Networking as a technique of drawing probable recruits into an organisation has gained immense popularity over the recent years. The individuals seek help of their network connections to get into an organisation while the companies use employee referrals as a major source of recruitment. Thus networking, directly or indirectly, have a huge role on modern day recruitment.

Misuse of the career network can lead to unnecessary tensions among the people. Networking generally takes time to bring about the desired result. At times it may not be effective as the individual profile plays a key role in the selection process. Only when the individual profile matches with the requirement one is asked to appear before the selection committee. Absence of an interview call might make the job seeker mouth words against the contact. This leads to unnecessary tensions in the relationships.

Similarly, persistent and frequent calls by the job seeker might turn out to be a hindrance to the contact. Such a situation in most cases ends up in the contact refusing to answer or return the calls made by the job seeker.

Networking is compared to market research as it involves utilising the information from the contact to analyse the company, its management policies, the work involved, etc and these information plays a key role in infusing one’s interest in the company. So the selection of the network must be done with great care. He should be discreet in his actions and must maintain the confidentiality of the information whenever it is called for.

Another event that can create the strain is in case of referral interviewing where the candidate try to push himself for an interview by starting with a question on the opinion of the contact on a general matter. This convinces the conniving scheme behind the purpose of the visit, thereby leading to tenseness in the relationship. The same situation arises in an informal interview where the candidate push himself to the interview by approaching the contact with the intention of seeking his advise on the candidate’s career. This can jeopardise the employment opportunities if there is not much closeness in the relationship between the parties involved as the contact might be unsure of how confident the candidate is of his skills and could be doubtful on his ethics.

The job seeker must keep the contact updated of his career at frequent intervals and must remember to thank the contact on the receipt of the job. If the relationship is renewed only at the time of the job search, the network may not have the desired result. Similarly the job seeker must not take advantage of the efforts of the contact by submitting a false resume. In the event where on recruitment the job performed is substandard, it can create a negative image on the contact within the organisation.

Networking, therefore like any relationship must be dealt with great care.