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Syndicated columnist
Q: I've learned that your advice isn't easy to implement, but it works: "Good jobs come from good personal contacts." A job hunter should take the lead and let others play their parts. Based on your advice, I sent this letter to an executive at a company where I'd like to work:
Dear Mr. Big,
I've been following your company's activities. I would like to learn more, and I am contacting you because you were cited in an article in Monday's edition of the local paper.
I am talking to professionals like you to better understand how I might fit into your industry. I would appreciate 20 minutes of your time. Let me be clear that I do not expect you to have or to know of any job openings. I am strictly on an information-gathering mission. I assure you that I will come prepared and take up no more than the 20 minutes I asked for.
I will call you Friday morning to schedule an appointment at your convenience. Thank you.
I sent this letter on Tuesday, called on Friday, and got an appointment for the next week! The executive talked freely and gave me three good referrals to managers in the company.
I learned that the way to get a meeting is to ask for information only, to tell people that you don't expect job leads, to ask for 20 minutes and to promise you'll be prepared. Start on the periphery of your list. Don't approach the person you actually want to work for too early. Use the peripheral people to get information. When you do get to your target, you'll be totally prepared to "do the job to win the job." And, Nick, now I understand what you mean when you say, "The best way to get a job is not to ask for one."
NICK'S REPLY: Your experience reveals that preparation and patience are key. There's not always a job match at the end of this process, but there are almost always new prospects. Thanks for sharing your story.
THE HEADHUNTER TIP:
What choices did you make?
You meet someone at a party from a business you'd love to work in. The next day you think about it, shake your head and return to that report you're writing. You have an idea for an article you'd like to write for a professional publication. There's no time to do the research, so you go to lunch. A client compliments your work, smiles and suggests you'd make a great addition to her team. You proudly tell your friends, order another beer and forget it. The department down the hall is buried in work. Volunteering to help could mean a promotion, but your phone rings and you get back to the grind.
Put a few years of wishful thinking between each of those opportunities and you'll understand "where it all went." Whether in 50 years, 20 or five, we'll all be dead. So, what choices did you make today?
Copyright 2009. Distributed by Universal Press Syndicate
Nick Corcodilos is author of "Ask The Headhunter: Reinventing the Interview to Win the Job" and the host of www.asktheheadhunter.com. He can be reached by e-mail at seattle@asktheheadhunter.com or at North Bridge Group, P.O. Box 600, Lebanon, NJ 08833. Sorry, no personal replies.
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