Optional Strategies

        In addition to the primary strategy I’ve described of meeting hiring authorities face-to-face, there are other options which deserve consideration. When using these next two options you will still eventually contact the people with the power to hire. The advantage of these two strategies is speed. In a few days, you can contact 100–200 organizations to learn if they have any immediate openings in your field. If they do, you may get some interviews that you might otherwise have missed.

Try A Large Mailing

        Because I believe it is more effective to meet hiring authorities face-to-face, I rarely recommend that people rely on the mass mailing of resumes. There is, however, a place for large mailings. On the chance that there may be an immediate opening with one of their target organizations, some people send out one hundred resumes or marketing letters to their prospects during the first week of their job search. These folks don’t want to miss any immediate opportunities as they begin the long-term process of sending out 5-20 marketing letters each week.

        A marketing letter, or a resume with a cover letter, have impact in and of themselves only if they arrive two weeks before or two weeks after a job has officially opened up. If your material arrives sooner, it usually ends up in a file cabinet somewhere. If it arrives later, it receives no consideration because the candidates for interviews have probably already been selected.

        So, with all of this in mind, give consideration to a large mailing. This strategy still requires that you develop your list of 75–200 employers, and that you determine who the person is with the power to hire you.

        Either a marketing letter or a resume with a cover letter can be quite effective. Be sure to invite the employer to call you if an opening exists.

        Once you have the names of the hiring authorities, decide how the letters will be produced. If you have your own computer and “mail merge” software with your word processing software, you may want to key in the names and addresses yourself. Mail merge software enables you to merely type in the names and addresses of your prospects all at one time, then the software joins, or merges, those names and addresses with your letter. It can save a lot of time.

        Without mail merge you will need to type in the name and title of the person, the company name and address, and then the salutation of the person. After printing out the letter (on high quality bond paper) you would repeat the process with the next cover letter or marketing letter. Proof read all of your letters to make sure you made all of the necessary changes. Sometimes people make the correct changes at the top of the letter and then forget to change the salutation from the previous letter. You would hate to send a letter to Jim Tillotson and then in the salutation have it read, “Dear Mr. Kradiskie” (the person the previous letter went to).

        Once your materials go out, you would begin concentrating on sending marketing letters to your top-twenty group of employers. You would continue sending out about 20 each week. If you get some invitations for interviews based on your resume or marketing letter, great. If not, you’ll soon be getting appointments as a result of following up on your marketing letters.

Call Your Prospects

        Calling your prospects is another strategy that has the advantage of speed. This strategy works most effectively when the companies you’re interested in are large and have personnel departments. Once you have your list of prospects, call their personnel departments and simply ask if they are currently looking for people with your background. If the personnel manager is unavailable, a personnel clerk will usually know what positions are open. When speaking to someone in personnel, briefly describe your background, and suggest one or more job titles that might be suitable for you. Using this strategy you will learn only of those openings that have been made known to personnel. With whatever information you have garnered, thank the person and move on to the next one.

        This strategy has several advantages over just sending a resume. Two negative things can happen when you mail a resume—a rejection or no response at all. In either case, you still don’t know what the real situation is. A quick call, on the other hand, can give you a great deal of information. Whether you get a clerk or the personnel manager, ask questions. If you learn that there are no suitable openings, you could confirm that the company does in fact have the types of positions you’re interested in. You can also discover whether the organization is growing, and if so, whether there are any plans to expand in your specialty.

        At a rate of eight calls per hour, you can get through your entire prospect list in three to five days. With this strategy, do not expect lots of interviews. Think of it instead as a way to gain additional information about each firm. It is another way to ensure that you are not missing out on any opportunities as you begin the longer process of meeting hiring authorities.

After You’ve Met Hiring Authorities

        After talking to key people in most of your top twenty organizations, you have two main options.

        For most, the next logical step will be to repeat the process with your next group of twenty. You’ve exhausted your top‑twenty group and visited or talked to 10–15 hiring authorities. Very likely there were no current openings, but you should have the confidence that you will be contacted if openings occur. It makes sense simply to continue what is working well for you. Progress may seem slow, but you’re making high‑quality contacts.

        If you are currently working and intend to be very particular in who you work for, a second option is available. You may choose not to contact any more firms since your were very impressed with the 10–15 firms you had appointments with. You might decide to merely maintain your follow-up with these organizations until the right opening occurs. If you’ve found six to twelve outstanding organizations, and if you’re convinced there aren’t any others that might interest you, you can stop your search and develop a creative follow‑up campaign. Continue to learn as much as possible about each organization. Look for every opportunity to demonstrate that a position should be created to utilize your unique talents and experiences. Mailing really interesting articles to the hiring authorities can be one effective way of causing them to remember you.

An Important Job Finding Option

        I typically recommend that job seekers develop a list of at least 70 potential employers and seek face‑to‑face meetings with the hiring authorities. There are exceptions, however. In some types of positions, particularly office and clerical jobs, you are actually better off calling the personnel department of larger companies or the office manager of smaller companies. The reason for this is that clerical people work in almost any department of an organization, so there may be many people who hire clerical staff. If you use this strategy you could still identify 10–20 organizations that you are especially interested in and meet the personnel manager or office manager. Simply walking in and meeting someone in personnel can also be effective.

