Keeping in Touch with Old Colleagues

Intro

Networking can be intimidating.

Going to events and meetups with dozens of people where you don’t know anyone. Messaging people online that you’ve never met. Going up to strangers introducing yourself.

Building your network doesn’t have to be that complicated to start.

One of the best ways to build out your network is by keeping & staying in touch with old colleagues.

When someone leaves your company, chances are they are moving into a better role. That can be into a higher level management role or a higher level individual-contributor role. If you were the one that left your company, chances are that some of the people that stayed are moving up the food chain.

That’s why it’s important to keep in touch with them - stay connected, follow their progress, cheer them on from the sidelines. If you ever need their help (a new job, an introduction), they’re in a higher position to help you out.

Story Time

Let’s talk about the former head of recruiting at our company. Let’s call her Sally. She was 2 steps below the CEO and in charge of all recruiting & delivery at my company (she left about 1.5 years ago).

Sally is a well respected industry veteran. Been in the business over 20 years. Each company at least 5+ years. Good tenure, good track record of moving up.

When started growing rapidly, we needed someone who had experience organizing recruiting models that made successful delivery repeatable and scalable. So we hired Sally.

How did we find out about Sally? She used to work with our COO. They worked at the same staffing firm, and we hired our CEO about 7 years ago. He was a regional VP at their old company, and she was a regional recruiting director.

When the company identified what we needed, she was the first person who was suggested to recruit.

Sally was immediately able to recruit people from her network to join us. We hired 4 recruiting directors that used to work for her pretty much instantly. We hired dozens of recruiters and sales reps that joined us after that who also worked for either Sally or the other Recruiting Directors. Fast forward to today, quite a few of them became high performers (over $500k/year in profit), some have been promoted into management, and some have left the company since to leap into better roles at other companies.

Sally ended up leaving for greener pastures about 1.5 years ago. She became a Chief Delivery Officer at a global company. Guess how she found that job? Yup, someone she worked with became the head of US operations and recruited her in.

Analysis

Sally kept in touch with everyone she worked with. She never burned a bridge. She always left off on the right foot. She treated everyone well & with respect.

The fact that she was able to bring in so many people through her network effect says it all. But let’s dive a bit deeper.

Everyone that was brought in through Sally also was hired because they kept in touch with someone they used to work with. It was a giant snowball effect. X person leaves, Y person joins. Y person leaves, Z person joins. And repeated over and over again.

Most of the people that joined ended up in a better position with us - or eventually with someone else.

• Sally upgraded her role 2x with us and the new company after

• the 4 RDs either upgraded their role or their pay by joining us

• most of the producers ended up becoming higher level producers or managers after joining us

• some of them went on to become even higher level after leaving us

So by staying in touch with people they used to work with, everyone involved upgraded their professional life.

Call to Action

Slowly, but surely, start reaching out to people you used to work with. People that left your company, people from your old company.

If they live by you, ask them to grab a cup of coffee or to grab lunch.

If they don’t, shoot them a text or a message on LinkedIn.

Catch up on life. Talk some shop.

You never know where that newfound relationship will lead you.