVIDUALS OUTSIDE OF THE ORGANIZATION.

§ Contact methods may not be used for solicitation.

§ Members are encouraged to report abuse of the database.

§ Abuse of the database will result in immediate and permanent expulsion from the service. There are no exceptions.

Your polite behavior will assure that fellow Five O'Clock Clubbers will continue to be open with each other-and we will have each other to depend on in the future.

To get started, do the following:

· Go to www.linkedin.com. Sign in or join.

· The menu on the left of the page has "home" followed by "groups." Click on "groups."

· At the top of the Groups page, there are tabs. The second one says "Groups Directory."

· On the right-hand side, it says, "Search Groups." Enter "Five O'Clock Club".

· You will be taken to the Five O'Clock Club main page. Click on "Join this group." If you are eligible, you request to join will be accepted.

· Email us (oper@fiveoclockclub.com) your up-to-date contact information (name, address, phone and email), and get one extra year on your subscription to our glossy magazine, the Five O'Clock Club News.

After you join, you will not have to go through all of this. Instead, The Five O'Clock Club will be listed as one of the groups you belong to and you will be able to simply click on our group.

Helpful Hints Once You are in Our Group:

· Feel free to contact other Five O'Clock Club members.

o Polish your pitch. At The Five O'Clock Club, you work hard to position yourself well to your target markets. Include that pitch on your LinkedIn page. Improve your profile as you go along, making it easier for people to see the kind of professional you are.

o Keep your Five O'Clock Club page professional. You can have another site that links to your family and friends.

o Ask and answer questions. We are all using the same methodology at the Club and we all can contribute to a person's question. (Please do remember that some idiosyncratic methods that may have worked for one person are not likely to work for all. For example, meeting a person at a bus stop may have resulted in one person getting a job. This does not mean that we should encourage everyone to hang out at bus stops. At The Five O'Clock Club, we prefer research-based solutions.)

o Give and get recommendations. But be sure to ask people who have actually worked with you. And, as we always say at The Five O'Clock Club, be sure to tell the person doing the reference the kind of job you are looking for and that you would like that person to highlight / remember about your past. Because references disappear over time, this is a terrific way to make those references permanent.

o When asking someone to join your network, help them to remember how they know you. I get requests many times a week that say, "I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn," and I have no idea who the person is. Don't use that generic message LinkedIn provides.

o Keep up your contacts while you are employed. Keeping in touch with people is not just a job-search tool, but a way to stay in touch with people while you have a job. You may want to contact people who are in the same field or industry that you are in and ask them what's going on at their place of employment.

Networking With Other Five O'Clock Clubbers

When you network with other Five O'Clock Clubbers, show them even more courtesy and consideration than you would someone outside the Club. After all, this is a club, and you are trying to form lifelong relationships-just like the members of the original Five O'Clock Club. Like any inner circle, word spreads quickly about other members. Here are a few additional suggestions:

· Remember to operate on the time frame of the person you're contacting, not yours. Club members have made comments such as, "He expected me to drop everything and talk to him right away even though I said I was busy." If someone can't see you for a month, get on his or her calendar a month from now.

· Prepare for your meeting. You don't want the new contact to say, "She was totally unprepared. I could have given her so much more information if she had done some research first."

· Follow up on every lead. If a fellow member gives you a lead and offers to make a call on your behalf, it is very important that you follow up. Otherwise you make your fellow member look bad.

· Let Club members know what happened with the contacts or information they gave you. They have given you the names of people who are important to them.

· And be sure to formally thank Club members for their time. Don't take anyone for granted.

· Your polite behavior will assure that fellow Five O'Clock Clubbers will continue to be open with each other - and we will have each other to depend on in the future.

We look forward to seeing you on The Five O'Clock Club's LinkedIn Group.

Warmest Regards,

Kate

P.S. If you find yourself in the position where your employer is paying for outplacement services and you would prefer to use The Five O'Clock Club as your outplacement provider, be sure to ask for us. Go to our main page at www.fiveoclockclub.com and click in the bottom, left-hand corner. You'll find everything you need to know about our outplacement services. Thanks for thinking of us. - KW