        When using the calling strategy, you would begin by introducing yourself, briefly explaining your background, and asking if any openings currently exist. You should be able to average 12 calls an hour. If you have 120 organizations on your list and call once a week to learn of openings, your total time expended is only ten hours weekly. The strategy should yield two to three interviews each week. Although 120 may seem like a lot of organizations, when using this strategy you need large numbers. Even 150 is not too many. If you are looking for office positions and you live in an urban area, there will probably be over 150 potential organizations within 15 minutes of your home.

        If personnel informs you that no openings are currently available, carry on a conversation similar to this:

Personnel:  Personnel, may I help you?

Carol:         This is Carol Prescott, I have a diploma from Harrington Business College and two years of clerical experience. Do you have any clerical positions available at this time?

Personnel: No we don’t.

Carol:         Do you anticipate adding any office staff in the next month or two?

Personnel: It’s highly doubtful that we’ll be adding any positions in the next four months.

Carol:   If someone quit, would the person be replaced?

Personnel:  I’m sure they would.

Carol:     Approximately how many clerical positions do you have?

Personnel:  Counting bookkeepers, probably around 30.

Carol:     What kind of turnover do you have?

Personnel:  It’s nothing unusual, I’m sure it’s about average.

Carol:     Thanks a lot for your help, who am I speaking to?

Personnel:  I’m Betty.

Carol:         Betty, you’ve been really helpful. I plan to call once a week and if it’s all right, I’ll probably just ask for you. Is there anything else I can do to learn of any openings?

        In less than two minutes, Carol learned so much more than if she had hung up after hearing that no openings existed. She also has a person to talk to in personnel. In a short time, Betty may actually recognize Carol’s voice, and because Carol is friendly and courteous, Betty may actually go out of her way to help her. Of course, don’t feel you can only talk to one person. If your regular person is unavailable, ask questions of whomever happens to be on the line. Also, notice what Carol did at the end of her call. Although she stated her intention to call periodically, she specifically asked if there was anything else she could do to ensure that she would learn about all potential openings. Although she plans to call weekly, she is prepared to do anything else that will help her.

        This strategy is fast and gets excellent results—but don’t use it as a shortcut if you are one of those who should be talking with the person with the power to hire.

        Sometimes it’s useful to write a week-to-week plan of your job search. Barbara wrote such a plan. She was tired of the 45-minute commute she had made for 14 years and wanted to work close to home. Although there were hundreds of businesses within a 15-minute drive, most were small—only about 20 had over 50 employees. We decided that if she was going to look at small businesses, she needed to be able to contact and consider a lot of companies. In her search for an office management position, she decided to contact 275 companies.

        Barbara was unemployed during her job search and determined that she would devote 25 hours per week to her search. Her plan looked like this:

Week 1

        1)    Complete a list of 275 firms that are within a 15-minute commute by using employer database. Select organizations with at least ten employees.

        2)    Begin making calls to find out who has the power to hire.

        3) Visit A, B, C, D, E (five local employment agencies).

        4) Mail out resumes and notes to 50 friends and relatives.

        5)    Respond to want ads.

Week 2

        1) Call friends and relatives and tell them what I’m looking for. Figure 15 minutes each.

        2) Call 100 companies and speak to the hiring authority or someone in personnel.

        3) Mail resume to each person I speak to.

        4)    Respond to want ads.

Week 3

        1)    Finish calling friends and relatives.

        2) Call 125 companies and speak to the hiring authority or someone in personnel.

        3) Mail resume to each person I speak to.

        4) Call each agency counselor and remind the person what I’m looking for.

        5)    Research the company before each interview. Practice my answers to interview questions.

6)   Respond to want ads.

 

Week 4

        1) Call the last 50 companies on my list.

        2) Mail resume to each person I speak to. Tailor cover letter to what I learn.

        3)    Prioritize firms: Call 30 on a weekly cycle; 120 on a two-week cycle; 100 on a three-week cycle; 25 on a four-week cycle (this worked out to 130 calls per week).

        4)    Research each company before an interview. Practice answers.

        5)    Respond to want ads.

Week 5

        1) Call 130 companies. Reintroduce myself and sell myself.

        2) Call each agency.

        3) Learn about each company before interview. Practice answers.

        4)    Respond to want ads.

Week 6

        1) Call 130 companies.

        2) Learn about each company. Practice answers.

        3) Call friends and relatives. Tell them what I’ve done. Quick five minute calls.

        4)    Respond to want ads.

        You can see that with this strategy Barbara was covering all of her bases. She selected the five best employment agencies and got referrals to specific counselors at three of them. If she didn’t hear from them, she called at least every two weeks. She read the want ads every Sunday and usually responded to four or five positions. Those are the things that every job hunter would do.

        Barbara also called 130 organizations each week and got to know the people she spoke to. After the initial call, in which she asked several questions, the conversations barely lasted a minute. She did not want to waste their time or hers. At that point she just needed to know if any positions had come open.

        Her goal was to learn about jobs before they were advertised or listed with agencies. She succeeded. On her third call to one of her high-priority firms, a position came open that was ideal for her and she got it. The key to her success was consistency. She didn’t care how she found out about jobs, she simply wanted as many leads as possible. She was prepared to continue the strategy each week until she landed a position. She got three interviews through the agencies and her friends gave her several leads, two of which led to interviews. She was well prepared, and she sold herself well in her interviews. Had she not gotten the position that she did receive, she was still being considered for several other positions. She was making things happen.

            Barbara did not enjoy making the phone calls but they really didn’t bother her. Her plan was to call 26 companies each day. Once she completed that task, plus any others she had set for herself that day, she worked in her garden as a reward to herself. Consistency was the key.